AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has confirmed the organisation receives a cut of gambling turnover on its matches beyond official sponsorship deals with wagering companies.
The confirmation comes as fans, players, clubs, politicians and health experts raise serious concerns about the sport’s reliance on gambling revenue, and the volume of ads encouraging people to bet on AFL matches.
The AFL’s revenue from “product fees” on gambling is rarely spoken about by senior executives and is not commonly known by fans. McLachlan did not state how much money the product fees generate but said it was “a percentage of the volume of turnover on our sport”.
“We have product fee arrangements with all the wagering operators where we get a percentage of their operations on the AFL,” McLachlan told a parliamentary inquiry into online gambling harm.
Last year, gambling industry veteran Matthew Tripp, who now runs Newscorp-affiliated gambling company Betr, told Nine Media the product fees were “the engine beneath the might of the AFL”.
Most online gambling companies are registered in the Northern Territory for tax minimisation and have an annual turnover of nearly $50bn, according to the NT regulator. The AFL’s official wagering partner, Sportsbet, estimates the Australian sports betting market is worth $8.2bn a year.
The AFL is not the only sport to receive product fees from the gambling industry, but the revenue they generate has increased significantly in recent years as online wagering has exploded in popularity.
McLachlan also sought to clarify comments made during an interview with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell last month, when he said “there is a hell of a lot of wagering advertising and potentially too much.”
On Tuesday, McLachlan said he did not believe the brand advertising was too much and that he was instead concerned about inducements such as deposit matching.
“I think this broad discussion needs to be nuanced and that’s why if you look at what we did proactively, there is brand advertising restricted at venues but there are not inducements and the free bets and money back [offers],” he said. “I think that’s what our supporters and fans are talking [about].”
A survey of 3,000 people by the AFL Fans Association found the volume of gambling ads was now the most common concern of fans. Three-quarters of respondents supported a ban on gambling advertisements on television and radio.
McLachlan acknowledged community concern and said the AFL needed to strike the right balance between protecting the integrity of matches, keeping match tickets relatively low and investing in the grassroots development of the sport.
“We believe this needs to be balanced with a concern that over-regulation will have on the integrity of AFL matches and the wider sporting environment,” he said.
The gambling company Entain, which runs the brands Ladbrokes and Neds, told the inquiry it had changed its position on the need for stronger regulation given the level of community concern expressed in recent months.
“There has been a fundamental shift and we have heard that from the members of the community,” Entain’s director of regulator strategy, Stephen Lang, said.
“The level of concern around advertising has changed and we absolutely want to be part of the solution in terms of what those changes look like.”
