My view, the more the game ties itself to betting agencies the more stuff like this will happen. I’m neither a big punter nor anti-gambling (to each their own) and I get betting is where the revenue comes from - from the pokies at the leagues club to online, but the fleas come with the dog.
Those links are just going to get stronger with V'landys in charge. In saying that the game is in no position to knock back money no matter where it comes from.
Agree - and that’s the tricky bit - not unlike the old tobacco sponsorship days of the Winfield Cup and Rothmans Medal. The big dollars have always been in socially divisive products - smokes (before it was illegal to advertise them), booze and betting.
3 of the biggest money spending vices, outside of drugs.
Which is why they have always had very deep pockets when it comes to sponsorship. I don’t have a specific opinion on it, I’m not judging it, just pointing out the realities that with such arrangements some exploitation is likely.