‘This is not a piece on the morality of gambling and gambling sponsorships in sport. What interests me, and where I’m getting to with all of this, is‘This is not a piece on the morality of gambling and gambling sponsorships in sport. What interests me, and where I’m getting to with all of this, is’m standing on the Skydeck, which is the corporate schmoozers section of the stadium.
The “TAB thing” is the nexus point of it all. Here’s what happened: at 12pm on 7 February this year, the GWS Giants Twitter account posted a 33-second video announcing the club’s partnership with TAB accompanied by the caption: “We’re on”. The comments on the post tell you all you need to know, saying things like “Gross”, “Very rare GWS L, ngl…”, “So no to gambling it destroys lives”, “not GWS platforming a betting company, take a giant L on this one lads”.
But it doesn’t stop there. The media stations and programs that contribute to the generation of this overall product known as the AFL are in on it too. Fox Footy has its Head over Heart segment with PointsBet, which follows the same format of blending “expert knowledge” from former players, some of whom dribble a bit when they speak and burst into bouts of excitement occasionally, which is really quite jarring to watch.