Toronto Maple Leafs and NHL Needs Fewer Gambling Ads

Watching the Toronto Maple Leafs on television is quite a bit different than it used to be.

A big part of that change happened just last year, when we began to see a flood of advertisements for gambling websites during Toronto Maple Leafs and other NHL games.

This followed the Canadian government’s decision to open up single game sports betting in 2021.

The Leafs are far from the only team whose broadcasts are filled with commercials for gambling companies.  The NHL itself is completely on board with the gambling express, and has several “official sports betting partnership” agreements in play.

Does anyone other than the NHL and the gambling companies think this is a good idea?

Just because sports betting is legal, does that mean it’s all good to forcefully promote it to millions of viewers, many of whom are children.  Cigarettes are legal.  Marijuana is legal. Why don’t we see NHL stars urging us to light up a smoke, or enhance our hockey watching experience by downing a few edibles?  Because it’s a very BAD idea.

Fans Don’t Need Gambling Content When Watching the Toronto Maple Leafs

I’m not against gambling on sports, and I bet a majority of hockey fans don’t have a big issue with it, but scientific research tells us how addictive gambling can be.  Study after study details the horrible consequences of gambling addition.  Bankruptcy.  Broken families.  Suicides.

People have the choice whether to gamble or not, but advertising is a powerful tool , which is why companies invest billions to promote their products.  Popular spokespeople for sports betting companies (Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, to name a few) are influencing young people to gamble money they can’t afford to lose.

Clearly there is some moral ambiguity at play here.  The NHL is making a bad business decision by blatantly advertising that it doesn’t care.  I can’t really fault the league for quietly making money off the fact that people will gamble on games regardless – it is a business, after all.  However, when you basically shout to your customers “we’re taking the money, consequences be damned”, there will be a reckoning at some point.

Moral issues aside, I’m sick of trying to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs simply play hockey, without being reminded constantly that Toronto is “-120 to beat Montreal”, or the over/under is 4.5, or seeing an on-screen counter reminding us of which team is the first to record five shots.

Over the years, intermission used to mean Peter Puck, or Showdown, or at least highlights of other games, Coach’s Corner or some panelist discussion of the game being watched.  More and more now, we get a hyped-up shill describing how the in-game odds have changed and giving us their picks for making the big gambling score.

Do a quick internet search for “NHL gambling” and the vast majority of articles you’ll see are negative.  Health experts are calling for gambling ads to be banned, and a large and growing number of hockey fans are venting their frustration with the constant assault of gambling promotion on every broadcast.

Smart business people listen to their customers.  It doesn’t appear the NHL is ready to hear what its fans are saying.