Anyone who watches sports is used to seeing betting ads during games, but a collaboration between CBC’s Marketplace and British researchers at the University of Bristol found gambling messages fill up to 21 per cent of each broadcast, on average, based on an analysis that looked at seven games.
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Marketplace asked the researchers to count the number of gambling messages — including betting company logos, commercials, sponsored segments and any time betting odds appeared on screen — viewers were exposed to during five NHL games and two NBA games broadcast live on television between Oct. 25 and Oct. 29.
An average hockey or basketball broadcast runs roughly three hours.
