New study reveals just much gambling has taken over the NHL

If you've watched even a minute of NHL coverage in the past few years, you've no doubt been exposed to sports gambling advertisements.

The gambling industry has effectively taken over as the main sponsor of not just the NHL, but all professional sports in North America over the past half decade. Today, a study held by the University of Bristol and released by The Guardian in the UK is shining light on just how pervasive sports gambling is in pro sports and the damage that it is inflicting on its victims.

From The Guardian:

Hockey fans are bombarded with gambling logos and adverts – sometimes as often as every 13 seconds – during TV coverage of high-profile games, according to exclusive research shared with the Guardian.

Viewers of June’s Stanley Cup finals encountered an average of 3.5 marketing messages from betting firms every minute, a new study by the University of Bristol found.

Yeesh... ads every 13 seconds!?!?!

Something's got to give here...

Interestingly enough, it seems like the NHL may be the main offender here, at least when compared to the NBA.

More from The Guardian:

The study by researchers at the University of Bristol analyzed gambling marketing during the six Stanley Cup finals games this year between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, and the seven NBA finals games between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Across those 13 games, researchers recorded 6,282 instances of gambling-related marketing. This included gambling company logos on jerseys, rinkside and courtside ads, in-game mentions and commercials. Notably 94% of the instances were recorded during the NHL broadcasts.

The report found that, on average, gambling logos and ads were shown 3.5 times per minute during the NHL games, with the most saturated game featuring 4.7 gambling-related marketing instances per minute – equating to one every 13 seconds.

In contrast, the NBA broadcasts averaged just 0.26 gambling references per minute. This disparity may be partly due to the NBA’s growing use of platforms such as YouTube, which imposes stricter limits on gambling ads, the researchers noted.

Just as the NHL was forced to reckon with stricter laws on the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco over the years, I imagine they'll have to do the same with sports gambling in the coming years. The Wild West of legalized sports gambling is hopefully coming to an end and maybe then we can go at least 15 seconds with a Draft Kings ad?