A bereaved mother has called on the Women’s Super League to reject deals with bookmaking firms as it seeks to grow its commercial heft.
Kay Wadsworth’s daughter, Kimberly, took her own life in 2018 after a period of gambling addiction. In an open letter, Wadsworth asked the WSL not to take “bloodied cash” in the name of growing the game.
Wadsworth wrote the letter after the publication of an independent review into women’s football, commissioned by the government and led by Karen Carney, called for a substantial increase in investment to “raise minimum standards”.
In her letter, Wadsworth makes the link between the international attention on the Women’s World Cup and a possible boost in attention and revenue for the WSL.
“Dear Women’s Super League,” it says. “It’s wonderful the World Cup is giving women’s football the platform it deserves on the world stage. And with that increased profile will rightly come more opportunities for commercial partnerships. You deserve it.
“But I want to make a heartfelt plea to England women’s football not to go the same way as the men’s game and be swamped with gambling partnerships.”
“Please don’t go down this path,” it continues. “The Lionesses have inspired a generation of young fans. There’s more dignity in valuing the wellbeing of these girls and boys with their whole lives ahead of them than there is in taking bloodied cash from a gambling firm.”
Kimberly Wadsworth died at the age of 32, after becoming addicted to gambling in her 20s. She had been a user of fixed-odds betting terminals but was also a member of bookmakers’ VIP schemes where gamblers receive individual attention from companies, something campaigners say heightens the risk of problem gambling.
Since Kimberly’s death, her mother has campaigned for an end to VIP schemes and a ban on gambling advertising. According to the group Gambling with Lives, with whom Wadsworth has worked, as many as 30% of problem gamblers are women, but receive far less attention than men. Recent research has confirmed that televised football remains a massively concentrated source of gambling advertising, with a study recording 3,522 betting logos being shown over the course of a Premier League match between West Ham and Chelsea.
Premier League teams have agreed not to take front-of-shirt sponsorship deals from gambling firms but that ban does not prohibit other forms of advertising and does not come into effect until 2026.
“I lost my daughter Kimberly, a Leeds United fan, to gambling-related suicide in 2018,” Wadsworth writes. “It shattered my life, she’s my only child, and I’ll never be the same person I once was.
“As my experience shows, it’s not just young men who are at risk, and women are increasingly targeted by gambling advertising. The public are overwhelmingly behind ending gambling advertising in football. Any decision to partner with a gambling firm, especially after being warned of the dangers, would be incredibly unpopular.”
The Football Association runs the WSL but is looking to develop the competition under the umbrella of a new organisation.
An FA spokesperson said: “We made a clear decision to end our relationship with gambling companies in 2017 and this policy is currently supported by the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship, who have no association with gambling partners.
“Clubs govern their own relationships with gambling companies and both the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship will align with the decision from the Premier League clubs to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts from the 2026-27 season.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
