Kieran Trippier banned for 10 weeks over betting rules breach, says FA

Kieran Trippier has been banned for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 by the FA following misconduct in relation to breaches of betting regulations. 

The Atletico Madrid right back, 30, was charged by the FA in May and had to withdraw from the England squad in October for the Nations League fixture against Denmark to attend a personal hearing over the allegations. 

These relate to bets placed around the time of his move to Spain from Tottenham in July 2019 - an independent commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed. 

Trippier's worldwide suspension means he is banned from all football-related activity up to and including Sunday 28 February 2021, meaning he will miss the first-leg of Atletico Madrid's last-16 Champions League tie against Chelsea and currently a total of 12 games for his club. 

With the present fixture list, his first game back will be against city rivals Real Madrid on March 7 and he will be available to Gareth Southgate for March's 2022 World Cup qualifiers and Euro 2020 in the summer. 

An FA statement read: 'The Atletico Madrid defender denied seven alleged breaches of FA Rule E8(1)(b), which were said to occur during July 2019, and requested a personal hearing.

'An independent regulatory commission was appointed to hear the case, with four of the alleged breaches found proven and three dismissed during a subsequent personal hearing.

'The independent regulatory commission’s written reasons for its decisions and the associated sanction will be published in due course. 

'The suspension, which includes all football and football-related activity, is effective worldwide from today (Wednesday 23 December 2020) following an application to FIFA.'

Trippier was accused of breaking Rule E8(1)(a)(ii) and Rule E8(1)(b) of the FA's Betting Rules which state players cannot place a bet relating to football or provide relevant confidential information to anyone who could bet on a scenario. 

FA Rule E8(1)(b) states: 'Where a participant provides to any other person any information relating to football which the participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time, the participant shall be in breach of this Rule where any of that information is used by that other person for, or in relation to, betting.'

The 30-year-old moved to Spain after four years at Spurs. The defender played a significant role in the club's rise under Mauricio Pochettino and his final game for the club came in the 2019 Champions League final. 

Trippier has also been capped 25 times by England and played a significant role in Gareth Southgate's side during their 2018 World Cup run to the semi-finals.

The right-back scored a brilliant free-kick early on in the last-four clash against Croatia, who came back to win the tie 2-1 in extra-time. 

He also captained his country for the first time in the 3-0 friendly victory against Wales in October, describing it as the 'biggest highlight of his career.' 

National Lottery takes full coverage of ITV Saturday night primetime

The National Lottery has regained its terrestrial Saturday night primetime coverage, securing sponsorship of three back-to-back ITV shows.

Beginning 19 December, the National Lottery will serve as headline sponsor of ITV1’s Saturday night roster of ‘The Masked Singer’, ‘The Voice UK’ and ‘Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway’.

The deal represents the first time ITV has allowed a single advertiser to sponsor three of its Saturday night primetime shows.

Sponsorship of ITV Saturday night headline programmes are recognised amongst the UK’s highest costing marketing inventory. Takeaway app Deliveroo is reported to have paid £7 million to sponsor a single series of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway which achieved record audiences of 11.2 million viewers during 2020.

Mark Trinder, ITV Director of Partnerships, said: “Saturday nights on ITV have come to define quintessential family entertainment, and as we celebrate the return of three of our most talked-about shows – The Masked Singer, The Voice UK and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway – we’re welcoming onboard our brand new sponsor National Lottery operator, Camelot, for this innovative partnership that will put all the titans of Saturday night TV under one sponsorship umbrella.”

Camelot’s three-show sponsorship with ITV was brokered by National Lottery media planning agency Vizeum. Seeking to secure optimal coverage for the National Lottery, Camelot has tasked creative agency Adam & Eve DDB with developing a new ‘360 creative campaign’ to showcase its ITV sponsorship.

Camelot CMO Keith Moor said: “The National Lottery has been making Saturday night more entertaining for the past 26 years, with every ticket providing a moment of anticipation while also helping to raise around £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded good causes.

“These are ITV’s flagship entertainment shows with the biggest audiences – so there’s a fantastic fit between the two brands with this partnership, and it will only help people to better understand the connection between The National Lottery’s unique purpose and play.”

UK gambling laws review to consider ban on sports sponsorship

A wide-ranging review of gambling laws to be launched next week will consider banning sports sponsorship and limiting online casino stakes among a “reformer’s shopping list” of proposals to overhaul gambling laws, the Guardian can reveal.

The long-awaited review, which could roll back vast swathes of the 2005 Gambling Act 2005, will begin as soon as Monday with an initial call for evidence.

Terms of reference will be published at the same time, offering the first insight into what is in store for the gambling industry as well as campaigners calling for tougher regulation.

Amid mounting concern about gambling’s role in wider society, changes under consideration will include:

• Limits on online stakes.

• Tough affordability checks.

• A testing regime for new products.

• A sports sponsorship ban.

• New powers to tackle the parallel market.

The broad scope is likely to welcomed by advocates for tighter regulation, including people recovering from problem gambling and more than 50 MPs and and peers who have backed stricter controls. But the prospect of a much harsher regulatory climate will be of concern to online casino bosses and bookmakers.

Multiple sources said officials at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which is leading the process, would take aim at almost every area of gambling law, in what one insider termed a “reformer’s shopping list”.

One key area in their sights is regulation of online casino and electronic slot machine games. Gamblers can bet unlimited amounts online, even though some internet-based games such as roulette are no different from those that were available on fixed-odds betting terminals, whose maximum stake was cut for £100 to £2.

Alongside maximum stakes, ministers will consider whether firms should be forced to limit players’ monthly losses and carry out much stricter affordability checks to ensure people are gambling within their means.

It follows a string of high-profile incidents in which problem gamblers were left destitute after losing large sums of money. In one case, an online betting firm accepted a “VIP” gambler’s redundancy payout as proof he could afford to keep betting. In another, high street bookmakers were accused of knowingly allowing a problem user to gamble away compensation for an injury that had left him severely disabled.

Under proposals to be weighed up by the DMCS, new gambling products could also be subjected to a rigorous testing regime that would determine whether they are released on to the market and how much can be wagered on them.

The UK gambling industry’s lobby group, the Betting & Gaming Council, has repeatedly said tightening the regulations too far could fuel parallel market betting operations that have a scant regard for customer safety. But the DCMS will consider giving the regulator, the Gambling Commission, which has admitted it is underfunded, extra financial resources and new powers to tackle illicit operators.

Sources said the review would also consider marketing and advertising, including the possibility of new measures to curb sports sponsorship – including logos on football club shirts – in an apparent response to the “gamblification” of football.

Promotional offers are also expected to form part of the review’s scope, indicating that the government is not satisfied with a joint effort by the industry and the Gambling Commission to address concerns about VIP schemes, bonuses and so-called “free bets”.

VIP schemes, in which gamblers who lose large amounts of money are wined, dined and given financial incentives to keep betting, have been a common feature of high-profile stories about problem gamblers who resorted to crime or took their own lives.

The DCMS is not expected to take on the much-criticised lack of funding for treatment of gambling addiction, indicating that it will be left to the Department of Health and Social Care to address concerns about the availability of help for people with a gambling disorder.

The review is likely to be overseen by the sports minister, Nigel Huddleston, but Boris Johnson is understood to be keen on dialling back the Blair-era legislation that gave rise to the modern UK gambling industry.

Senior officials in Downing Street are also believed to see gambling reform as a vote-winner, as well as the right thing to do. “The PM just sees it as people being exploited and it’s not him,” one MP with knowledge of No 10’s thinking said earlier this year.