Labour have put working class culture, communities and grassroots sport at the heart of their mission for change - and it is one I share, writes Michael Dugher
In the seven years since I stood down from Parliament, as CEO of UK Music and then the BGC, I’ve seen a lot of DCMS ministers come and go. Some were very capable, some were nice people, some (mentioning no names) were neither. So I was genuinely curious to see how Labour’s new team would set out their stall.
Lisa Nandy, the new Secretary of State for DCMS, has wasted no time putting her priorities - and specifically the importance of grassroots sport and working class communities - front and centre of a new national debate. As the pain of our latest Euro defeat still stings, she had a message of hope for the future, declaring, “prioritising support for the grassroots as a visible symbol that those young people matter to us and that sport has the power to transform lives in every part of Britain. That is our ambition.”
It is an ambition the BGC shares. Although some middle class bores on the Times and the Guardian may look down their nose at it, regulated betting and sport have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Sport has always shared a common heritage with betting, which has long been a part of working class culture for many people - from bingo halls to betting shops - while our mission critical support for great traditionally working class sports like rugby league, darts, snooker and lower league football is well known. Those ties are still strong today, and are demonstrated by the huge investment BGC members are making in every corner of the country, from the grassroots to the elite level.
Betfred is the proud supporter of Rugby League, another true working class sport, and are currently sponsoring the Betfred Super League, Championship, and Challenge Cup, as well as the Women’s and Wheelchair equivalents, plus is the official partner of the England Rugby League team. Without the support of Fred Done, Rugby League just couldn’t survive in its current form.
The same can be said of the English Football League which receives around £40m a year from Sky Bet. And the same is true for grassroots football. This summer I was lucky enough to meet my great footballing hero, former Nottingham Forest captain and England icon Stuart Pearce. He started his career in non-league football and today he is ambassador for Entain (Ladbrokes/Coral) and their ‘Pitching In’ scheme. This sponsors the Trident League – 250 clubs at steps three and four of the English football pyramid – a huge boost to grassroots football.
Flutter has invested millions into a huge range of community sports through its Cash4Clubs scheme. Similarly, look at the support the Coates family and bet365 give to Stoke City Football Club and community projects throughout their local area. William Hill recently signed a huge deal with the Scottish Professional Football League, with an innovative safer gambling programme at its heart, and other firms like Betway and Kindred all invest in football and other sports.
Add to that, horseracing receives record breaking funding of around £350m from the betting industry - something that will not be lost on the dozens of new MPs who now represent constituencies with racecourses - whilst snooker and darts receive millions in sponsorship and promotion.
It is this investment – especially in grassroots sports – which will create the next generation of sporting greats. With an Olympic summer days away, the BGC and our members have donated hundreds of thousands to SportsAid, the charity supporting tomorrow’s gold medal champions. Along with around 40 parliamentarians, including many new MPs and ministers, I was delighted we were able to support their most recent endeavour, sponsoring a Parliamentary reception for SportsAid for new and returning MPs and Peers, who were able to hear directly from Olympic champions backed by SportsAid, including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, a 16-time Paralympic Games Medallist, including 11 Gold Medals.
Our members get involved because these are not just sports teams and clubs, they are part of the cultural fabric of communities, providing identity and heritage as well as crucial opportunities to youngsters. This is particularly true for working class communities and the sports they love, despite the more than a hint of snobbery that sometimes defines the attitude of anti-gambling prohibitionists.
But of course support for sport has to go hand-in-hand with support for safer gambling. For us the priority is implementing the White Paper, which Labour supported in Opposition. That includes an ombudsman to improve consumer redress, the modest but mission critical casino modernisation plans, a statutory levy for research, prevention and treatment, but one that doesn’t kill off the vital third sector already doing amazing work in this area, and online financial risk checks that are genuinely frictionless, non-intrusive and carefully targeted on those at risk - not the overwhelming majority who bet safely and responsibly.
These measure will boost the already incredibly high standards on safer gambling, which the BGC has advanced since it was first launched to bring the industry together and, frankly, to get its act together. These measures will make a real difference, ensuring the balance is right between freedoms and protections. Each month 22.5 million people enjoy a bet while the most recent NHS Health Survey for England estimated that 0.4 per cent of the adult population are problem gamblers.
That huge popularity is driven by a diverse and broad sector, making real economic investment in every corner of the country. Overall, the regulated betting and gaming industry in the UK supports 110,000 jobs, generates £4.2bn in tax and contributes £7.1bn to the economy. These huge figures underline the significance of BGC members to the local and national economy. Something for the new Labour Chancellor to ponder.
And the industry comes in all shapes and sizes, on hard-pressed high streets through betting shops employing thousands of people, in the leisure and tourism sector through casinos and bingo halls, and in tech, where our members in online betting and gaming are genuine world beaters operating on a global scale.
Crucially and again consistent with the early priorities of our new Labour Government, the vast bulk of this investment, is happening outside London, with nearly two thirds of industry supported jobs based outside London, including nearly 20,000 in the West Midlands alone. BGC members have founded tech powerhouses in places like Stoke with bet365 and Leeds, where Flutter is based. Although the new government have now quietly dropped the language, the truth is BGC members were ‘levelling up’ long before the previous government coined the phrase.
I have no doubt that Lisa Nandy gets this. Like she says, this is “personal” to her. She undoubtedly and rightly will want to see more done from the betting industry to continue to raise standards on safer gambling. But she knows how important sports like rugby league are to places like her own constituency in Wigan. She has long championed grassroots sport - including what happened to nearby Bury Football Club - and she has been a strong supporter of the Tote, based in her constituency.
In her first interview as the new Secretary of State, Nandy told the Manchester Evening News: “Whether it's through investing in grassroots sport, whether it's through opening up opportunities in media, film, dance, drama to working class kids in communities like Bolton and Bury, that is going to be the mission and the work of our government.” The new government have set out their stall. It’s a mission I share.
Michael Dugher is Chair of the BGC, and is a former Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for DCMS.
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