9 Ads per Minute: FIFA Cup 26 – "the price of the beautiful game"

The research, led by the University of Bristol in collaboration with the University of Oxford, is the first to examine harmful commodity branding across an entire FIFA World Cup. The team used the UK’s most powerful supercomputer, Isambard-AI, based at University of Bristol, to analyse all 172.6 hours of live play across the tournament’s 104 matches. The scale of potential exposure was extraordinary. FIFA reported that nearly six billion people around the world engaged with the tournament, while broadcast records were broken in more than 30 countries. For the UK, the researchers estimated that harmful product advertising generated 267 billion impressions across the 53 broadcasts for which audience data were available. The analysis counted advertising built into the match footage (e.g. on the hoardings), rather than commercials shown during advertising breaks. Harmful product branding appeared in every match and was visible during 39.3 hours of live play, almost a quarter of all live play. Viewers could not avoid this marketing without also missing some of the football. Unhealthy food and drink brands were found to dominate the tournament's sponsorship, representing more than seven in ten (70.4%) of all branding detected. This was followed by prediction markets with 9,360 appearances, alcohol with 9,266, gambling with 6,429 and cryptocurrency with 2,632. Exposure was heavily concentrated among a handful of globally recognised brands. A familiar soft drink brand accounted for the highest number of logos (21,893), followed by a major fast-food chain (13,915), a sports drink brand (12,777), and a popular crisps brand (12,087). Together, these four brands were responsible for 65% of all harmful commodity logos recorded during the tournament. Dr Raffaello Rossi, Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Co-Director of the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research at the University of Bristol, and co-author of the study, said: "As one of the world’s most watched sporting events, reaching billions of people, this year’s FIFA World Cup provided an unparalleled platform for advertising. Our findings reveal the sheer scale of branding embedded throughout tournament broadcasts, making exposure to unhealthy food, alcohol and gambling brands both omnipresent and unavoidable for viewers. “This is particularly concerning given the substantial body of evidence linking marketing for unhealthy products, alcohol and gambling with increased consumption and a range of health, social and financial harms, especially among children and young people.” Dr Elisa Becker, Researcher, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, co-author of this study added: “We are facing a global crisis of childhood obesity and diet-related disease, yet the world’s biggest sporting event is saturated with marketing for unhealthy food and drinks. Sport should be part of the solution to poor health – not one of the world’s most powerful advertising platforms for the products driving it.” A key issue highlighted by the research is that FIFA’s match footage, which featured the same embedded advertising around the pitch, was shared with broadcasters around the world, including in countries where alcohol, gambling or prediction markets advertising may be restricted or illegal. Despite existing virtual board replacement technology which enables different advertising to be shown in different countries, findings from this report suggest FIFA’s commercial model failed to adequately account for national laws and cultural norms governing the promotion of harmful commodities. FIFA did not use this technology, and distributed World Cup footage containing embedded branding to countries where the use, advertisement, or purchase of some promoted products is not legal. Dr Rossi added: “FIFA’s marketing deals appeared to show little respect for national laws and licensing regimes. The tournament featured around 16,000 gambling and prediction markets logos, with this advertising reaching a host of countries where the promoted brands were unlicensed, or where their legal status was uncertain. Indeed, one of the most advertised gambling brands listed licences in around 20 countries, while the World Cup was broadcast across more than 220 territories. Put plainly, audiences in the overwhelming majority of countries were shown advertising for a gambling operator that was not licensed locally. “What makes this particularly disappointing is that the problem was avoidable. Technology previously used by the UEFA EURO 2024, already allows different countries to see different pitchside advertising, yet it was not used to remove or replace branding where products could not lawfully be advertised or offered.” The researchers call for governments and regulators to ensure that marketing rules apply to commercial branding embedded within live sports broadcasts, backed by meaningful penalties. They also urge FIFA to adopt an independently developed public interest standard for commercial partnerships and use existing technology to remove or replace branding where products cannot lawfully be advertised or offered. Dr Rossi said: “Collectively, our findings highlight how a tournament celebrated for bringing people together is, at the same time, acting as a powerful platform for promoting products associated with some of the world's leading causes of preventable illness and harm.” Beth Bradshaw, Policy and Advocacy Lead, Obesity Health Alliance, added: “Sport has enormous power to positively influence children’s health, yet this latest research highlights a major loophole in efforts to protect children from unhealthy food marketing. “Commercial brands use the passion and excitement of sport to sell products, and young fans are paying the price. The Government should act on the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s recommendation to extend advertising restrictions to sport and other emerging forms of marketing. If we're serious about raising the healthiest generation of children, unhealthy food brands should no longer be centre stage in the sports they love.” Alex Ballinger MP, Co-Chair of the Gambling Reform APPG, said: “This research reveals the scale and pervasive presence of gambling-related advertising at the 2026 World Cup: logos and branding for gambling platforms, prediction markets, and cryptocurrency firms appeared over 18,000 times in FIFA’s broadcast footage of the tournament. “It is especially concerning that children were exposed to these promotions. Such regular, repeated exposure encourages young fans to associate their heroes and the sport they love with gambling, while laundering the image of addictive, harmful products. “As this study makes clear, our current rules and safeguards are inadequate. Urgent reform is needed to protect young and vulnerable fans and preserve the beautiful game.” US Congressman, Paul Tonko commented: "Sports gambling has become embedded in every aspect of sports, with every moment of a match marketed as an opportunity to bet. This endless barrage is especially concerning for young fans, as studies confirm that exposure to gambling early in life is directly linked to problem gambling later. This is rapidly becoming the public health crisis of our generation. It’s clear that Congress needs to step in to provide minimum consumer safeguards for online sports gambling – whether done through prediction markets or traditional sportsbooks – by passing legislation like my SAFE Bet Act. I’ll keep pushing to pass this legislation that gets sports out of the hands of the gambling industry and back where they belong; with fans and families." The report is the latest in a series of groundbreaking studies conducted by members of the University’s Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research, whose work has influenced public policy, strengthened consumer protection, and shaped more inclusive treatment services for those affected by gambling harms. The report was funded by the University of Bristol. Report ‘The price of the beautiful game: how the biggest FIFA World Cup ever became a global platform for promoting harmful products’ by Saeid Moradipour, Elisa Becker, Ru Jia, Jamie Wheaton, Philip Newall, and Raffaello Rossi