A new analysis of World Cup broadcasts has found that viewers were exposed to about 93,000 promotions for unhealthy food and drink, alcohol, betting, prediction markets and cryptocurrency products during live matches. The study recorded one such brand appearance roughly every seven seconds across the tournament’s 104 games.
World Cup broadcast diary
The tournament reached almost six billion people worldwide and set audience records in more than 30 countries. Across 172.6 hours of live football, researchers identified branding that could not be avoided by viewers without missing play: logos, pitch-side boards and other in-stadium commercial displays shown during the match coverage.
Commercial breaks, pre-match programming and post-match broadcasts were not included in the work. The research focused only on advertising integrated into the live television image.
Unhealthy food and beverages accounted for 65,722 appearances, representing 70% of the product branding counted. Prediction-market promotions appeared 9,360 times, alcohol branding 9,266 times, gambling advertising 6,429 times and cryptocurrency promotions 2,632 times.
Products described by the researchers as harmful were visible during 39.3 hours of live action, nearly a quarter of the total match time examined. Four global brands dominated the exposure: a soft-drink company recorded 21,893 logos, followed by a fast-food chain with 13,915, a sports-drink brand with 12,777 and a crisps brand with 12,087. Together, those four companies supplied 65% of all harmful-product logos identified.
Advertising reached restricted markets
The research was conducted using Isambard-AI, the United Kingdom’s most powerful supercomputer, based at the University of Bristol, in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
Raffaello Rossi, co-director of Bristol’s Centre for Gambling Harms Research and a co-author, said the World Cup created an unprecedented advertising platform and that its impact was particularly damaging for children and young people.
Elisa Becker, an Oxford researcher and co-author, argued that sport should help address the global crisis of childhood obesity and diet-related illness rather than serve as one of the world’s most powerful promotional spaces for products connected to those problems.
The study also found that the integrated advertising was shown in countries where promotion of alcohol, gambling or prediction-market products is prohibited. FIFA has technology capable of replacing virtual stadium boards for different territories, allowing broadcasters in each market to receive different advertising. That system was not used for the World Cup images assessed by the researchers.
As a result, broadcasts carrying embedded branding were distributed into countries where some advertised products were illegal to buy, use or promote. Rossi said FIFA’s commercial arrangements showed limited regard for national laws and licensing systems.
There were around 16,000 gambling and prediction-market logos during the tournament. One heavily promoted betting brand held licences in only about 20 countries, while the World Cup was carried in more than 220 territories. Rossi concluded that audiences in most markets therefore saw advertising for an operator without a local licence.
A preventable part of the matchday image
The researchers said the problem could have been avoided, noting that UEFA used virtual advertising replacement technology during Euro 2024. They called on governments and regulators to introduce tougher marketing rules and require the use of virtual replacement systems to protect television audiences.
Their final warning was directed at the place of unhealthy-food brands in major sport: if the aim is to raise a healthier generation of children, those companies should no longer occupy such a prominent position in the games that young supporters follow.
