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The new football season can't come soon enough...

No, I haven't gone mad. If you've read enough of my rantings you'll know that I consider football the most over-rated sport on the planet (it's a sport, not the sport), and this wish for August to get here quickly has nothing to do with watching even more of the sport which is live on TV somewhere every minute of every hour of every day of the year.

Something wonderful will happen once the new football season begins - the in-play advertising ban in the UK will commence. Wall-to-wall ads featuring Ray Winston for Bet365, that American comedian for Coral, Dizzee Rascal, Chris Akabusi and that Inbetweeners twat for Ladbrokes, and all the other annoying as hell bookmaker ads during every break in proceedings will be gone, at least during the live broadcast.

I don't think betting advertising should be banned, I just don't want it at complete saturation level. When your 7 and 9yo children can recite the name of at least five different betting firms, it's fairly obvious de-regulation went way too far. And when the CEO of GVC, owners of LadbrokesCoral, Bwin, Sportingbet and numerous other gaming & wagering brands calls out for a complete ban on advertising including shirt sponsorship and perimeter advertising, you know there's something in it for them - an opportunity to claim the moral high ground while making it virtually impossible for anyone to catch up to them, or in the case of Bet365, a Hail Mary that they won't put yet another couple of laps on them next season. And to also save them a shitload of money by scrapping their god-awful ads. 'We've milked this cow as much as we can with our tired brands, time to ban it!'

Hypocrisy of the highest order.

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