This comes at a time when fans, players, and even clubs, not to mention politicians and health experts, have been calling for the reduced dependency of the AFL on gambling companies, and criticized the omnipresence of advertisement in broadcasts and on team shirts and properties.

The AFL Gets More Money from Gambling Companies

The contributions Gillon McLachlan, the head of AFL was referring to, are called “product fees.” The man was laconic about how much money was brought in for the organization this way but noted that it was a part of the turnover.

“We have product fee arrangements with all the wagering operators where we get a percentage of their operations on the AFL,” the boss confirmed during a parliamentary hearing, which is currently looking to better regulate online gambling.

McLachlan though used his appearance before lawmakers to make certain adjustments to his previous comments, and notably an interview he gave for 3AW. In that interview, he claimed that there was potentially too much advertising going around that involves sports gambling, but appearing on Tuesday, he told lawmakers that this was not truly the case.

Advertising in Football an Ever-Present Problem

In the meantime, fans have been very much on the side of consumers. The AFL Fans Association recently ran a massive survey encompassing 3,000 fans and posted the results which proved that around 75% of the people petitioned would have sports gambling advertisements banned from radio and television, to begin with.

McLachlan said that he was aware of these attitudes but cautioned that over-regulation was still not the right way forward. Meanwhile, gambling companies have changed their tune. Entain, one of the biggest companies in the Australian regulated gambling market, said that it acknowledged the demand for less obtrusive and pervasive regulation, adding that it now wanted to be a part of the solution and not act against fans’ desires.