Former UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has made a strict rule for his Eagle FC promotion- no partnership with any betting site, as the Russian states that gambling does more damage than alcohol.
It would be the same if I were to advertise drugs: Khabib
In present times, sports betting has become a huge part of world sports and is slowly gaining worldwide legalization. Similar to other sports, MMA also has a huge involvement of betting with gambling sponsors bringing in huge finances, and the UFC itself has made partnerships with DraftKings.
However Khabib, who is the owner of Russia-based promotion Eagle FC, doesn’t feel the need to associate his promotion with betting partners, and also points out that gambling for being worse and more damaging than alcohol.
“We have plenty of good sponsors that we work with and put on events. We don’t need bookmakers. I believe that gambling is more dangerous than alcohol. I think it’s worse to advertise gambling more than alcohol,” Khabib said in a video posted by Eagle FC, “Bookmakers ruin entire families, you know that yourselves. How many young guys go on their sites, stay on them, and become addicted? Whole families get ruined because of it. You know well how strong of an addiction gambling is. It’s the same as a drug addiction. It would be the same if I were to advertise drugs here. Gambling and drug addiction are on the same level for me.”
“They pay big money. There are promotions that take their money, the bookmaker becomes their main sponsor and they don’t need any more,” Nurmagomeov continued. “We’re not moving in that direction. We pay attention to the type of product we give our audience. The only thing we promote is sport. I don’t want the people that watch us and see alcohol or bookmakers ads. It’s very important to me. I don’t want people to discover a bookmaker from watching Eagle FC then go to their site and develop an addiction. That’s very important,” he added. [H/T BJPenn.com]
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