Twitter "needs to offer commercial opportunities to brands in order to thrive," but forcing England fans to "take part in mandatory gambling advertising has left a bad taste in mouths," according to Simon Gwynn of CAMPAIGN LIVE. At the start of '18, "only the very brave or very stupid would have suggested that the beautiful game of association football was on its way back to its land of origin" (i.e. #ItsComingHome). But after England’s 6-1 win over Panama in the group stage, "millions of fans became bold enough to start talking with semi-ironic confidence about the prospects of the national team once again," and the Baddiel and Skinner-inspired hashtag "started to be used more and more." That is when users "started to notice the William Hill-branded football strip emoji that appeared next to the hashtag whenever it was used" -- and "not everyone was thrilled to be promoting a gambling brand without their prior consent." After the backlash, the sponsorship of the hashtag ended, "although neither Twitter nor William Hill would comment on which of the two made the decision." Hostelworld Chief Customer Officer Kristof Fahy said, "Good work by the William Hill team. If others are grumpy, it probably means they didn’t think about it and are now kicking themselves, their team or their agencies or all three" (CAMPAIGN LIVE, 7/11).
