The father of an Enniskillen man who took his own life as a result of a gambling addiction has described the deal to show FA Cup games via betting websites as “obscene”.

Lewis Keogh was 34 when the crippling weight of his addiction became too much.

He had racked up over £50,000 in debt due to gambling.

It was an addiction that neither his parents, Pete and Sadie, nor his friends in Leeds where he had moved to knew anything about.

In the light of recent developments around betting and football, Pete said he finds it disgusting that betting companies have “infiltrated” the FA and that people would have to place a bet in order to watch their favourite team play.

“You wonder how far the game of football will sink,” said Pete. “When you have got a league which is being sponsored by a gambling company and every big team, with a few notable exceptions, have sponsorship logos from betting companies either all around their ground or plastered all over their kits.

“How do we expect our young people not to be influenced is the question I would ask.”

Pete says there is a gambling problem in Fermanagh and he has spoke to two young men about their addictions, and he says with the pressures on the health service a lot of people don’t know where to go for help.

“They didn’t know anywhere else to go but our health service is so impoverished on expertise at the minute it’s hard to know where people like that go to.

“You go to your doctor with an addiction to alcohol or drugs they’ll find some sort of help for you but gambling is a silent killer you cant see the addiction, that’s the difference.”

He is now calling on the UK government to step up and do something about it.

New regulations, coming into effect in April 2020 will ban the use of credit cards on online and offline gambling products except lotteries that are run for good causes.

It’s a start for Pete who wants the government to hold to account a football organisation which he says has “really sunk in my estimations and lots of people who are involved in the same campaigns as us”.

Pete and his wife Sadie took part in a recording for the BBC’s Football Focus to talk about their son and his addiction as part of a discussion on the new partnership.

It shows them over at Lewis’ football club, Headingley AFC, where a match is played every year in memory of Lewis. The club now carry the Gambling with Lives logo on their shirts.

Gambling with Lives is a group set up by friends and family of those who have died by suicide, to raise awareness of the dangers of gambling addiction.

The club have been a huge support to Pete and Sadie and they travel over every year for the memorial game.

“They are a wonderful set of young men who like ourselves never suspected Lewis had a really vile addiction, a life threatening addiction and they have been such a support to us over the six years since Lewis died.”

They are hoping to raise more awareness of the game by playing the annual fixture at either Sheffield Wednesday, the club Lewis supported, or Leeds United, the city where he lived to make a real statement about the dangers of gambling.

“Suicide from gambling is rarely as a result of debts accrued; it’s almost always because the person concerned can find no escape from mental illness that is gambling addiction.

That’s a very important part of the message from our charity Gambling with Lives.”

And to strengthen the connection between the club and Lewis’ family, Headingley AFC are hoping to travel to Fermanagh to play Lisnarick FC in a pre season friendly this year.

“It’s a lovely touch and it will keep the awareness going about things like that,” added Pete. The backlash over the deal has seen seven gambling companies which bought the rights for £750 million through sporting rights agency IMG, offering to give up their exclusivity and many of the matches will now be streamed for free.

Do you need help? The contact number for help is the Dunlewey Addiction Centre 02890392547.