Campaigners call for alcohol sponsorship to be banned in Scottish sport
They found alcohol companies represented 7% of the main sponsors or partners in 2018-19.
There are calls for alcohol sponsorship in Scottish sports to be banned.
It's after a study from Stirling University found drink adverts featured every fifteen seconds in the Six Nations match between Scotland and England.
University researchers examined the official sponsors or partners of football and rugby teams in Scotland, including the top two SPFL divisions and both professional rugby union teams, as well as the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Rugby.
They found alcohol companies represented 7% of the main sponsors or partners in 2018-19 - 15% in rugby union and 4% in football.
The study found that, where present, alcohol sponsorship "uses a variety of marketing activities to ensure that it is highly visible and appears salient to consumers".
These include kit logos, stadium advertising, limited edition products and players featuring in marketing content.
The academics also analysed the frequency of alcohol marketing in seven sports broadcasts in 2018-19.
On average, an alcohol reference featured around once every 15 seconds in the Six Nations match between Scotland and England.
For Scottish Premiership football highlights, it happened every 57 seconds on average, rising to 71 seconds in the Scottish Cup final and 98 seconds in a league match.
Researchers said they attempted to analyse the alcohol marketing references in a game between Scotland's two professional rugby teams - Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby - but were unable to do so due to the high volume.
Charity Alcohol Focus Scotland and public health experts from Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (Shaap) want the Scottish Government to ban alcohol sponsorship from sport.
Alison Douglas, Alcohol Focus Scotland chief executive, said: "Sport should be clean - it should inspire good health and active participation - and to use it as a promotional vehicle for an addictive and health-harming product is simply unacceptable.
"The current system of self-regulation is no regulation.
"It is failing to protect people - especially our children and other vulnerable people. The Scottish Government needs to act."
Shaap director Dr Eric Carlin called on clubs to follow the lead of Scottish women's football in rejecting alcohol and gambling sponsorship.
The University of Stirling's Richard Purves said: "Alcohol sponsorship was particularly visible in rugby union, both in terms of the number of sponsorship relations with alcohol companies and how often alcohol marketing references appeared in the television broadcasts analysed.
"For football, alcohol sponsorship appeared to be more prevalent amongst larger or more successful teams, for example, those playing at the top level, compared to clubs which offered fewer opportunities for national and international exposure, such as those in the lower leagues."
Sports minister Joe FitzPatrick said: "We welcome all emerging research on alcohol marketing in Scotland.
"We want to go further to protect our children and young people from alcohol harms and that is why I intend this year to consult on potential mandatory restrictions on alcohol marketing and advertising.
"Scotland will be the first of the UK nations to do so."
He repeated a call for the UK Government to introduce a 9pm watershed on alcohol advertising on TV, or devolve powers to enable Scotland to do so.
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