Betting brands have spent around $135 million on shirt sponsorship deals with clubs in English soccer’s Premier League this year, with more than half of the top-flight teams partnering with companies in the sector despite agreeing to a league-wide ban on such deals in time for 2026-27.
GlobalData’s new The Business of the Premier League 2024-25 report outlines how the gambling industry accounts for 11 (55%) of the 19 active Premier League front-of-shirt deals this season, marking a significant increase on the seven agreements previously on display in the 2023-24 season.
Seven new deals have been signed in the Premier League this season, with six related to the betting industry.
AFC Bournemouth (BJ88), Aston Villa (Betano), Crystal Palace (Net88), Leicester City (BC.Game), Southampton (Rollbit), and Wolverhampton Wanderers (Debet) are the teams to sign such front-of-shirt arrangements.
These deals are estimated to be worth an increase of $39.99 million a year to them collectively.
In addition, Brentford (Hollywoodbets), Everton (Stake.com), Fulham (Sbotop), Nottingham Forest (Kaiyun) and West Ham United (Betway) all have existing deals with betting firms.
Jake Kemp, sport analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Deals from the gambling industry are most popular with the lower-ranked teams in the league because they do not have the same global commercial appeal of the biggest English teams.
“The ‘big six’ clubs in England are all linked to non-gambling-based shirt deals but continue to pull in the biggest deals in the market.
“The gambling sector is expected to remain highly prevalent on shirts for the next two seasons, but it will leave a hole to fill for many Premier League teams from the start of the 2026-27 season.”
The Premier League stands as the only top-five European league to have this many sponsorships with firms in the gambling market. Spain’s LaLiga enforced its ban on such deals ahead of the 2020-21 season, whilst the presence of betting brands is not so widespread across France, Germany, and Italy.
In April 2023, Premier League clubs voted to voluntarily ban shirt sponsorship deals with betting companies from the start of the 2026-27 campaign.
The decision was made after discussions between the league, its clubs, and the government’s Department for Culture, Media, and Sport.
Notwithstanding the impending ban, clubs have two more full seasons before it comes into force, enabling existing partnership contracts to be fulfilled.
The two-year wait also means that clubs can, and have, signed new gambling-related shirt deals, as they look to capitalize on the added value coming from the rights while the opportunity is still there.
Kemp added: “Clubs are looking to cash in on the higher sums that the gambling industry can offer. Gambling brands are typically willing to offer more money to clubs than other brands for the same inventory.
“With many negative connotations to the gambling industry such as addiction, greater money on offer is how the gambling industry is able to convince clubs to partner with them.”
In previous decades, the Premier League was rife with brand partners within the alcoholic beverage sector until its official league-wide ban ahead of the 2017-18 season.
Betting brands filled the gap in the market, but the same negative scrutiny is now being aimed at the gambling industry, with critics highlighting the sector’s major issues around addiction and advertising to underage fans.
Despite covering over half of the league deals this season, the gambling market only stands as the second-highest spending industry in the league this year.
Its level of investment has been eclipsed by the travel and tourism industry. The large investment from this sector is linked to just two deals - Arsenal (Emirates) and Manchester City (Etihad) - two of the ‘big six’ clubs.
