The Rise and Reckoning of Gambling Sponsors in Football

It’s hard to watch a football match today without seeing a betting company’s name somewhere on the screen. Whether it’s on a player’s shirt, flashing across digital boards, or featured in social media posts, gambling has become deeply connected to the way modern football looks and feels.

Betting companies feature on the shirts of tens of top teams. Source: Getty Images/Shutterstock/PA

This didn’t happen overnight. Over the past two decades, gambling brands have gone from being completely absent in football to becoming one of the most common shirt sponsors in the sport—especially in the Premier League. Big names like Betway, Stake, and W88 have not only paid millions to appear on kits but also helped shape football’s global image, targeting fans across Europe, Asia, and Africa.

In April 2023, the Premier League announced that clubs would no longer be allowed to display gambling sponsors on the front of their shirts starting from the 2026–27 season. This wasn’t a law passed by the government, it was a voluntary move by the league and its clubs after growing public pressure and concerns about how visible betting brands had become, especially to younger fans. Even with this ban coming, gambling sponsorship is still far from gone. Clubs can continue placing gambling logos on shirt sleeves, training gear, and stadium advertising, which means betting brands will still be part of matchday in many ways. Still, removing them from the most visible space at the front of the shirt is a major shift.

This blog takes a closer look at how football got here. We’ll explore when gambling first appeared on kits, how fast it grew, why so many clubs signed these deals, and what the future might look like as the ban approaches. From the early 1990s to today’s billion-pound industry, it’s clear that football’s relationship with gambling is deep, complex, and far from over.

How Football Became a Billboard for Betting

Clubs saw the opportunity. Betting firms were willing to pay more than many traditional sponsors, and for teams outside the top six, the money on offer could make a real difference. For some clubs, it meant more funds for transfers. For others, it helped cover operating costs. What started as a one-club experiment with Fulham quickly became a growing trend that few clubs wanted to miss out on.

By the mid-2000s, football shirts were no longer just a symbol of tradition or local identity. They had become valuable space for global advertising. And gambling companies, more than any other industry, were ready to buy that space.

The Boom Years

As the Premier League became more global, gambling companies saw an opportunity to get their names in front of millions of fans each week. Clubs, especially those outside the top few, were happy to take the money. Gambling sponsors offered more than many other industries, and for clubs trying to stay competitive, that income made a big difference.

Over time, the presence of betting brands in football became impossible to ignore. By the time the 2024–25 season arrived, more than half of the Premier League was wearing gambling sponsors on the front of their shirts. Eleven clubs in total had signed such deals, up from eight the year before. The list included Aston Villa with Betano, Brentford with Hollywoodbets, Crystal Palace with NET88, and Everton with Stake. These were not just short-term agreements. Some, like West Ham’s deal with Betway, had lasted for years. West Ham wore Betway on their shirts for nearly a decade before finally ending the partnership in 2025.

Premier League shirt sponsors 24-25. Source: BBC

Even clubs that did not carry gambling brands on the front of their kits still featured them elsewhere. Gambling logos showed up on sleeves, training kits, LED boards, and press backdrops. The front of the shirt might have been the most visible space, but it was far from the only one. In many ways, gambling had become part of the matchday environment.

The most surprising part is that this boom happened even after the Premier League had already announced its decision to remove gambling sponsors from shirt fronts starting in 2026. Instead of pulling back, clubs leaned in. Some signed new deals knowing they would only last a few seasons. Others extended existing contracts while they still had the chance.

Who Profits and Who Pays the Price?

Gambling companies do not sponsor football clubs just for visibility at home. Their goal is much bigger. The Premier League reaches hundreds of millions of viewers across the world, making it one of the most powerful advertising platforms in all of sport. For betting firms, a name on the front of a shirt is not just about brand awareness, it is about market access.

The target is clear. Most betting brands that appear on Premier League kits are focused on international audiences, especially in regions like Asia, Africa, and South America. These markets are growing quickly and have large numbers of young football fans. In many of these countries, people follow Premier League teams more closely than their local clubs. A sponsor on a shirt becomes more than a logo. It becomes part of how fans experience the game.

Premier League teams Nottingham Forest and Leicester City featuring their front of shirt betting sponsors. Source: Getty Images

Many of these deals are aimed at men aged between 18 and 34. This group watches football the most and is also the key demographic for online gambling platforms. For clubs, the appeal is obvious. These companies offer money up front, long-term deals, and often take a light-touch approach that gives teams flexibility in how they promote the brand.

But while clubs and betting firms both benefit, the cost is often passed on to someone else. Across the UK and beyond, there is growing concern about how deeply gambling is now tied to football. Fans cannot watch a match, visit a club website, or scroll through social media without seeing betting ads. Governments in some countries also benefit from the money gambling brings in. In places like the United States, betting has been legalised in many states, and a portion of the revenue is used to fund infrastructure, public services, and sports development. This creates yet another reason why gambling partnerships continue to grow. The relationship is no longer just between clubs and sponsors, it now ties into public finance, making the push for reform even more complicated.

Campaigners have warned that normalising gambling through sport can increase the chances of addiction, particularly among teenagers and young adults. Once gambling is associated with team loyalty or part of the matchday routine, it becomes harder to treat it as just a personal choice. The line between fandom and betting blurs. For many people, this constant exposure creates real risks, especially for younger viewers who are still learning how to set boundaries. 

Accessing the website for Chelsea FC through a VPN reveals that Kaiyun Sports is a partner of the football club. (Screenshot)

Some clubs have gone even further by partnering with offshore betting companies that operate outside of UK regulation. A good example is Chelsea, who have worked with the Yabo–Kaiyun group for several years. At first, the club promoted Yabo's Leyu brand, before switching to Kaiyun Sports in 2022. But if you visit Chelsea’s website from the UK, you will not see Kaiyun listed as a sponsor at all. The name is completely hidden from local audiences. However, if you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and access the same website from places like Vietnam or Hong Kong, the Kaiyun branding appears clearly as part of the club’s commercial partners.

This approach allows clubs to maintain relationships with unregulated or lightly regulated gambling firms while avoiding scrutiny at home. These brands are able to promote themselves in international markets by using Premier League clubs as marketing vehicles, all while staying out of sight of UK regulators and fans. It is a strategy that exploits the differences in local laws and the global nature of football’s fanbase.

What this shows is how football’s commercial system has created space for gambling companies to operate in ways that would not be allowed in other industries. Clubs benefit from the money, sponsors benefit from the exposure, and the actual oversight is often minimal. The result is a sponsorship model that works globally but is rarely transparent at the local level.

The West Ham Example: Loyalty or Liability?

Few clubs in the Premier League have been more closely associated with a gambling sponsor than West Ham United. From 2015 to 2025, the club partnered with Betway, creating one of the longest-running commercial relationships in the league. The sponsor’s logo became a regular part of matchdays, featured on shirts, training kits, stadium boards, and media backdrops. Over time, Betway became so familiar to fans that it almost felt like part of the club’s identity.

In 2025, that decade-long partnership came to an end. But instead of moving away from gambling entirely, West Ham signed a new deal with BoyleSports. While the switch ended an era, it showed how deep the club’s ties to the betting industry remained. Even with increasing scrutiny around gambling sponsorships, the club chose to stay within the same space, simply changing brands.

Lucas Paquetá in the frame. Source: The Athletic

This decision came at a time when West Ham was already under a spotlight. In 2024, midfielder Lucas Paquetá was charged by the FA for allegedly influencing betting markets by intentionally getting booked in matches. The accusations centered on four specific games between 2022 and 2023, and although the most serious charges of spot-fixing were later dropped, Paquetá was still found guilty of failing to comply with the investigation process. The case drew widespread media attention and sparked debate about the close relationship between football, players, and betting companies.

The situation raised tough questions. If a club is funded by gambling money, and one of its own players is being investigated for betting breaches, can the system really regulate itself fairly? Commentators and journalists also questioned how these betting patterns were tracked, whether clubs were doing enough to monitor risks, and whether sponsors had access to data that should remain protected.

Public opinion began to shift too. Some West Ham fans expressed concern, not necessarily because the club had a gambling sponsor, but because they replaced one with another without any signs of change. For many, the decision felt like a missed opportunity to move in a new direction. While not every supporter is against gambling partnerships, the growing presence of betting in football, especially during a time of controversy, left a bitter taste.

The West Ham case highlights the tension that now defines football’s relationship with gambling. On one side, clubs benefit from long-term loyalty, stable income, and commercial consistency. On the other, they face growing pressure to put values ahead of short-term deals. For West Ham, loyalty to a sponsor eventually turned into a potential liability. And in a time when the Premier League is preparing to phase out front-of-shirt gambling sponsors, clubs are under more pressure than ever to think about what kind of partnerships they want to carry into the future.

Is This Just a Premier League Problem?

While the Premier League is often the most talked-about when it comes to gambling sponsorship, the issue stretches far beyond English football. Across Europe, leagues have taken very different approaches to gambling regulation, creating a patchwork of rules, policies, and enforcement. Some countries have already acted, while others are still deciding how to respond.

In Italy, the government introduced the Dignity Decree in 2018, a law that banned all gambling-related advertising in sport. That includes shirt sponsorships, stadium ads, and digital promotions. On paper, Serie A clubs should have no connection to betting brands at all. But in practice, many still do. Most of Italy’s top-flight clubs continue to partner with gambling companies that are based outside the country and aim their products at Asian audiences. These deals are often not promoted publicly in Italy, and in many cases, the sponsors are hidden from club websites entirely.

Source: UEFA: The European Club Finance and Investment Landscape, 2024

Spain has also moved toward stronger restrictions. In 2020, the Spanish government introduced rules that severely limited when and how gambling companies could advertise through football. These laws include time restrictions for TV ads and a ban on betting sponsors appearing on shirts in youth competitions. As a result, La Liga has seen a noticeable drop in front-of-shirt gambling deals, although some clubs still maintain partnerships that operate more quietly through digital or international channels.

Outside of Europe, the situation becomes even more complex. In countries like Nigeria and India, betting and crypto sponsorships are filling a financial gap in underfunded domestic leagues. In Nigeria, for example, the top division struggles with poor gate revenue, limited media rights, and minimal sponsorship. Out of twenty teams in the Premier Football League, eight have no shirt sponsor at all, while five are backed by gambling brands. Some of these include companies banned in other countries, such as 1XBet and Stake. With around 60 million Nigerians estimated to bet regularly, the betting market is vast, even though local clubs see little benefit from that scale.

Roma Stars, champions of the Nigeria Premier League 24-25, are sponsored by Bet9ja, an online bookmaker company. Source: NurPhoto/Getty Images

One of the most concerning trends is the growing overlap between gambling sponsors and crypto companies. Some shirt sponsors, such as BC.Game (Leicester City) and Rollbit (Southampton), do not just offer betting, they operate as crypto casinos or exchanges as well. In BC.Game’s case, the company was declared bankrupt in Curaçao and shut down its UK platform, yet it continued sponsoring a Premier League team. Rollbit openly markets itself as a “crypto and NFT casino.”

This blurring of boundaries makes regulation even harder. Platforms like 1XBet, which are banned or blacklisted in several major markets, have launched crypto-only gambling sites such as 1XBit. Many illegal or grey-market operators now rely on cryptocurrency for payments, making transactions harder to trace. International observers have raised serious concerns about the potential for money laundering, especially as crypto betting platforms often operate in countries with weak enforcement.

Share of football clubs with at least one betting, crypto, or crypto betting partner across major football leagues. Source: BBC

Across nine major leagues, researchers have found more than 170 active partnerships between football clubs and crypto or gambling brands. Over 70 of these are with companies that double as both crypto exchanges and betting platforms. UEFA’s own data supports these trends, noting that “betting and gambling” is the leading sector in shirt sponsorship across European football, topping the charts in nine of the twenty biggest leagues.

What all this shows is that football’s relationship with gambling is no longer just about logos on shirts. It now includes complex global partnerships. And while some leagues are beginning to step away from gambling promotion, others are diving in deeper.

The Upcoming Ban

For many teams, especially those outside the top six, gambling sponsors have been among their most valuable commercial partners. In some cases, these deals have brought in tens of millions of pounds per season. Finding replacements of that size will not be easy.

Some clubs are already looking at alternatives. One option is to double down on overseas sponsors, particularly brands targeting fans in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These markets are growing fast, and international exposure is something the Premier League offers better than any other league in the world. For these sponsors, the front of the shirt is more than just an advertising space — it is a signal of legitimacy and global ambition.

Another path could involve a bigger push into crypto and digital assets, despite growing concerns about transparency and volatility in that sector. In recent seasons, several Premier League clubs have already signed deals with crypto-based platforms, including exchanges and NFT casinos. While the industry has taken hits, including bankruptcies and legal challenges, it still offers high-risk, high-reward opportunities for clubs willing to take a chance.

There is also talk of pivoting back to traditional sectors, such as finance, tech, e-commerce, or travel, but these industries do not always offer the same money as betting or crypto. For clubs operating on tight budgets, especially those newly promoted or stuck in mid-table, the financial gap could be hard to close.

The risk is that some clubs may simply look for ways to stay within the rules while continuing relationships that are functionally the same. Sleeve sponsorships might become more prominent. Regional deals that are only visible to overseas viewers could take the place of public-facing UK partnerships. In that scenario, the change would be more cosmetic than structural.

Is Football’s Relationship with Gambling Too Close to Quit?

It’s been a long journey from the clean shirts of 1992 to the sponsor-saturated kits we see today. What began with banks, tech firms, and brewers slowly gave way to bookmakers, crypto casinos, and offshore platforms that often feel more shadowy than supportive. In just a few decades, gambling has gone from being completely absent in football to becoming one of its most powerful commercial forces.

The reasons are understandable. Clubs need revenue. The sport is more expensive to run than ever, and every edge counts, especially for teams outside the elite few with global fanbases and massive TV deals. Gambling companies have been willing to spend big, and in many cases, they’ve filled a financial gap that no one else wanted to touch.

But there’s a price that comes with that money. As betting logos filled shirts, LED boards, and online feeds, the game’s social impact became harder to ignore. Younger fans now grow up seeing gambling as part of the matchday experience. Meanwhile, addiction rates, blurred regulations, and hidden international deals raise serious questions about where the line should be drawn and who is drawing it.

As we look ahead to the Premier League’s 2026 front-of-shirt ban, one thing is clear: removing logos is only the start. What comes next will matter more. Will clubs continue to quietly shift toward crypto betting and overseas partnerships? Or will they take this opportunity to build more transparent, ethical, and sustainable commercial models?

The truth is, football’s relationship with gambling is complicated. It’s not just about bad actors or greedy clubs. It’s about a global industry that has evolved faster than the rules meant to keep it in check. The solution isn’t a single ban or one big gesture, it’s a commitment to smarter regulation, more open partnerships, and a serious look at who the sport is really serving.

What Do You Think? Do you think the Premier League’s ban will make a real difference, or is it just for show? Should football cut ties with the gambling industry completely, or is there a responsible way forward?

Drop your thoughts in the comments, share this with someone who follows the sport as closely as you do, and let’s keep the conversation going. Because if football is truly the world’s game, then we should all have a say in what it stands for.

By Zenith Rathod

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