Six Premier League clubs found to be breaking new rules around gambling sponsorship

Six Premier League clubs have been caught out for failing to adhere to new rules designed to shield fans from the potential dangers of gambling. The regulations, which were tightened in July by the Premier League, EFL, FA, and Women's Super League, are set to culminate in a ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship by the summer of 2026.

Despite this looming restriction, many clubs are still profiting from such deals. This season, no fewer than 11 top-flight teams – including Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, West Ham, and Wolves – sport gambling company logos prominently on their matchday shirts. A significant number of these sponsors are relatively unknown brands with a focus on the Asian betting market.

While current guidelines permit these sponsorships, clubs were expected to implement measures to safeguard children and others at risk from gambling exposure. This includes prohibiting gambling sponsors on replica children's kits and ensuring that adult-sized shirts without the gambling logos are available for purchase.

The official rules state: "Ensuring that mechanisms exist to enable supporters to have the ability to purchase adult replica kits that do not include gambling sponsorship logos, in the event that they are not otherwise available for purchase.", reports the Mirror.

After a review by the Pitch Inspection, it has emerged that six clubs – Aston Villa (Betano), Brentford (Hollywood Bets), Everton (Stake.com), Fulham (SBOTOP), Nottingham Forest (Kaiyun) and Southampton (Rollbit) – currently do not provide replica adult kits without gambling sponsors. The Premier League declined to comment when approached by Mirror Football.

In response to these findings, The Big Step, an organisation advocating for the removal of gambling sponsorship in football, stated: "This is yet more evidence that football can't be trusted on gambling – it's time for the government to end this nonsense."

The clubs have also faced criticism for not being transparent about the nature of their sponsors' businesses. For example, Nottingham Forest's sponsor Kaiyun, which lacks a UK website, is a betting company; however, the club's press release in August 2023 did not reference betting.

Kaiyun's sponsorship aims to target the Chinese betting market in Mandarin. Although betting is illegal in China, Kaiyun uses a "white label" agreement with TGP Europe Limited, based in the Isle of Man, to gain exposure.

Southampton, anticipating potential pushback from fans, described Rollbit – openly a "crypto and NFT casino" – as an "innovator in the world of online gaming" in its summer announcement. It is understood that betting companies offer approximately double the sponsorship fees compared to other types of sponsors for Premier League clubs.

In July, the Premier League expressed its commitment to social responsibility in gambling sponsorships, aiming "to ensure that gambling sponsorships are delivered in a socially responsible way by being designed to limit the reach to children and those at risk of gambling related harm". It also highlighted its pioneering stance as the first UK sports league to voluntarily agree to eliminate gambling sponsorship.