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

Six Premier League clubs have been caught offside with breaches of new regulations designed to shield fans from gambling-related harm, according to the Mirror. In a landmark move last July, the Premier League joined forces with the EFL, FA, and Women's Super League to introduce more stringent rules on gambling sponsorships within the beautiful game.

The agreement includes a ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship in the Premier League starting from the summer of 2026. Despite this future ban, numerous clubs are still pocketing profits from such deals.

This season, several teams – including Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, West Ham, and Wolves – have sports gambling company logos on their matchday kits.

A large portion of these sponsors are relatively unknown brands with a focus on the Asian betting market. While current regulations permit these sponsorships, clubs were expected to implement measures to safeguard children and others at risk from gambling temptations.

This includes prohibiting gambling sponsors on replica children's kits and ensuring that adult fans also have the option to purchase replica shirts without the gambling logos. The guidelines clearly 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."

After a Pitch Inspection probe, it's been revealed that six Premier League clubs – Aston Villa (Betano), Brentford (Hollywood Bets), Everton (Stake.com), Fulham (SBOTOP), Nottingham Forest (Kaiyun) and Southampton (Rollbit) – currently don't sell adult replica kits without gambling sponsors. The Premier League refused to comment when Mirror Football reached out for a comment.

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The Big Step, an anti-gambling sponsorship campaign group, said: "This is yet more evidence that football can't be trusted on gambling – it's time for the government to end this nonsense."

Clubs are also under fire for downplaying the true nature of their sponsors' operations. Nottingham Forest's sponsor Kaiyun, lacking a UK website, is actually a betting firm, but this wasn't mentioned in the club's August 2023 press release.

Kaiyun's Forest sponsorship targets the Chinese betting market, using Mandarin for appeal. Despite betting being illegal in China, Kaiyun operates through a 'white label' deal with TGP Europe Limited based in the Isle of Man.

In a similar vein, anticipating potential fan backlash, Southampton described Rollbit – openly a 'crypto and NFT casino' – as an 'innovator in the world of online gaming' in their summer announcement. The Mirror state that betting companies offer roughly double the sponsorship money compared to other industries for Premier League club shirt deals.

In July, the Premier League stated its intention "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". Additionally, it highlighted that it was the first UK sports league to voluntarily commit to removing gambling sponsorship, a move taken voluntarily as the first UK sports league to do so.

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