Sponsors are not only a massive revenue source in football but also a determining factor in the aesthetic of a club’s jerseys and the legacy that may or may not follow.
Being one of the most followed sports leagues in the world, brands go out on a limb to get a spot on the jerseys of Premier League clubs.
In April 2023, the Premier League released an official statement that confirmed that, following discussions with all the clubs in the division, the league would ban gambling sponsors on the front of the club jerseys starting from the 2026-27 season. Currently, eight Premier League clubs have gambling firms as their front-of-matchday-shirt sponsor.
Here’s a list of the eight Premier League clubs who have gambling sponsors as their front-of-matchday-shirt sponsor for the 2022-23 season.
Based in Makati, the Philippines, online gambling company Dafabet was announced as a Principal Partner and the front-of-matchday-shirt sponsor of Bournemouth’s men’s team in June 2022 on a two-year deal.
As per the deal, apart from branding rights, the deal also entails Dafabet contributing to the club’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative by making a “financial donation to the Club’s Community Sports Trust to support projects that help get adults into work”.
The South African betting firm first signed a two-year deal with the Bees as their Official Betting Partner in November 2020 in an attempt to expand into the British market. The deal granted Hollywoodbets back-of-shirt branding rights on the club’s matchday kits, right below the kit number.
In July 2021, Brentford FC extended this partnership in a new two-year agreement to make Hollywoodbets their Official Principal Partner, granting the betting firm front-of-shirt sponsorship rights for their men’s first-team and B-team matchday kits as well as all adult replica shirts.
In January 2022, it was reported that Hollywoodbets had expanded its partnership with Brentford FC to also become the front-of-shirt sponsor for their training and pre-game apparel as well as the feature on the uniform of the technical staff.
The Curaçao-headquartered online crypto casino and sports betting platform was announced as Everton’s principal front-of-matchday-shirt sponsor with the start of the 2022-23 season in June 2022, as part of a “club-record main partner agreement” that marked the most expensive shirt-sponsorship deal in Everton’s history.
The global online betting company was announced as Fulham’s front-of-matchday-shirt sponsor and a Principal Partner in July 2022 in a deal covering both their men’s and women’s first teams and set to run until the end of the 2022-23 season.
Betting company SBOTOP signed a Principal Sponsorship deal with Leeds United in August 2020 in what was considered the largest commercial deal in the club’s history, making SBOTOP the front-of-shirt sponsor of the team’s matchday kits
Chinese sports betting firm Fun88 has been Newcastle United’s principal kit sponsor since 2017 — a deal that has seen Fun88’s logo emblazoned at the front of their matchday and training kits. The two last renewed their partnership in a “long-term” agreement in July 2020 in a deal reportedly worth £6.5 million annually.
Cryptocurrency-based online sports betting platform Sportsbet.io was announced as Southampton’s principal sponsor ahead of the 2020-21 season, in August 2020, after their previous deal with Chinese brand LD Sports was cut short.
Described as a sports content, marketing and entertainment platform in China, LD Sports had signed a club-record three-year deal reportedly worth £7.5 million annually with the Saints in May 2019. It is reported that LD Sports decided to walk away from the deal amidst rising political tensions between China and the UK.
The Sportsbet.io front-of-shit sponsorship was extended in April 2021 in a three-year deal to run until the end of the 2023-24 season, with the club holding the option for their performance-based addons to be paid in Bitcoin.
In September 2022, the two parties jointly opened a fan bar called “Saints Social Club”, which was reportedly funded by “a first-of-its-kind Crypto Fan Fund”.
across the footballing scene. Officially, AIA is Spurs’ Global Principal Partner.
The global online bookmaker has been West Ham’s Principal Partner since February 2015. The deal, initially set to be worth around £20 million over the first three years, was extended first in 2016, then for a further six years in May 2019, with the annual revenue bumped up to £10 million.
Betway’s association with West Ham over the last six years has been a fruitful one, with the former partaking in a lot of fan engagement initiatives — the Betway Academy, Betway Fan Taxi and West Ham Supermarket Sweep, to name a few. However, all’s not rosy for the two parties, as in 2020 Betway was handed a record £11.6m fine for a series of social responsibility and money laundering failings.
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