In April 2023, the Premier League announced that it would introduce a ban on gambling shirt sponsors on club shirts. That ban is set to come into force at the beginning of the 2026-27 season. With two seasons left until the ban takes effect, clubs are not slowly easing off these shirt deals but rather increasing their interest. With deals worth $135.43 million, gambling brands on the front of shirts in the Premier League for the 2024-25 season accounted for over half of the team deals, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s latest report, “The Business of the Premier League 2024-25,” reveals that the gambling industry is linked to 11 of the 19 active Premier League deals this season. This marks a significant increase on the seven deals that were previously on display in the 2023-24 season.
Jake Kemp, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “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.”
The Premier League holds huge global appeal, and this is one of the biggest things for attracting gambling brand interest. League fixtures are regularly shown around the world and are able to reach audiences that other sponsorship opportunities are not able to touch. For many foreign-based brands, it represents an opportunity to reach potential local customers and promote their services, potentially in markets where gambling is tricky to operate in.
There have been seven new deals signed in the Premier League this season, with six of them related to the gambling industry. AFC Bournemouth, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Southampton, and Wolverhampton Wanderers are the teams to sign such deals. These six new deals are estimated to be worth an increase of $39.99 million a year to them collectively.
Kemp concludes: “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 still continue to pull in the biggest deals in the market. The gambling market 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.”
