Manchester United looks set to deepen its ties to the gambling industry as a lucrative deal with Betway accelerates the relationship between football and gambling into a new era.
Reports have emerged this week of a £20m trainingwear sponsorship deal with Betway, in probably the most landmark deal following the Premier League’s voluntary front-of-shirt sponsorship ban.
Though the Daily Mail reported the agreement would be one of the most lucrative of its kind in world football, it does replace a similarly valued partnership with the Blockchain firm Tezos, which ended in June 2025 and was reported to be worth £25m each year.
Some had previously anticipated that the cost of alternative sponsorships would inflate as a result of the ban. However, this latest deal would indicate that market value is set to remain at what it was previously and is largely reliant on a club’s profile.
Manchester United also already has agreements with a number of betting companies, and the deal only deepens the club’s ties to the industry.
Parimatch signed a multi-year partnership in August 2025 to become the club’s betting partner for Asia and MENA regions.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Betfred are also listed as regional partners on Manchester United’s website.
With a reported £80m sponsorship black hole being left by the front-of-shirt ban, clubs are now looking to alternative ways that they can benefit from betting’s considerable market spend.
Fellow Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur has carried BetMGM as its trainingwear sponsor for a number of years, while restrictions do not apply to other areas such as shirt sleeves and sponsor hoardings.
Though the prevailing logic is that the front of shirt sponsor is the most prominent, the new age of social media means that players are arguably seen more often in trainingwear compared to their playing kits.
Teams around the world pump out hours of content each day from the training ground across social media. Meanwhile, Manchester United players warming up before and during games will undoubtedly display the Betway logo when captured by TV cameras.
The scale of the deal is unique to a club the size of Manchester United, who remain one of the most recognisable brands worldwide despite a torrid few seasons on the pitch.
Social media content and training videos from Manchester United will be seen millions of times over, adding major value to the Betway deal.
In comparison, Tottenham’s deal with BetMGM is rumoured to be worth £10m. Meanwhile, Liverpool’s contract with AXA is also valued at over £20m annually; however, this includes naming rights for the club’s training ground as well as branding on training kit.
Moving down the table, less high-profile clubs will not be able to command these sorts of fees.
However, there is no doubt that similar deals are being weighed up with the gambling industry to mitigate the impact of the ban and bring in much-needed revenue.
On the prospect of sleeve sponsorship, Russel Yershon, Director at Connecting Brands, told Insider Sport: “The natural fit for betting operators will be to move their branding to the sleeve of Premier League clubs. This commercial asset is available for betting operators, and I would imagine up to half of the Premier League clubs will look to have a betting brand on their sleeve.”
As a result, the move poses the question of whether the league’s ban is simply a token gesture that will shift gambling brands to other aspects, such as training wear, or will have a real impact on the sector’s visibility throughout the Premier League.
