Reports suggest that many Premier League clubs are still scrambling to secure sponsors for next season as the front-of-shirt ban on gambling sponsors comes into force – evolving the relationship between football and gambling into a new regulatory framework.
According to The Guardian, football executives estimate that top-flight sides are facing an £80m shirt sponsor shortfall amid the ban, as they are forced to agree cut-price deals with other industries ahead of the season-opener in August.
While the ban appears to be a start, visibility isn’t limited to shirt sleeves, training wear or the advertising hoardings that surround pitches, leading to concerns that betting brands, especially those unlicensed in the UK, will remain prominent across Premier League coverage.
Discrepancies between the treatment of the unlicensed sector and the regulated sector have been slammed as unfair, with pressure intensifying on the government to thwart the unregulated operators.
In February, the UK government announced a consultation on banning unlicensed gambling sports sponsorships, arguing that it is not right that companies can ‘raise their profile and potentially draw fans towards sites that don’t meet our regulatory standards’.
In response, Entain’s CEO, Stella David, demanded an immediate ban on unlicensed gambling advertising in the Premier League, arguing that the competition is currently complicit in the rise of the black market.
Given the squeeze being placed on licensed operators through tax rises on online gaming and betting, and the concern over black market growth that comes with this, it is understandable that the leader of one of the industry’s largest operators vented their frustrations, according to SBC’s Content Director, Martyn Elliott.
Speaking on the iGaming Expert podcast, he said: “The regulated operators should be vocal about this stuff. It costs a lot of money to be regulated, whether that is the licence fee itself, the huge number of compliance professionals that a lot of these companies have to employ to meet all the requirements and taxation.
“It should be pointed out that it’s unfair. It should be illegal for the people who are not paying the taxes, not paying the licence fees, and so on, to have that visibility in the marketplace.
“I think [Entain] is great for standing up for it, and as we move into the much higher tax regime, the costs are simply going up for the regulated operator.”
David highlighted what she described as the ‘black market derby’ between Bournemouth and Sunderland, which was taking place on the weekend the statement was made and served as an example of two teams with an unlicensed betting brand as their front-of-shirt sponsor.
Bournemouth currently carry BJ88 as the club’s main sponsor; however, reports suggest that the club has been forced to take a lower figure to replace the firm with the health insurance provider Vitality for next season. Meanwhile, Sunderland’s front-of-shirt sponsor is W88, and it is not yet known which brand will be replacing it next season.
While the issue of these types of sponsorships has been long-running, Ted Menmuir, SBC’s Editor at Large, suggested that a change in attitude from the regulated industry has been brought about by the pressures of stricter regulations and greater taxation, which have not been felt by unlicensed operators.
“I think the regulated sector just got on with marketing, and they knew there were bad sponsorships but just accepted them as being bad sponsorships,” he said.
“I think in terms of everything that’s happened in the last five years, it had to get to this point where enough is enough, and it can’t be where there are rules for the regulated operators versus the operators that are clearly in breach and have no interest whatsoever in being part of the UK’s regulated market.
“I think that we’re kind of returning to ground zero in that relationship between sports betting and football and how it resets from 2027 onwards.”
Looking ahead, both Elliott and Menmuir suggested that crypto companies may offer a lucrative alternative for clubs seeking to replace the income that they will lose from gambling sponsorship.
Although beneficial for the clubs, courting the business of a sector that will not be formally regulated in the UK until October 2027 may give rise to the same concerns for fans.
However, Elliott noted that financial pressures put on Premier League clubs by the rules surrounding financial fair play mean that, at times, teams are forced to take a risk in terms of the partnerships they enter.
He said: “The most important man in a Premier League football club is no longer the manager or the star striker, it’s the Chief Commercial Officer. It’s the guy who’s under pressure to bring in this revenue and enable the clubs to have a chance of success on the pitch that generates more revenue. I don’t blame them for taking the occasional risk on this stuff.”
The shifts brought about by the Premier League’s self-imposed ban, as well as a potentially even stricter mandate from the government, will fundamentally change how gambling companies interact with football. Menmuir expressed his hope that it will force marketers to become more savvy as a means to generate greater return-on-investment for operators.
“It’s not just a case of is my brand on the front of shirts on a Saturday. It’s about engaging communities, creating better content, and actually saying, you know, we recognise that we are with the fans. In the past five years, there have been too many soft sponsorships between betting and football,” he added.
“I really want operators to surprise me with their promotions and the content that they put out. It’s been too kind of sterile in the last couple of years. I really want to see who the winners are in this market, and who’s taking marketing seriously at a time where there’s a real sensitivity about cost control, about how much marketing spend is out there.”
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