Reduction In Premier League Betting Sponsors For 2021-22

Increasingly, football clubs, particularly those in the Premier League, are distancing themselves from the betting industry.

There are many reasons for this, from growing social pressure, fan rebellion and potential changes to the law.

Just as once upon a time, Premier League clubs had lager and beer sponsors which became unfashionable and were deemed unsuitable for a family game, that now too appears to be happening for the gambling industry which just two years ago was by far and away the number one industry sponsor.

The New Tobacco Industry

Beer after all is a vice that, like gambling, impacts on the poorest in society, many of which are heavily influenced by football.

There was a time when sports, not so much football, but other sports were commonly sponsored by tobacco companies and gambling, it seems, is the new tobacco or alcohol industry and is increasingly frowned upon.

Instead, automotive and tire industries and those from the financial sectors are moving in to fill the void.

This can be witnessed on the newly promoted Norwich shirt which, once carried the LeoVegas and Dafabet brands, and will carry the local luxury car brand Lotus this coming season, having replaced Asian online sportsbook BK8 who saw their contract, which was only signed this year, cancelled after fan backlash against the deal.

That isn’t to say that football and gambling have divorced entirely.

Gambling, which continues to sign up ex-pros as tipsters, still provides the most sponsors in football, but its market share is unquestionably in decline.

In fact, Premier League clubs held a meeting earlier this year to discuss the future of betting sponsorships after a full ban on all football shirt sponsorships was considered to be the most likely outcome of a review of the 2005 Gambling Act.

On top of this, only last year, a House of Lords committee recommended that gambling firms should be banned from advertising on the kits of sports teams from 2023.

This has caused concern in the lower leagues where finances are already in a critical state following 18 months of covid enforced restrictions.

Rick Parry, chair of the EFL, has forewarned of the disastrous impact to finances if gambling sponsorship, which accounts for some £40 million in EFL revenue, was to no longer be allowed.

Parry told MPs:

“It would be potentially catastrophic if it came in overnight. It would create major difficulties. Phased in over time, frankly clubs would need to find a way to adapt. If any changes were to come in quickly, major problems would arise.”

Premier League Gambling Sponsors 2021-22

Were the ban to go ahead, three quarters of the current Premier League would need to make alternative arrangements in order to remove their association with gambling firms.

Only Liverpool, Chelsea, Brentford, Norwich and Brighton & Hove Albion are not presently associated to any gambling sponsor, although all of them have been in the past.

Interestingly, Brighton’s owner is a professional gambler, making up part of his fortune betting and playing poker and yet his team have no ties to the industry, save for his own online gambling and gaming websites that he seems to keep at a distance.

Many clubs also seem to be circumnavigating the rules by tying themselves in with Asian or African betting partners, sometimes even both, in order to keep this juicy revenue stream alive.

Overseas, English laws do not apply and this way the clubs can still take in money from their favourite industry.

For now, at least.