How Will Next Season’s Ban On Gambling Shirt Sponsorship Impact The Premier League?

Many people believe that the English Premier League is the world’s very best national league, eclipsing even Serie A, La Liga and the Bundesliga.

It certainly attracts many of the best players to its famous “big six” teams of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool.  It’s also a league with a truly international fanbase, many of who actively look for form and match predictions every week during the season.

But, despite all this, many clubs operate on a financial knife edge caused by the huge wages players can command as well as debt accrued in building and developing stadiums to be fit for the 21st century.

Now there’s another threat to many clubs’ incomes that’s set to become reality in the 2026-27 season. This is when a ban for betting companies using shirt fronts for their sponsorship comes into force.

Currently there are no less than eleven of the Premier League’s 20 teams that have betting companies of some kind who are allowed to emblazon their logo all over the shirts of players, as well as on the highly lucrative replica shirts that fans pay ever-increasing amounts to buy.

The impact on clubs

It’s long been argued that the biggest clubs in the league operate on a different plane from others with not quite so much financial clout behind them.

So it’s significant that it’s mainly the effectively second-tier clubs who are most likely to suffer the consequences of the ban. This includes teams like Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Nottingham Forest. With smaller capacity stadiums and fewer replica kits sold they rely more heavily on sponsorship deals for income.

The nature of the market, and as a reflection of the boom in business for betting operators, has also meant that they have been prepared to pay very handsomely for sponsorship rights.

This is going to have the knock on effect that there will be less money available both for players’ wages and for transfer fees to bring in new talent. So it’s highly possible that players may choose to move on to clubs, not necessarily just in England, who have the money to pay them what they believe they are worth.

As a double-whammy, there will be less money in the kitty to buy in new players to replace them. So the gulf between the top teams and the rest could be set to become even wider still.

Other countries’ experience

A number of other countries have already instituted a similar ban, with some bringing in more stringent rules around all aspects of gambling advertising. For example, in Canada it is no longer allowed to use celebrities or sports people in advertising for sportsbooks. However, online casinos in Canada are still thriving according to Casino.ca, so it begs the question, are large sponsorship deals worth it?

Across Europe, leagues have been faster to either ban completely, or severely restrict, betting operators from being sponsors of clubs. Serie A in Italy and La Liga in Spain have all but totally banned sponsorship. Meanwhile France’s Ligue 1 and Germany’s Bundesliga each have just one team with a betting sponsor.

These restrictions don’t seem to have had a major effect on the European teams involved, but that’s not to say the results will be the same for Premier League clubs when the ban comes into force in 2026.

Seeking alternatives

It’s likely that they will need to actively seek different ways to raise the revenue lost. The most obvious way to do this will be to seek and secure sponsors from other sectors. However, it’s unlikely that any replacement sponsors will be willing to pay the high sums that betting operators have been prepared to offer.

Some estimate suggest that the sponsorship money could be cut by almost 40%. Either way it looks like it set to become a buyer’s market instead of the seller’s one that prevailed when these deals were first set up.

So it’s going to be a question of attracting both national and international brands who want to gain exposure through football, but many of these already have exclusive sponsorship agreements in place.

It’s also been suggested that cryptocurrency exchanges could be a rich possible seam for opportunities, albeit one that could soon see greater regulation being introduced around their promotion.

But whether they will provide at least a temporary stopgap for the affected clubs very much remains to be seen.