How Many Football Teams Are Sponsored by Gambling Companies?

Gambling and football have a long history together, with football one of the first sports that could be bet on in the UK. We have come a long way since the first legal betting shops of the 1960s but even today, those people who do not place their first-ever bet on the Grand National are more than likely to place it on a game of football. Football is by far the most popular sport with punters, with 47% of UK bets going on the beautiful game.

Over the past five to ten years we have seen the links between football and gambling companies become ever stronger. There are more and more adverts for bookies and betting sites shown during football games, and a huge number of clubs are sponsored by bookies, online casinos and other gambling companies. Many have asked whether things have gone too far in this regard but just how many football teams are sponsored by gambling companies?

English Teams Sponsored by Gambling Companies

When we look at the relationship between football clubs and betting companies, the most obvious place to start is the most visible: the main shirt sponsor. The name emblazoned on a side’s playing kit is the most lucrative deal a club will sign (with the possible exception of deals for stadia and training grounds).

A lot of the recent controversy about football being “in bed” with the gambling industry has centred on shirt sponsorship. But how many clubs are sponsored in this way by gambling companies? Here we look at the top two tiers of English football and have included all major forms of gambling, such as sports betting, casinos, poker sites, bingo companies, lotteries and anything else relevant (Football Index, we’re looking at you… but we don’t quite know what to call you!).

As ever, this information is subject to change and is correct at the time of writing (in January 2021). Let us start with the Premier League. Of the 20 sides, 8 have betting firms as their main shirt sponsor. These can be seen in the table below.

Paddy Power’s ‘Save Our Shirt’ Campaign

Last of all, there is Huddersfield Town. In the 2019-20 season, they were involved in a major publicity stunt with Paddy Power. This saw them unveil a rather horrendous Paddy Power-sponsored kit as a spoof before revealing an old-school, sponsorless shirt that the Irish bookmaker had “unsponsored” as a dig at their rivals. Their “Save Our Shirt” campaign argued that “football shirts aren’t billboards” and Huddersfield’s plain kit was certainly much-loved by purists.

Rather confusingly though, the West Yorkshire side again have no shirt sponsor for the 2020-21 campaign but this time it is not down to Paddy, who do not sponsor, unsponsor (or anything else) the kit! Anyway, our first point is this: we’ve done our best but if you disagree with our numbers, let us know! The second point is that the 2020-21 season definitely saw a reduction in the number of clubs (in England’s top two tiers at any rate) who had a gambling company as their primary shirt sponsor.

Trends in Sponsorship

The table below is based on information taken from an excellent article from the local Reading site, Berkshire Live (concerning Casumo’s sponsorship of the Royals). Whilst their figures for the current campaign differ very slightly from ours, we can clearly see how gambling shirt sponsorship has changed.

Will Gambling Companies Be Banned from Shirt Sponsorship?

As we have said, tobacco advertising is now totally banned in the UK and most parts of the world, with alcohol also heavily restricted. Will gambling be next? As we have discussed, the idea that football and gambling were too closely linked has gathered momentum over the past few years.

The huge number of shirt sponsorship deals in the 2019-20 season was certainly a catalyst but it was far from the only issue. Sadly, it is hardly a new phenomenon but, in recent years ,there have been lots of media reports of footballers suffering from gambling addiction. In addition, there are even sadder reports about people, often though not always relatively young men, taking their own lives as a response to addiction and the debts that can accrue due to it.

Critics have argued that it is impossible for football to simultaneously take so much money from the gambling industry and maintain a message that footballers should not be allowed to gamble. Joey Barton, who was banned for 18 months in 2017 for betting on football, claimed that 50% of pro footballers bet on matches. He also stated that gambling was “culturally ingrained” and questioned how the authorities could deliver such a harsh punishment to him, saying, “My point to the FA was, how can they be so stringent when they have an official gambling partner?”.

Another major point of concern is how children may be influenced by the high exposure gambling gets and the way football is so frequently seen alongside gambling. Those who oppose gambling advertisement and sponsorship argue that such arrangements promote gambling to children or at the very least legitimise it.

This is far from a view that everyone accepts but, rightly or wrongly, an end to such sponsorship deals does seem to be more a case of when than if. On the 26th of January, 2021, the Telegraph reported that “Boris Johnson is increasingly likely to ban gambling firm sponsors on football shirts by the autumn amid rising unease in Government over betting addiction”.

Carolyn Harris, a Labour MP and prominent member of the cross-party group on gambling harm said, “It’s about common sense prevailing over greed, because these football clubs have alternative ways to be funded.” She said she was confident such a ban would come into force, whilst various surveys suggest a good proportion of fans would support it.

Industry experts estimate the hit to teams in the top two divisions would be over £100m and given many clubs, especially in the Championship, are said to be struggling financially due to the lack of ticket sales, that would be a huge blow. What’s more, with the general state of the economy highly uncertain due to both Brexit and the pandemic, exactly who would fill that £100m void is far from clear.

Other Football Sponsorship by Gambling Companies

Whilst much of the attention of the media has been on the primary shirt sponsors, there are several other ways in which football clubs receive money from gambling companies. The most closely related to the main sponsorship is the secondary sponsors now permitted on sleeves. Aston Villa are primarily sponsored by online car retailer Cazoo (as are Everton) but their sleeve is given over to LT, an Asian bookmaker. Similarly, West Brom have 12Bet on their sleeves and various other clubs both in the UK and abroad have similar arrangements.

Football is a heavily monetised business these days (if only it could still be classed as a sport!) and many clubs have separate secondary sponsors who, for example, may have their name on training kits. One example of this relevant here, and probably the biggest such betting-related sponsorship deal, is Liverpool’s partnership with BetVictor. Announced in 2016, this meant BetVictor were “one of the club’s principal partners, as well as the official global online betting partner”.

In addition to such kit-based deals, almost all clubs in the top two divisions and some in the lower leagues two have an “official betting partner”. In some instances, it is not unusual to see a club sponsored by one betting site, have an official betting partner and have a third agreement with another casino or bookie as some sort of lower-tier partner. And then, of course, there is pitchside advertising, which typically centres on the main sponsor and other key partners but may also feature other gambling companies, as well.

All in all, it is certainly a heady mix of gambling sponsorship and money in football. Whether you think it is good or bad, there is no doubt that some ties between the two industries will remain. With the growing probability of a shirt sponsorship ban, we may see clubs and bookmakers becoming more inventive. But if all ties are severed, there were certainly be a huge financial hole for clubs to fill.