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The Premier League has officially kicked off and for the first time in twenty years, none of the twenty clubs have a gambling firm branded across the front of their shirts.
For the previous two seasons, more than half of Premier League clubs have had one gambling company or another as their main shirt sponsor. The companies have ranged from well-known UK bookmakers to crypto casinos which sometimes do not operate in the UK.
This has now come to an end after the clubs voluntarily voted to ban them. However, it is a bit more complex than that.
Will This Have an Impact on Clubs’ Finances?
It has been reported that gambling firms pay 40% more than other industries for the same shirt space and if this is indeed the case then we would expect clubs to feel such a loss in income.
However, Premier League clubs are extremely savvy and they will look for deals of another nature with gambling companies.
Premier League clubs can still feature gambling companies on their shirts, they are just banned as the main sponsor. You will still see them on club training shirts and on shirt sleeves and the value of these sponsorships is going to increase significantly. For example, it is rumoured that Manchester United’s training shirt deal with Betway is worth around £20m.
Furthermore, Betway is partnered with Arsenal and Manchester City too so if you watch any of their matches, you will still see some form of Betway advertising around the stadium. Another gambling firm Betano has struck a deal with Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur.
A quick bit of research shows that 16 of 20 Premier League clubs still have deals with gambling firms in some capacity.
Premier League Clubs cannot exceed £105m in losses over three years under the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules (PR). It is not expected that Premier League clubs will have any financial issues with the ban.
Furthermore, if they expected issues, they probably would not have voted for the ban.
Gambling Sponsorship Moves Elsewhere
The most notable replacements for front of shirt sponsors are AI companies and crypto companies, the latter of which have been described as “gambling with a small G” by sports journalist Kieran Maguire.
Many of these crypto firms are completely unregulated in the United Kingdom (Stake) and some have shady pasts.
A lot of these crypto firms also have their own casino sites too where gambling is available using cryptocurrency.
According to analyst Stephen Cummings from the casino comparison website Slotshawk.com, this ban will simply open up new ways in which gambling firms and football clubs can work together and it will also allow football clubs to explore other avenues of opportunity, particularly what AI companies can offer, he told us:
“Gambling firms have been expecting this for a while and considering the clubs themselves voted for the ban, you can certainly expect that they are both well-prepared for what the future might hold.
“AI companies and the usual crypto firms have already stepped in where gambling companies have been forced out, but that certainly has not meant that gambling firms will no longer be around Premier League football, quite the opposite.
“Sleeve sponsorships, training shirt sponsors, advertisement boards and television adverts will still be full of gambling sponsors and don’t forget your favourite football podcasts and shows - I am thinking of one in particular which is heavily sponsored by SkyBet.
“Money from gambling companies remains a huge part of English football and that will continue into the new season and beyond.”
However, according to TheSponsor, the real impact of the gambling has not been a collapse in value, but a collapse in demand as the pool of sponsors will to spend significant amounts on shirt sponsorship has shrunk dramatically.
Should Clubs Brace Themselves Financially?
Not yet. Before gambling sponsorships, Premier League clubs primarily relied on sponsorship deals courtesy of alcohol brands. Simply put, the reach of the Premier League is so great that we expect other industries to fill the void. Indeed, we can already see this through AI and crypto companies.
In addition, both Spain and Italy banned gambling shirt sponsorships in their own leagues in 2021 and 2018 respectively and both countries saw their leagues competitive earnings baseline grow.
As we have mentioned previously, the clubs themselves voted for this ban - they would not have done so if they knew that their finances would shrink.
