“Following the ban, gambling logos will still be visible elsewhere on shirts and all around the stadiums, so the effect will be minimal, but it was used by government as evidence of action being taken when in fact the status quo has been maintained.”
The upcoming season, which begins on 15 August, marks the last year clubs can have gambling sponsors on the front of their shirts, having agreed a voluntary ban for the start of the 26/27 season. While it covers front of shirt sponsors, clubs will still be allowed to strike deals for shirt sleeves, pitch-side hoardings and more.
Gambling is linked to anywhere between 117 and 496 suicides in the UK each year, research from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities estimated in 2023.
Clubs are believed to have made £101 million from their deals with gambling shirt sponsors in the 24/25 season, according to GlobalData. The ban could cut the value of shirt sponsorships by 38%, The Sponsor found.
No club in the so-called “Big Six” – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – has a front-of-shirt gambling sponsor. Outside the “Big Six”, just Brighton, Leeds and Newcastle have shirt sponsors not linked to betting – and those deals are linked to the clubs’ ownerships or long-standing stadium sponsors.
Several clubs were warned in May that they face potential prosecution over partnerships with unlicensed brands. Yet their new shirts still feature those brands, though the Gambling Commission tells Big Issue it is down to the clubs to make sure the firms have a license to operate in the UK.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis said the club was working with Bally’s, the company behind Virgin Games, Jackpotjoy and Double Bubble Bingo, “on a number of exciting initiatives”.
The result is shirts not all players can wear. When 15-year-old Jeremy Monga made his debut for Leicester in April 2025, he came onto the pitch wearing a shirt with no sponsor, instead of the team’s BC Game-branded kit.
Annie Ashton, whose husband Luke took his own life in 2021, an incident in which a coroner said Betfair missed opportunities to intervene, said she was saddened that clubs had kept taking money from gambling firms.
“It saddens me that some football clubs have once again decided to both normalise gambling and ignore the devastating damage it causes to many,” she told Big Issue.
“It’s so disappointing that they’ve chosen to line their pockets by partnering with gambling operators and advertising it on their shirt-fronts to millions of their fans including children. It must stop.”
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