Changes to sports sponsorship may be coming to the United Kingdom. This could change how we perceive and view betting within UK sport.
Watch a football game, or even a horse racing meeting or rugby match, and it’s hard to avoid a gambling ad. They appear on physical branding, and pop up between post-event interviews and features. In many cases, they even adorn the outfits of players. Yet changes to who can take up these spaces may be afoot, with offshore operators being barred from taking sponsorship opportunities in the UK. This has the potential to reshape betting visibility in the country.
Why sponsorship shapes betting visibility
Sports sponsorship has been a cornerstone of marketing for gambling companies for some time. It is a prominent route through which betting brands appear around clubs, leagues, venues and events. In doing so, they build brand loyalty, aligning themselves with the demographics and values of the team or event itself. It is also a great reminder during events of the extra level that placing a soccer bet can bring to a game.
Football itself is an extremely useful setting due to its general perception by the public. It is a global sport, with many teams in the EPL being worldwide brands. Yet many also still hold an association with locality, being focal points and a sense of pride for towns and cities in the UK. This provides the ideal situation to build a relationship between sports betting and commercial visibility.
The proposed licensing boundary
In July 2026, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in the United Kingdom launched a proposal to criminalise arrangements that enter into or facilitate sports sponsorship with operators who do not have a licence from the Gambling Commission. This move is primarily aimed at overseas and offshore operators, who have already gained a foothold in the UK market. Many of them have been advertising through professional football clubs, despite their services being outlawed in the United Kingdom.
Currently, rules allow businesses to work with unlicensed operators, as long as sites are geo-blocked. Yet the argument is that they can be accessed by anyone with a VPN. Three core objectives have been highlighted by the DCMS. These include strengthening consumer protection, ensuring that advertising space is reserved for operators subject to a license, and reducing money‑laundering risks.
Football’s role in the discussion
Levels of sponsorship by offshore gambling companies are high in the United Kingdom’s EPL. As many of these companies have a wide reach, with generous purses, omitting them from sponsorship could impact revenue. Yet others will argue that with the growth of the league into a global force, many other companies will surely be willing to plug that gap.
Football has become central to the debate on sports betting visibility because of the amount of money gambling companies have poured into the sport. This has been on stadium advertising boards, pitchside and elsewhere, shirt sponsorships and even branding for events like post-match interviews. Clubs often rely on these sponsorships to boost revenue. This is vital for clubs that have just come up for promotion and don’t have the global visibility of Manchester City and Arsenal-level teams.
What could new partnerships look like?
If these changes did come to fruition, it would mean an overhaul of sponsorship in the United Kingdom. While clubs and offshore gambling companies may make a furore over this, it may not make much of an impact. The UK currently has myriad gambling companies, all backed by larger bodies, that will rush to take their place. Never forget this is one of the biggest sporting leagues in the world, with a global reach of 212 territories and broadcasts to 643 million homes.
The league has already had to adapt. This season, it has voted to remove gambling sponsorship from shirt fronts. Over the last two seasons, 11 of the 20 clubs have had gambling companies front and centre of their shirts. This left eight of the Premier League clubs looking for a shirt sponsor for the coming season.
Some have struggled, but not through a lack of offers. Kieran Maguire is the professor of football finance at the University of Liverpool. Speaking to the BBC, he noted that it could be down to clubs having greater expectations from their commercial deals, and a recent saturation of the market now that gambling companies have been banned from the front of shirts. He noted that “This is mainly due to the club’s perception of its worth not being matched by that of sponsors themselves and the removal of gambling sponsors, which has reduced supply.”
This could easily happen once again. With offshore companies leaving the market, and companies expecting more, we may actually see less sponsorship all round for a short period. Yet this gap will be plugged. Think back to years before gambling sponsorship was allowed, when companies like Sharp and JVC adorned shirts, as well as local businesses. All of this could provide a boost for localisation and give a platform to UK companies, betting-related or otherwise.