Premier league clubs ban gambling shirt sponsors as local scrutiny intensifies
Premier League football clubs in the UK have this week agreed to ban gambling brands from matchday shirts, however, wagering ads will continue to appear pitch-side.
The decision, which was made following consultation with the UK government, has come under fire for its inconsistency, given that gambling brands will still be able to appear on other parts of the kit, and on pitch-side advertising.
Source: Steindy, Wikimedia Commons
The agreement will see gambling sponsors banned from the front of shirts from 2026, yet sleeve sponsorships and side-of-pitch advertising hoardings will still be permitted.
Nielsen provided data to Mumbrella last year showing that the LED advertising boards AFL pitches are the second, behind the NRL sleeve sponsor as the “most valuable piece of advertising real estate in live sports broadcasting”.
Australia’s domestic football league, the A-Leagues, has never included gambling brands on the front of shirts, and has a strong stance on responsible wagering advertising, Mumbrella understands.
Eight out of 20 clubs in the Premier League currently have wagering companies on the front of their shirts, with a further two having sleeve sponsorships.
However, the pervasion of gambling in Australian culture and sport has been a topic of discussion recently, with a Parliamentary inquiry sitting last week.
Speaking with 3AW recently, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said: “I think there is probably too much” gambling on the sport’s broadcast coverage.
“I don’t have a problem that other people do around wagering, I just think the volume is too much. It’s in your face.”
Later speaking to the inquiry into online gambling, McLachlan admitted the organisation receives a cut of gambling turnover on its matches, known as “product fees”.
However, clarifying his earlier comments, McLachlan said did not believe wagering brand advertising was “too much”, but was more concerned about gambling incentives.
“I think this broad discussion needs to be nuanced and that’s why if you look at what we did proactively, there is brand advertising restricted at venues but there are not inducements and the free bets and money back,” he said.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo told the inquiry that the NRL was doing more than legally required to limit gambling advertising, including banning logos from national team jerseys, banning ads from grounds and age-verifying their website audience.
He added that the sporting league was “not seeing qualitative evidence there’s this overwhelming swarm of pressure” for fans to gambling, despite the prolific nature of wagering ads.
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