EFL and Scottish clubs free to retain betting sponsors after government ruling

English Football League (EFL) and Scottish clubs will be free to retain shirt sponsorship deals with betting companies after the UK Government avoided extending the ban introduced by the Premier League.

No top-flight clubs in England will be allowed to carry the name of a gambling firm on the front of shirts from the 2026-27 season after the Premier League voluntarily voted to phase out a sector that currently sponsors eight different clubs in deals worth £60 million a season.

Sleeve sponsorships and pitchside advertising will still be permitted but the UK Government has today confirmed that other leagues will not be asked to follow the Premier League’s lead.

The long-awaited white paper detailing reform to gambling laws was published this morning and accepted the “welcome” changes introduced by the Premier League this month as a means of helping “to break the association children may form between gambling brands and their role models.”

However, no restrictions will be placed upon clubs playing below the Premier League or the EFL itself, whose three leagues have been sponsored by Skybet since 2013. Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers, who both have long-standing partnerships with gambling companies, will also be allowed to continue those commercial arrangements.

“I met the Premier League and certainly encouraged them to take this stance because evidence does show to us that it’s primarily Premier League players that children will idolise,” said gambling minister Stuart Andrew.

“That’s why we encouraged them to do this. It’s about this balance of proportionality, recognising that there is significant sponsorship that some of the EFL clubs will have.

“We have this balance of trying to ensure that in trying to deal with one issue, we don’t cause an unintended consequence for another. This isn’t the end of it, it’s a continual dialogue.”

A new code of conduct for sponsorship is to be introduced, preventing gambling advertising around family areas of a stadium, but MPs from both major political parties voiced their disappointment as Lucy Frazer, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, presented the Gambling Act Review to the House of Commons.

“For many, football is the hook,” said Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield Central. “In the action they took, the Premier League recognised that advertising is harmful. A front-of-shirt ban isn’t enough. Fans are exposed, on average, to 700 ads at every Premier League game. Other countries have acted so will the secretary of state think again?

The call for comprehensive action won’t stop.”

“If we’re taking companies off the front of shirts of the EPL teams, what happens to the kids that follow a Championship team or an SPL team in Scotland?” asked Ronnie Cowan of the Scottish National Party.

“Those children are still going to be exposed to those adverts yet we’re acknowledging that adverts do harm. If adverts do harm then they’ve all got to go. All shirts, all around the stadium and pitch, all around the TV and radio.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said: “I’m a season ticket holder at Tottenham and they don’t have a betting company but many do.

“Children wear these things and go to school in them sometimes. They advertise these gambling companies on their shirts. I would say that when you consult on this to come back with a decision that we need to take control of this.”

The government estimates that £190million is generated through gambling sponsorships in sport, with £110million of that going to either the Premier League or EFL.

Rick Parry, the EFL chairman, had previously warned that a ban on gambling advertising would be financially damaging, with six Championship clubs currently have a betting company as their front-of-shirt sponsors.

Birmingham City (Boylesports), Middlesbrough (Unibet), Stoke City (Bet365), Sunderland (Spreadex) and Watford (Stake) all have commercial partnerships with the gambling industry, along with Coventry City, whose owner Doug King last month said their current arrangement with Boylesports will cease this summer.

No football clubs in Italy and Spain are permitted to carry the branding of a gambling company after stringent rules were introduced in the last three years.