Premier League clubs to ban gambling kit sponsors starting 2026
Premier League clubs have joined together to do something towards curtailing gambling addiction in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Today, the Premier League announced that all 20 league clubs have collectively agreed to voluntarily withdraw and subsequently ban the use of gambling sponsors from the fronts of their kits, starting three years from now.
According to the Athletic, the vote was taken and passed Thursday morning in a Premier League team meeting, and that this measure was the only item on the agenda. In a statement, the league noted that this decision was taken after an extensive review of sports betting and its impact on society. The Premier League’s vote comes after Serie A, which banned gambling kit sponsorships in 2019, and La Liga, which did the same in 2021.
The decision will not take effect until the start of the 2026-27 season in order to give clubs with multi-year sponsorship agreements with gambling companies time to phase out their sponsorships and make other arrangements.
Premier League clubs have today collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of clubs’ matchday shirts, becoming the first sports league in the UK to take such a measure voluntarily in order to reduce gambling advertising.
The announcement follows an extensive consultation involving the League, its clubs and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of the Government’s ongoing review of current gambling legislation.
The Premier League is also working with other sports on the development of a new code for responsible gambling sponsorship.
To assist clubs with their transition away from shirt-front gambling sponsorship, the collective agreement will begin at the end of the 2025/26 season.
— Statement, Premier League
Gambling sponsors are near ubiquitous, not just in the Premier League but throughout European football, mostly because these firms tend to offer lucrative sponsorship deals in order to increase awareness of their brands. Currently, seven PL clubs have front of kit sponsors: Everton, Fulham, Newcastle, Brentford, Leeds, West Ham, and Southampton. Tottenham do not have a betting firm as their kit sponsor (they’re sponsored by AIA, an Asian insurance company) but were sponsored by Mansion from 2006-2010.
It’s not clear how much of an effect banning these kit sponsorships will have on curtailing gambling addiction in the UK and elsewhere — that cat feels very much still out of the bag — but it’s a start.
