Top-flight clubs turn to hidden gambling partners to beat ban

Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leeds and Nottingham Forest fail to respond and Sunderland refuse to comment

- Philippe Auclair

Eleven Premier League clubs will have to find new principal sponsors next season when the ban on front-of-shirt advertising for betting companies takes effect.

This will represent a financial blow for the clubs concerned: gambling operators are known to pay a substantial premium on standard industry rates. As Karren Brady told the House of Lords in a debate on the football governance bill last November, “the typical difference between gambling and non-gambling shirt sponsorships is around 40%”. The vice-chair of West Ham warned: “For some Premier League clubs, this decision [to ban front-of-shirt gambling advertising] will mean a reduction of around 20% of their total commercial revenues.”

So how to make for the shortfall? Some clubs seem to have opted for the simplest of solutions: to carry on as before, by adapting the nature of their offer to gambling partners accordingly, which includes hidden partnership deals with Asian-facing operators that are unlicensed in the UK and target illegal markets in China, and south and east Asia. The clubs concerned are Sunderland, Aston Villa, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.

There will still be advertising space to be sold at a premium as the ban in question will be limited to the fronts of shirts. It will remain possible, for instance, to display the names of gambling brands on shirt sleeves and on the LED perimeter boards which surround the stadiums.