From 2026, gambling logos will disappear from Premier League shirts – at least from the front. Some might say this is merely a cosmetic change, but is it really?

In April 2023, UK headlines were dominated by news that Premier League teams had agreed to phase out front-of-shirt deals with betting firms.

The motive was clear: curb problem gambling and reduce the visibility of betting among young fans after mounting political and public pressure tied to the Gambling Act Review White Paper. But the scope seems narrow when pitted against ambition.

Sleeves, training kits and stadiums will still be fitted with gambling brands. Was this football taking responsibility for a national issue, or was it simply a smoke screen to deflect scrutiny while the gambling sector grows?

Why now?

The timing of the move was no accident. It coincided with the release of the Gambling Review White Paper, which promised a comprehensive overhaul of the UK’s gambling sector.

With the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) reporting that 66% of children aged 11-16 have seen gambling ads on TV, football was always going to be a target.

Moving first allowed the Premier League to frame the decision as proactive self-regulation rather than a political defeat. 

Crucially, clubs were also able to set their own terms – negotiating a three-year transition period and preserving the highly valuable advertising streams beyond 2026. 

Is it all a charade? 

“Clubs strip shirt ads” might be an attention-grabbing headline, but it only tells one part of the story. Gambling firms will still have access to shirt sleeves, LED pitchside boards, training kits, and even the names of stadiums.

In fact, gambling’s presence in top-flight football has actually grown. During the 2024/25 season, 11 out of 20 Premier League sides (55%) had front-of-shirt deals with betting firms. That’s up from just eight in 2023 when the ban was voted.

In simple terms, fans were more exposed to betting brands last season than they were when the Premier League agreed to curb them.

The deals keep coming too. West Ham signed a front-of-shirt partnership with BoyleSports for the 2025/26 season, while Nottingham Forest struck one with Bally’s soon after.

Are clubs trying to squeeze as much as they can from an industry they themselves deemed inappropriate?

Don’t get me wrong, this is completely rational from a business perspective – you’ve got to cash in while the window is open. But if it was always about business, why agree to the ban in the first place?

Congrats, well-played

Stripping shirts makes the ban highly visible, but its impact will be minimal.

During the 2024 Premier League opening weekend, fans saw around 30,000 gambling adverts – fewer than 10% were from shirt sponsors. This means that the rate of exposure will barely change, even with the ban in place.

Here’s the plot twist: I actually think that the Premier League’s move is a stroke of genius. Let me explain.

Stricter bans from across Europe offer a tale of caution. In Spain, a sweeping Royal Decree in 2021 stripped gambling sponsors from shirts and stadiums, sharply reducing brand visibility — but between 2021 and 2025, regulators issued over €400m in fines against illegal operators.

Italy went even further with its 2019 ‘Dignity Decree’, introducing a blanket ban on all gambling advertising, including in sport.  By 2024, official reports were estimating that one in four players had moved onto the black market.

The Netherlands followed suit more recently with its own set of tighter restrictions, despite the fact that online searches for “illegal gambling sites” surged from 200,000 in 2022 to more than a million by March 2025.

The lesson is clear: severely limiting visibility doesn’t necessarily stop gambling, but it can drive it underground.

By targeting only front-of-shirt sponsorships, the Premier League appeased all sides. It reduced friction with fans, retained vital funding, and kept the licensed market highly visible – a balancing act seriously underestimated by critics.

There’s never a vacuum

Betting companies took over in the mid-2010s when clubs were looking for quick cash. Before that, it was consumer tech like Sharp and JVC, insurance firms like AON, and airlines like Emirates.

What’s more, Manchester City’s £67.5m-a-year Etihad deal, Liverpool’s £50m-a-year Standard Chartered partnership, and Manchester United’s £47m TeamViewer agreement show that long-term sponsors are still around. But if clubs go hunting for fast money again, the next step is obvious: crypto.

The similarities with gambling are striking – piles of cash to burn, aggressive marketing, a hunger for visibility. The sponsorships are already here too.

Many remember Manchester City’s short-lived stint with the ill-fated crypto firm 3Key, only for the club to pivot to OKX, a crypto platform which now adorns its sleeves.

Chelsea’s WhaleFin deal fell apart as a result of the 2022 crypto crash, while Everton’s Stake.com partnership bridged the gap between crypto and betting before the UKGC chased the brand out of the UK.

Betting brands could also make a comeback through foundations and corporate social responsibility arms. Entain uses the Entain Foundation to sponsor grassroots sports under a softer banner in Belgium, where gambling ads are banned.

Ladbrokes, Kindred, and Betsson Group have all taken similar paths in Europe, using subsidiaries or partial branding to stay visible despite stricter regulations.

Whether through crypto or disguised sub-brands, UK football’s next sponsorship era may feel like a déjà vu.

Half of the full story

When the Premier League’s 2026 ban on front-of-shirt sponsorships rolls in, it may change very little. Betting companies will still be on sleeves, training kits, and stadium boards – while crypto and other speculative sectors remain at the ready to fill any gaps.

For clubs, the move is a calculated execution: they maintain crucial revenue streams, protect their public image, and signal responsibility. For fans and regulators, these are all comforting. But the commercial game will go on almost exactly as it did before – a reminder that appearances are rarely the full story.

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