Aston Villa signs shirt sponsorships with BK8

BK8, a sports betting and gaming brand, has become the new Principal and Front of Shirt Partner for Aston Villa, a Premier League club and one of the top-performing soccer organizations in the United Kingdom.

The partnership between a bookmaker and a prominent athletic organization comes at a time when the government’s White Paper and critics of the current regulatory framework have been pushing for changes that would prohibit such partnerships, with a final deadline still a moving target.

Aston Villa and BK8 have confirmed in a press release that they would seek to collaborate through the end of the 2025/2026 season. BK8 has also committed to making contributions to local charities in Birmingham. The money will be based on official club kit sales with a portion of the proceeds forward to charities.

BK8 EMEA Managing Director Michael Gatt has welcomed the opportunity to partner up with Aston Villa once again, and also advance charitable work.

"As a brand working in football for the last few years, we have committed to working closely with our partners’ local community initiatives and ensure we continue our commitment to delivering on our ambitions in this area" Gatt added, cited by the official statement.

Aston Villa was similarly pleased and said that the company was looking forward to new and exciting collaborations with the bookmaker. In the meantime, Aston Villa is hardly the only club to have recently signed a partnership with a betting company.

Just recently, Chelsea and Stake embarked on a similar collaboration designed to strengthen fan experiences. Their partnership too is by the end of the 2025/2026 season. Aston Villa and BK8 are also committed to elevating the fan experience by working on various activations across the course of their collaboration. There will be advertising opportunities and assets at Villa Park, which is home to the soccer team.

In the meantime, some media outlets, including The Guardian, have blasted the partnership, citing fans’ disappointment with the decision. The Aston Villa Supporters’ Trust (AVST) called the sponsorship a "cynical attempt" to bootstrap the club’s finances, and there seemed to be a fair degree of anger with the decision.

"The BK8 agreement is a cynical last-minute attempt to scoop the financial gains ahead of the voluntary ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsors," the statement by the AVST read. The Guardian recently announced that it would be turning any and all gambling advertisements across its global network of outlets.

Image credit: BK8/Aston Villa