Premier League sheds front-of-short gambling partnerships

It’s a watershed moment for the Premier League. After years of equivocation, open hesitation and doubt, England’s topflight soccer league on Thursday did what most gambling hawks had wanted it to muster up the courage to do for years prior to that. Moving forward, gambling companies would not have their logos and signage displayed on the front of matchday shirts, with the measure taking effect in the 2025/2026 season.

The decision is promoted as a voluntary action by the Premier League, albeit a looming Gambling Act review has certainly weighed on the decision, which was inevitable. The United Kingdom has been long debating whether gambling advertisements and deals in sports should be suspended – or at the very least, limited to an extent. Lucrative deals are on the line, as gambling firms have a strong incentive to invest in sports teams to have their logos displayed.

The Premier League is easily one of the most watched events in the world of soccer globally, pulling in substantial viewership. The decision to suspend gambling advertisements from team shirts is not going to disrupt viewership, naturally, but it’s going to have a bearing on the financial purses of at least eight of the 20 teams currently in the league which will see their partnerships terminated.

Soccer clubs have been getting hefty sums out of their arrangements with gambling companies, running between $8m and $13m per deal. Club shirt sponsorships in the 2019/2020 season in total were worth $430m. Out of this, at least $75m came from gambling companies that were sponsoring the shirts of prominent soccer clubs.

But there are other faces to the story, too. While the front-of-shirt sponsorships may be gone, sleeve sponsorships will continue to run as usual. Circumference advertisement will be there. In a way, the Premier League is acknowledging the harm done by promoting gambling, but then again – there are financial considerations that are hard to ignore immediately.

Right now, rumors continue to swirl that the UK government is set to publish its White Paper review before the end of April, which may yet touch on gambling partnerships in soccer and other sports. Whether the Premier League is acting preemptively as it knows something about the upcoming review or is hoping to assuage harsher measures is not currently known.

The end of front-of-shirt sponsorships has been long in the making, however, and it’s hardly a surprise that it is finally happening.

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