Liverpool is not alone, as the Premier League has officially decided to stop having gambling brands on the front of football kits. The decision, made voluntarily in 2023, means that this 2025-26 is the last season when gambling brands will appear on the front of Premier League club shirts. The familiar UK online casinos list branded across Premier League shirts are going to be phased out by next season. Though it does not mean a complete and outright ban on gambling brands on the pitch.
There will still be space to pin logos or brands across the shirt sleeves, perimeter boards around the pitch, and many other highly visible areas. The UK’s gambling watchdog has been appealing the removal of front of shirt gambling brand bans for years, and that is about to become a reality. Though that may not be the end of the story.
Gambling Sponsorships in Football
The Premier League has had gambling sponsors branded across the front of shirts since 2002, when Fulham partnered with Betfair. There have been plenty of iconic club shirts donning online casinos or bookies throughout the years, such as West Ham Betway shirts, Everton’s Stake.com shirts, or Newcastle United’s Fun88 shirts, just to name a few. In 2024-25, it was reported that 11 of the 20 Premier League clubs had gambling firms as their primary sponsors.
Just this season, the BBC reported that in one Premier League match, there were over 5,000 visible gambling ads, of which 91% were during live play. The rest came in pre-match and post-match coverage, and this was the highest number recorded by the broadcasters since they started the research in 2023.
Concerns of Heightened Exposure
The biggest concern is how these brands expose sports fans to gambling brands. Not all of the brands are registered in the UK, with some sponsors choosing Premier League sides for their global appeal. Based outside the UK, these gambling firms partnered with Premier League teams to reach wider audiences outside the UK, as the Premier League is arguably the most popular football league in the world.
Front of shirt positions are considered among the most impactful forms of sponsorship, as fans will buy and wear the shirts, and they are the most recognizable. Critics have argued that they are also highly accessible to children, and that the gambling brand sponsorships desensitize and increase familiarity with betting products at a young age. The removal of these front of shirt brands, which the Premier League teams have agreed to voluntarily and not by enforcement, is the first step to culling the exposure to younger audiences.
How Liverpool and Others Will Move On
Liverpool is in a strong position, as they have never featured a gambling brand as a front of shirt sponsor. From 1988 to 2010, they donned the famous Carlsberg sponsor, and from 2010 to now, Liverpool’s primary front of shirt sponsor has been Standard Chartered, a financial institution. A lot of the mid to lower table clubs in the Premier League are not as fortunate, as they have had longterm sponsorship deals with gambling firms, such as Everton, Brentford, Newcastle United, Wolves, and perhaps most famously, West Ham United.
These removals do not spell the end of their sponsorships, as they will still hold onto their partnerships and most likely find brands from other industries, such as Liverpool’s Standard Chartered, to replace the logo once held by a gambling brand. Liverpool is one of the most responsible clubs in the Premier League with their shirt messages. Their current season shirts feature a Play On emblem, raising awareness about women’s football and the barriers girls face in their opportunities to play football professionally.
