EFL under pressure to end Sky Bet sponsorship

It’s been reported that a group of UK peers and MPs have asked the English Football League’s chairman to end the arrangement with Flutter’s Sky Bet.

UK.- The English Football League (EFL) is coming under increased pressure to end its title sponsorship arrangement with Flutter Entertainment’s Sky Bet. According to the Daily Telegraph, a cross-party group of politicians has written to EFL chairman Rick Parry to ask him to end Sky Bet’s role as the main sponsor of the Championship, League One and League Two.

The letter says that recent reports that lower league clubs had been allowed to “take a cut of money from fan loses with Sky Bet” were the “final straw in a relationship that has clearly gone too far“. The Telegraph says the letter was signed by former government minister Lord Foster of Bath, a Liberal Democrat peer and chair of Peers for Gambling Reform.

Other signatories named are the Labour MPs Sir George Howarth, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Dan Carden, Zarah Sultana and Kim Johnson, along with the Scottish National Party’s Ronnie Cowan. They criticised the EFL for allowing clubs to enter into affiliate marketing deals with Sky Bet. While that arrangement was axed three years ago, the EFL has admitted that some teams would continue to receive “legacy” payments until its contract with Sky Bet expires in 2024.

The letter reportedly reads: “We know that the largest perpetrator of gambling harm is not football clubs, it’s gambling companies who exploit the sport and fans for obscene profit. The Sky Bet sponsorship of the Football League means that all 72 clubs are essentially forced to advertise gambling on their shirts, in their stadiums and on their websites – even if they don’t want to. 

“This is unacceptable and this latest development is the final straw in a relationship that has clearly gone too far.”

They called on Parry to “do the right thing and voluntarily begin the process of ending all gambling advertising and sponsorship in the EFL”.

However, Parry has previously spoken against calls for a blanket ban on gambling sponsorship of football in England. He says such a move would be “catastrophic” for the finances of smaller clubs, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Extending the company’s long-term collaboration with the EFL in August, Sky Bet CEO Steve Birch insisted that the partnership would have a stronger focus on responsibility. Now approaching its tenth year, he said Sky Bet’s sponsorship would promote safer gambling with the slogan “Take Time to Think” to appear on clubs’ sleeve badges and on LED advertising, matchday programmes and big screen ads.

The fate of gambling sponsorship in sports remains one of the issues that were due to be decided in the UK government’s long-delayed reforms of gambling legislation. Former prime minister Boris Johnson was reported to be in favour of an outright ban, but the Premier League clubs instead suggested it vote on a phased voluntary ban on front-of-shirt sponsorships only. That vote was finally cancelled after Johnson resigned.

The overhaul of gambling legislation now remains on hold due to the chaos in the Conservative Party as it ousted its last leader after just over a month and now prepares for Rishi Sunak to take the helm as PM.