Media reports highlight extent of gambling sponsorship in Europe
Major news sites have coordinated the publication of research into the number of gambling sponsorship deals in the sport.
UK.- Major European media outlets are raising questions about football’s dependency on gambling sponsorship through the coordinated publication of new research. Undertaken by the cross-boarder journalism collective Investigate Europe, the Shady Bets study has been reported by The Guardian in the UK, Die Zeit in Germany, InfoLibre in Spain and many other outlets.
The survey of European football clubs found that almost 300 top-flight clubs have partnerships with betting firms for the 2024/25 season despite stricter regulations in several countries. An analysis of 31 top-flight leagues in the European Union and the UK found that two-thirds of teams (296 out of 442) currently have at least one deal with a gambling firm. One in three clubs has a front-of-shirt gambling sponsor and almost half of leagues are named after a betting or lottery operator.
The reports note that in Belgium and Italy, where there are already bans on gambling sponsorship in football, some clubs have used loopholes to circumvent the bans by instead displaying the logos of media or charities linked with betting operators rather than the operators themselves. In Italy, Inter Milan promotes Betsson.sport, Parma displays the name of AdmiralBet.news and Lecce has the name BetItalyPay on shirts, providing indirect promotion of betting companies.
The report also claims that some teams, including AC Milan and Estonia’s Nõmme Kalju have contracts with companies that do not hold local licences but still target local gamblers. It’s also claimed that dozens of sponsors are on the blacklists of various national gambling regulators. Deals between clubs and Asian gambling operators “that lack transparency” are also questioned. The report found that 27 European clubs have such deals.
The Netherlands will introduce a ban on gambling sponsorship in sport from July this year, and the UK Premier League is to introduce a voluntary ban on front-of-shirt sponsorship deals.
