The prevalence of gambling money in European football has been laid bare by new research that shows two-thirds of teams across 31 top divisions have at least one sponsorship deal with a betting firm.
As the Premier League counts down to a ban on front-of-shirt sponsorship by gambling companies, due to come into force next year, data also shows clubs in European countries have found ways to get around such restrictions.
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The cross-border journalist collective Investigate Europe conducted analysis, shared with the Guardian, of the top divisions across the EU and UK. Among its findings, the group observed:
• 296 of the 442 teams have at least one betting partner this season.
• 145 have gambling sponsorship on the front of their shirts.
• Clubs in Italy and Belgium work around front-of-shirt bans by displaying logos of gambling companies’ charitable foundations or news/entertainment websites.
• 14 of the 31 leagues analysed rely on a betting company as their title sponsor.
• 27 clubs across Europe’s top five leagues are partnered with Asian-facing betting companies.
The ubiquity of gambling advertising in the Premier League is well documented. Eleven teams have a gambling logo on the front of their 2024-25 shirts, the highest proportion among Europe’s top five leagues, and every team have a betting partner. Betting brands have spent about $135m (£104m) on shirt deals in the English top flight this season, according to research by Global Data, cited by Investigate Europe.
Other continental leagues are closing the gap. Every side in the Dutch Eredivisie has a betting partner or sponsor. Portugal, Greece and Germany are also prominent and lucrative markets, the research found. But even in smaller markets there is widespread advertising, with the majority of top-flight sides in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria wearing betting logos on their shirts.
English top-flight sides have agreed to a voluntary ban on front-of-shirt sponsorship from the 2026-27 season, but Investigate Europe found that countries which had enacted such bans had teams apparently exploiting loopholes. In Belgium, for example, a law took effect in January restricting sponsorships to sleeves and the back of shirts. Yet several Pro League clubs display betting insignia on the front of shirts, using sub-brands that incorporate only part of the company’s name. The reigning champions, Club Brugge, for example, switched their shirt sponsor from Unibet to U-Experts, a news app made by Unibet with links to its casino offering.
In Italy, where a similar restriction was put in place in 2018, three Serie A sides have betting-adjacent shirt sponsors in 2024-25: Inter (Betsson.sport), Parma (AdmiralBet.news) and Lecce (BetItalyPay).
Milan were found to be promoting a betting brand that did not have a licence to operate in Italy. Milan struck a deal with Boomerang Bet in July 2024 as their regional partner in Europe. This was despite the brand being blacklisted by Italian authorities and operating without a local licence, a legal requirement for the Italian betting market. Milan and Boomerang did not respond to requests for comment from Investigate Europe.
Other clubs endorse companies blacklisted by national authorities elsewhere on the continent for not having the required local licences, and there remains a widespread presence for Asian bookmakers, many of whom do not officially operate in Europe. Twenty-seven teams across the top five leagues were identified as having partnered with 22 Asia-facing brands. In Italy, eight teams have deals visible only when accessing club websites from Asia or through an Asia-based VPN.
The importance of front-of-shirt sponsorship is itself a moot point, further studies have shown. According to research by academics at the University of Bristol, on the opening weekend of the Premier League almost 30,000 gambling adverts were broadcast to audiences in stadiums and across TV, radio and social media, 165% more than a year before. Shirt sponsors accounted for less than 10% of that total.
Charles Livingstone, a member of the World Health Organization’s expert group on gambling and gambling disorder says research shows that the more exposure you have to gambling ads, the more likely you are to gamble, and that advertising remains key to the strategies of betting firms.
The industry spends millions on promotions “because it helps them to recruit new gamblers”, Livingstone said. “And the reason … is because the best customers are those who go broke. So they constantly have to recruit new gamblers to replace the ones who have gone through all their money and all their assets and all their relationships.”
