The Premier League is the competition in which the biggest money is spent. The dream of every company is to be on the football shirts of Premiership players. This season, we will see as many as half of the league that bears the logo of a bookmaker or casino as the main sponsor. The rest consists of car companies, airlines, banks, finance, retail, insurance, and a media house. We will tell you more about gambling sponsorship, how it works, where it all started, and how other football leagues deal with this interesting and attractive subject.
Gambling Sponsorships Briefly Analyzed
Just recently, UEFA has published the ninth edition of the report on the evaluation of club licensing for European football clubs. It was very interesting to see how Premier League gambling sponsors perform compared to their counterparts and other companies sponsoring football in different countries.
You will admit, somewhat unexpectedly, the most common main patrons are casinos and bookmakers. Gambling companies have a total of 45 active contracts (out of 256 clubs covered by the analysis). Casinos as sponsors are most represented in the first two English leagues and the Greek first league with about 50% of clubs in these football classes. In Switzerland, half of the main sponsorship of the first division belongs to financial institutions (banks and insurance), while half of the first Scottish league has industrial firms as its main benefactor.
The shirt sponsorship deals have become layered. This means that teams that constantly play in the Champions League and present themselves as a global brand, which in England are clubs in the top four plus Liverpool (thanks to their history), have large sponsorship deals that are constantly growing. Outside of that chosen group, everything is much harder.
The Premiership is in dizzying business growth, and the clubs will earn more than £388 million from sponsorships next year. The figure has grown more than 10% compared to the 2018/2019 season. You can see how this works in practice and try gambling on games inspired by Premier League football. All you need is a Casino Kingdom login and start playing football-themed slots, for example.
The dominance of gambling firms is even more pronounced in the Championship, in which there are as many as 17 out of 24 betting sponsors. There are many initiatives in the non-governmental sector, but also in the British Parliament, to ban the advertising of gambling companies. For now, it does not seem that their efforts have any effect.
Betting Companies Sponsoring Premier League Clubs
The Premier League earns more and more, revenues are flowing from all sides, and most of all from the sale of TV rights, marketing, and of course from the sponsorship of major global businesses. However, there is a big difference in earnings between the six strongest clubs in the UK and the rest of the competition.
Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Tottenham, together will earn as much as £247 million from the general sponsor, which is 78% of the total money that the Premier League will earn.
The most expensive jersey rental will be paid by Chevrolet, which will pay £47 million to Man Utd for a single season! General Motors has been producing this car since 1918, and they are counting on an increase in sales in the Asian market, where the “Red Devils” are on the rise. Second on the list of biggest earners are their local rivals, Manchester City. Etihad (UAE) will pay £45 million to the “Citizens” for the year. Third place is shared by Arsenal (Fly Emirates), Chelsea (Yokohama), and Liverpool (Standard Carter), with revenues of £40 million, while Tottenham collects £35 million from the Hong Kong insurance company AIA.
Next on the list is West Ham United sponsored by a bookmaker from Malta with “only” £10 million. In addition, eight other bookmakers have their betting logo present on shirts of Premier League clubs. Online gambling is also on the rise, especially in the pandemic time. Players feel more comfortable wager from home and always want to pick deals that appreciate their efforts more than others. As a matter of fact, you can read the Cosmo Casino NZ review and discover if there is a deal that can take you closer to the big win.
When it comes to other Premier League shirt sponsors, Everton is sponsored by a betting brand from Kenya (£9.6m), Crystal Palace gets £6.5 million from Manbetex (Malta), “Magpies” from Newcastle get the same amount from the bookmaker from China. A Thai gambling site funds Wolverhampton with £5 million, Bournemouth receives £4 million from M88 (Gibraltar). Burnley (Laba 360, Malta) and Fulham (Dafabet, Philippines) will collect £3 million each. The last on the list of Premier League teams is Huddersfield with revenue of £1.5 million, also from a bookmaker from Malta.
Conclusion
The English Football Association (FA) does not have a positive attitude towards the gambling industry. In 2017, they decided not to cooperate with gambling firms. Namely, in 2015, they signed several gambling sponsorship agreements with various betting companies, but two years later they decided to sever all ties with the then sponsor Ladbrokes. On the other hand, football clubs still have the freedom to choose with which brands they will sign sponsorships. The current government has no plans to continue to tighten on this topic, for the simple reason that the casino industry brings in a lot of money. However, this may change if another party comes to power soon. The prominent politician Tom Watson said that he had negotiated with many Premier League sponsors working in that sector and that he was assured that they would gradually leave advertising in football. Still, he also claims they had broken their word and that the British government would have to take that situation much more seriously.
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