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In April 2023, the Premier League announced a voluntary agreement to remove gambling advertising from front-of-shirt sponsorships.
The decision was reached following “extensive consultation” with the UK government regarding its review of gambling legislation, which was prevalent in the recent budget announcement from the incumbent Labour government. 
The new arrangement will apply from the start of the 2026/27 Premier League season, and while the change will be apparent, critics would say it’s nothing more than a case of moving the goalposts. 
Although the logos of various mainstream (and not so well-known) gambling brands will be removed from the front of shirts, these companies will still be represented on shirt sleeves, on the back of the shirts, on training kits, on advertising boards around the pitch, and elsewhere within the stadium. 
It appears to be a clever, calculated step, but one that comes with risk.

Premier League clubs made more than £1bn from their shirts alone last season, taking into account the value of their kit supplier deals, front-of-shirt sponsors and income from sleeve sponsors. Kit manufacturers have committed to providing nearly £492m across twenty agreements. pic.twitter.com/SQ4xVTrx21
— Łukasz Bączek (@Lu_Class_) August 22, 2025

The Premier League clubs have effectively self-policed, cognizant of pressures and developments at Westminster, with the UK government announcing a Gambling Act review white paper. 
They have bought time to work around the new arrangements in tandem with gambling partners, but there will be a significant void to fill on the front of shirts. 
The Premier League previously intimated that “a self-regulatory approach would provide a practical and flexible alternative to legislation or outright prohibition”.
In addition to the move instigated by the elite body in English soccer, a code of conduct was also agreed upon between the Premier League, Football Association (national governing body), English Football League (tiers 2-4), and Women’s Super League.
This is more of a safeguarding position, based on four general principles around gambling sponsorships. 
There is no impending gambling sponsorship ban on the front of shirts for the lower leagues in England, and that situation is further compounded as SkyBet is the title sponsor of the EFL Championship, League One, and League Two.
Reduction in value of shirt sponsorships and overall revenues
In the current 2025/26 Premier League season, 11 of 20 clubs have a gambling brand as their front-of-shirt sponsor and key partner. 
Those teams are Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, West Ham, and Wolves. 
That is a lot of revenue to replace, with the collective value of these sponsorship deals exceeding £140m per season, according to Football Media CEO, Dean Akijobe. 
As reported by the Guardian, West Ham United vice-Chairperson Karren Brady told a House of Lords debate last November that  “the typical difference between gambling and non-gambling shirt sponsorships is around 40%”. 
She added, “For some Premier League clubs, this decision (to ban front-of-shirt gambling ads) will mean a reduction of around 20% of their total commercial revenues.”

| Premier League clubs’ kit sponsors by category.
1. Gambling2. Finance 3. Airline4. Food & Beverage — Technology — Tourism— No Sponsor (Chelsea)
[@Footy_Headlines] pic.twitter.com/U21Rj51sLz
— Goals Side (@goalsside) October 8, 2025

Following the voluntary ban announced in 2024, West Ham signed a front-of-shirt agreement with BoyleSports for the current 2025/26 season, while Nottingham Forest did the same with Ballys.
The relative change also comes after a number of Premier League clubs received a warning on their relationships with gambling brands that are unlicensed in the United Kingdom. 
Bournemouth, Burnley, Fulham, Newcastle, and Wolves were reprimanded by the UK Gambling Commission on the risks of promoting unlicensed betting websites. 
Many of these deals came about through TGP Europe, a wider ‘white label’ gambling operator and agent, which subsequently left the British market after the Gambling Commission hit them with a £3.3m ($4.43m) fine for multiple breaches of anti-money laundering rules.
The gambling companies affiliated with TGP remained active, but they had to ensure their domains were geo-blocked for British users.
In the example of Nottingham Forest, their Kaiyun.com front-of-shirt sponsor (last season) was not accessible in the UK.
The crux of the issue is that Premier League clubs cannot determine who the ultimate owners, or beneficiaries, of these Asian-facing, non-UK regulated gambling brands are. 
The advice to the clubs from the Gambling Commission was stark: 
“You will want to continue to satisfy yourself that your sponsorship and associated advertising arrangements are legal and do not present a reputational risk to your sport.
“We would advise that any organisation engaging in sponsorship from brands that do not hold a Commission licence manage their exposure to risk. This includes satisfying themselves as to the source of the funds for the arrangement.”
As it is, Burnley (96.com), Crystal Palace (Net88), Fulham (SBOTOP), Sunderland (W88), and Wolves (DeBet) are all carrying such partners for the final season of the current arrangement.

Betting company ‘supports’ Premier League ban
Intriguingly, a BoyleSports spokesperson told Insider Sport that “we support Premier League clubs’ self-imposed ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship from the 2026/27 season. 
In a nod to the changing dynamic between clubs and gambling partners, they added:
“We’re already exploring how to evolve our presence within the stadium, across digital platforms and through direct fan engagement.
“Ultimately, visibility is important, but relevance and authenticity will carry more weight in the next era of football sponsorship, and we’re committed to staying ahead of that shift.”
 
Crypto to fill the void in Premier League sponsorships?
As for what businesses will fill the void left on the front of shirts, you can expect some movement from the big players in telecommunications, airlines, fintech, and energy. 
Another development to watch out for is the upturn in the exposure of cryptocurrency in the Premier League. 
It will be a step into the unknown for some, while most others will embrace the open arms…and piles of cash.
Last season, 14 Premier League clubs had some form of crypto partner, which is an untapped revenue source and one that will have the authorities feeling anxious. 
Just as gambling exposure is ‘reduced’, crypto will raise its head further. 
Other examples in European soccer
In Spain, La Liga is one of the major European soccer leagues, but gambling sponsorship has been completely outlawed. 
A Royal Decree in 2021 eradicated gambling sponsors from shirts and stadiums overall, vastly reducing brand visibility, but in the background, clubs, including Real Madrid, still have lucrative agreements with gambling firms that do not operate in Spain. 
Another interesting observation is the route taken by soccer clubs in Belgium, who opted to work around the new rules and removal of gambling brands on the front of shirts.
Top clubs appeared to evade new arrangements by promoting sub-brands of gambling companies on their shirts. 
Essentially, these were sports news app gateways to the main gambling website portals operated by major sponsors, but the authorities later launched further investigations and tightened their approach. 
Next season brings changes to the Premier League and its clubs’ relationships with gambling brands. 
To what extent the change is meaningful and how long the front of shirt ban lasts, remains to be seen, but a new era is on the way.
Image credit: PremierLeague/X
The post English Premier League front of shirt gambling ban for 2026/27 and beyond appeared first on ReadWrite.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner, Adam Silver, has appeared on multiple broadcasts during the festive season to challenge the gambling-riddled narrative surrounding the sport.
On the one hand, Silver has sought to quell concerns about the sport’s integrity in North America. On the other hand, the Commissioner has refocused the sport’s priorities on future growth, including national and international expansion, as the game seeks to distance itself from the federal investigation into current and former players.
Silver publicly declared on Good Morning America (GMA) that the scandal that dominated the 2025 headlines was “an isolated incident.”

Despite Silver’s confidence, the sport remains under congressional scrutiny, and betting operators are poised to impose sanctions on prop bets unless the sport provides reassurances and policy changes.
NBA dominated by gambling cases across 2025
Silver, in the GMA appearance, delivered a measured, confident appraisal of the league’s integrity, saying it’s (the NBA) “absolutely solid.”
As we reported in detail, the NBA has been fighting the publicity surrounding a betting scandal that spanned multiple league games and both former and current stars.
Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones were all embroiled in the FBI’s case centring around illegal poker games and also the fixed outcomes of prop bets and match outcomes across previous seasons.
All three men were accused of using inside information to influence these outcomes for personal financial gain. Those individuals were also heavily rumoured to be linked to organized crime and the prominent mafioso families in North America.
Since that time, all three men have pleaded not guilty, with Rozier’s legal counsel asking for all charges against the former Charlotte star to be thrown out.
These charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, says Rozier’s counsel, Jim Trusty, should not stand as they are not direct actions or intent to wager by the NBA player.

Lawyers for Terry Rozier filed a motion to dismiss wire fraud conspir. charges. The scheme deprived a sportsbook of making informed decisions on accepting a wager, bc Rozier provided a co-defendant w certain non-public info. SCOTUS rejected the theory in Ciminelli v US they wrote pic.twitter.com/2v58BD0LO8
— Matt Rybaltowski (@MattRybaltowski) December 23, 2025

“The indictment does not allege that Mr. Rozier ever placed a bet, whether himself or through a proxy, on any NBA game,” Trusty said. “Nor does it allege that he knew that Laster intended to sell this information to others, or that using it to place wagers would violate the Betting Companies’ rules.”
Silver moves away from the public ties to the betting cases
Speaking ahead of the NBA Cup Final, Silver told the press that the outcome of the gambling cases falls outside the sport’s regulatory remit and that “it’s out of our hands.”
“He (Rozier) hasn’t been convicted of anything yet either,” Silver commented when pressed on the Miami Heat guard’s future. “This is an unfortunate cirumstance. Sometimes there’s these unique events and maybe sometimes they require unique solutions.”
This distancing signals to the media and fans that the NBA is not pursuing the penalties that could be imposed on the three individuals at the heart of the case.
It is an intentional move for the sport to leave Rozier, Billups, and Jones’ fate to the courts and move forward.
NBA expansion takes centre stage
A topic Silver was keen to address was a potential European expansion and rumours that a Las Vegas team would be presented to the NBA commission in the near future.
Silver said, “There’s an enormous opportunity there,” when addressing questions of a possible European NBA team.
Any focus away from gambling and questions about betting irregularities is good news for the sport, so the tone of Silver’s comments about the future was overly forward-thinking.
“I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities… I don’t have any doubt that Las Vegas could support an NBA team,” said Silver when addressing the national expansion rumours.
With the NBA already deeply embedded in Las Vegas through Summer League, the NBA Cup, and the WNBA, the city has become increasingly difficult to ignore as a possible new franchise home.
Plus, a team tied to the betting capital of the nation would be a nod to the Commissioner’s intent to take betting reform seriously to avoid another gambling incident.
Injury reporting to change ahead of betting scrutiny
While expansion dominates the future-focused narrative, Silver has not ignored the structural issues raised by betting scrutiny.
On GMA, he reiterated the league’s long-standing view that regulated betting markets offer greater transparency than illegal alternatives.
“For me, the options are illegal betting or legal betting. And if given that choice, we’d much rather there be legal betting where there’s transparency.”
ESPN’s Shams Charania is the leading correspondent for breaking news in the sport, and in the same week as the marquee win for the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup, he reported that the NBA is considering changes to injury reporting.
The NBA is enacting several sports betting policies to its 30 teams, including changing injury reporting rules: Teams now will be required to resubmit injury listings on game day between 11 am and 1 pm local time and update public reports every 15 minutes, sources tell ESPN.— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 19, 2025
“Teams now will be required to resubmit injury listings on game day between 11 am and 1 pm local time and update public reports every 15 minutes, sources tell ESPN,” said his post on X.
Silver lining
Silver has proven himself a tactful and key figure for the league in times of turmoil, and his messaging ahead of 2026 is on expansion, growth, and the future.
Something the NBA is fortunate to have after a 2025 that rocked the sport and could have been devastating for prop betting in the league.
We have already seen betting changes enforced on America’s greatest pastime, Major League Baseball, as a result of gambling investigations.
As part of the cases involving Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who are facing allegations of illegal gambling, the sport now has limited prop betting and is entirely removed from parlay builders.
Featured Image: Markus Spiske/Unsplash
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