Betting companies explore ways of growing their businesses in the world. They have become the leading industries in many territories and with their endless policies to be powerful, several partnerships have been built. In the United Kingdom, the English Premier League has the largest worldwide audience so the gambling firms sponsor many clubs in order to grow more.
Actually, half of the 20 clubs in the Premier League and several of the Championship teams are sponsored by the gambling companies. This information can provide you with exact information on how powerful they are nowadays. EPL clubs recorded a 349.1 million pounds from shirt sponsorship in the current season. This is a 10% increase when compared to last year 315.6 million pounds.
Also, ten EPL clubs this season have a gambling company as a sponsor. This is one more when compared to the last season. When it comes to the Championship, this number is even bigger. 17 out of 24 clubs have a logo of betting companies. When you combine these two facts, you will see that 27 out of 44 clubs to two top tiers have this kind of sponsorships. The situation is even clearer after you see these companies as second sponsorships.
This is the field that had a lot of controversies over time. We all remember several players refusing to play under the logo of a betting company because their faith forbids it. Anyhow, looks like those days are far behind us. Now we are going to sink our teeth into clubs who have this kind of sponsorships and reasons why they are doing this.
We cannot help ourselves, but we need to ask what are the reasons to make the partnership with gambling firms a growing trend in the English Premier League?
Collaborations with the Gambling Firms are more Profitable for the Clubs
To answer this question, the clubs’ shirts are adorned with gambling logos because they pay double than other firms. The sponsorships are twice lucrative for the teams making these companies the leading shirt sponsors of the Premier League clubs. According to the Daily Mail, the Football Association (FA) desired to reconsider the cooperation with Bet365 because of the financial profits offered by the company. In fact, Bet365 streamed 22 of the 32 FA Cup third-round in agreement with the six-year deal with the FA.
Apart from that, the non-betting sponsors are worth half of the contract with the betting companies. For example, the gambling blouse sponsorship of the Premier League club costs over £7million per season. Other clubs have also confirmed that the collaborations with the gambling firms are more profitable compared to other firms.
Some of the leading gambling companies include Betway sponsored West Ham, W88 sponsored Aston Villa, ManBetX sponsored Crystal Palace and Wolves, LoveBet sponsored Burnley, Fun88 sponsored Newcastle, Sportsbet.io sponsored Watford and many others.
Betting Sponsorships Are More Popular Among Smaller Teams
This trend is not as popular among the most powerful clubs in the world. We are going to give you one small example of that. The only club that participates in the Champions League and has a betting company as a sponsor is AEK Athens.
We already saw that the situation is in the tip to tiers of the English football league. The reason for that is that lower league clubs don’t have the same amount of revenue coming from TV rights. Naturally, the situation is the same from match day revenues. In order to fill their budgets, they are opting for gambling companies’ sponsorships.
EPL clubs are no strangers to this kind of sponsorships, but when we talk about the best and richest clubs in the country, we can see that this is not the case. They have a lot of revenue coming from other sources, so it looks like they don’t need this one. When it comes to England, Betway and Unibet are listed as the 2nd and 3rd biggest sponsors from the gambling industry. Betway invests $23.1 million and Unibet invests $22.5 million. The only top gambling company that was a shirt sponsor to a major European club we can think of is when Real Madrid had Austrian betting company, Bwin, which ended back in 2013.
The Gambling Companies Are the Leading Shirt Sponsors to Half of Top Premier League Clubs
As already mentioned above, half of the Premier League clubs have the betting firms as their primary sponsors. In their collaboration, the gambling firms’ logos are featured on the front of the team’s shirt. Obviously, in return to this alliance, the companies have to provide benefits to the clubs. In spite of knowing the sensibilities of the alliance between the non Gamstop betting firms like CasinoGap.org and football clubs, several clubs have no choice but to accept the cooperation.
The reason is that the companies offer twice than other societies with no links to gambling. The low-level clubs have to accept the opportunities offered by the gambling firms to fulfill their gap financially. Nonetheless, some of the Premier League clubs have established measures to decrease the gambling alliances. For instance, the partnership between Betway and West Ham is worth £60m.
This long-term collaboration started in 2015 and will finish in 2024. Since Betway is classified to be the leading in the betting companies; this collaboration is a long-lasting success to the two sides. However, West Ham offers training on the gambling firm’s responsibility while the company imposes regulation related to its branding.
Premier League Clubs Can’t Refuse Money
As shirt deals with gambling companies are twice profitable, the Premier League clubs can’t turn down to their advantages. According to one of the Premier League members, the betting firms pay double than other companies. A lot of clubs are not in the same position as the major clubs in the country and they need money to fill their yearly budgets with these funds.
However, many Premier League clubs feel worried about their responsibilities towards gambling issues. As they just accept the millions offered by the betting companies, they feel concerned about the impact of gambling advertising. One of the alarming effects is the influence on young people’s gambling habits. These sponsorships may encourage young people to start gambling.
As a matter of fact, betting ads may influence vulnerable and minors. There are, fortunately, limitations that the advertisers must follow. The ads must target the audience at 18 and more. Additionally, the betting firms use voluntary code that limits gambling ads on slots around the live sporting events before 9 p.m. Even though the betting on clubs is probably the most powerful branch of betting companies, as of today, we don’t have any major scandal when it comes to companies fixing matches of clubs they sponsor. We are hoping that this is a trend that is going to continue in the future.
Final Words
In some words, the partnership between the betting companies and the Premier League club is more lucrative. As the gambling companies pay double than other firms without any links to betting, the clubs are, undoubtedly, attracted to the alliances.
With half clubs that are sponsored by the firms, the gambling’s future will be bright. Despite the cons and the possible impacts that these ads may lead, effective approaches should be applied to prevent under-age gambling. As we already said, we haven’t had major scandals and we hope that there will be none of them in the future.
