As the season kicks off, just three Premier League clubs have no betting brand partnerships
Just three Premier League football clubs will begin the 2019/20 season without a partnership with a betting brand.
Burnley, Bournemouth and Newcastle United are among the Premier League teams with betting brands on their shirts this season.
As the new football season opens this weekend, only Brighton & Hove Albion, Sheffield United and Southampton FC have no betting partnerships. Meanwhile, half of the clubs in the Premier League and 17 out of 24 clubs in the EFL Championship feature a betting brand as a shirt sponsor this season.
Top clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal also boast official partnerships with betting brands off the pitch. Leicester City and Newcastle United tie for the most the most partnerships, with the former listing Bet365, Betway and W88.com as “valued club partners” and the Magpies boasting partnerships with Bet365 and MansionBet, as well as a shirt sponsorship with Fun88.
Below, you’ll find a list of every English Premier League club, and its respective betting partner brands.
| Club | Shirt sponsor | Other betting partnership |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | Vbet Konami | |
| Aston Villa | W88 | |
| Bournemouth | M88 | |
| Brighton & Hove Albion | ||
| Burnley | LoveBet | |
| Chelsea | 1xBet | |
| Crystal Palace | ManBetX | |
| Everton | SportPesa | |
| Leicester City | Bet365 W88 Betway | |
| Liverpool | 1xBet | |
| Manchester City | Marathon Bet | |
| Manchester United | MoPlay | |
| Newcastle United | Fun88 | Bet365 MansionBet |
| Norwich City | Dafabet | |
| Sheffield United | ||
| Southampton | ||
| Tottenham Hotpsur | William Hill | |
| Watford | Sportsbet.io | |
| West Ham United | BetWay | |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | ManBetX |
The concentration of betting money in the top divisions of the football league provoked one sponsor – Irish betting brand Paddy Power – to use its space on the shirts of Huddersfield Town and Motherwell FC to launch a campaign agitating against the use of kits as “billboards.”
Paddy Power managing director, Victor Corcoran, said: “Shirt sponsorship in football has gone too far. We accept that there is a role for sponsors around football, but the shirt should be sacred.”
The bookmaker unveiled the ‘Save our Shirts’ campaign in an eye-catching stunt in July, which saw Town unveil its kit for the new season – sporting a huge Paddy Power sash across the chest – before revealing that Paddy Power would not be taking up the space on the shirt it had bought.
The Guardian has reported that Premier League clubs will collectively earn £349.1m from shirt sponsorship deals, a 10% rise since the previous season. According to the Gambling Commission, gambling on football is worth an estimated £1.4bn a year to the UK betting industry.
In May, The Drum explored the relationship between betting brands and football clubs in the Future of Sport issue.
Additional reporting by Ellen Ormesher.