Following the news that the UK Government will ask Premier League clubs to voluntarily cease partnerships with gambling and betting brands;

Conrad Wiacek, Head of Sport Analysis at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Asking Premier League clubs to voluntarily walk away from sponsorships with gambling and betting brands is completely unrealistic. Research by GlobalData, as part of its ‘Business of the English Premier League 2021-22 – Property Profile, Sponsorship and Media Landscape’ report, calculates that these sponsorships bring in a huge $103 million in revenue. That’s not something you simply walk away from.

“There are many cases in Spain and Italy, where this change is already legislated, of clubs being unable to find replacement partners at an equivalent value. While this is something the UK government is obviously trying to avoid, the country will likely experience the same.

“While the cryptocurrency market was predicted to take the place of the gambling and betting sector in sports sponsorship, the recent crash in that market makes it unlikely that they could be used to make up the short fall. In fact, this will be a key challenge for clubs, given that gambling brands tend to pay over the odds for sponsorships, 90% of Premier League clubs are affiliated with the gambling sector in some way, and nine clubs have a betting partner on the front of their shirts. This is especially pertinent as sport companies are still battling the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had on revenue.”