The fastest growing front-of-shirt sponsors over the last five years across professional football, cricket and rugby teams in England has seen a significant shift back to consumer-facing brands
 
The six fastest-growing sectors who feature as the main front of shirt sponsor all target people rather than businesses – Hotels & Cruise Lines, Clothing/Footwear brands, Home/Garden products and Gambling brands. 
 
In contrast, three of the four sectors with the biggest decline are business-facing – Energy, Specialist Business Services and Logistics companies. 

Gambling remains the most common sponsor – accounting for 15.5% of (or nearly 1 in 6) – front of shirt sponsorships. This is getting towards double the share it held five years ago (8.5%). 
 
For example, over half (11 of 20) of this year’s Premier League teams have a front of shirt gambling sponsor. However, this will fall to zero in a few months when the voluntary ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsors takes effect. 

Following Gambling, four of the next top six sectors are now consumer-facing – household Electronics/Appliances, Car Retailers and Airlines. In contrast, the four sectors following gambling last year were all business-facing – Manufacturing/Engineering firms, Specialist Business Services, Construction and Logistics companies. 

This fight back is driven by various factors, such as:

1. Deals becoming more sophisticated in how consumer brands can ‘activate’ the sponsorship, particularly through digital channels. This makes it easier to measure the return on investment so they’re more comfortable signing a deal.
2. The the ‘entertainment-ification of sports’ – think what cricket’s The Hundred is doing – which fits more with consumer brands.
3. Fanbases are also becoming more international, which is slightly easier for them to harness than business-to-business firms. 

Overall, it’s resulting in a more familiar feel for fans towards the companies ‘badging up’ their teams.

But it remains uncertain how the landscape will change in a year when no gambling logos will be on the front of Premier League shirts. It’s likely to result in a more varied portfolio of sponsors and one with a more familiar feel. The early indications, led by Bournemouth and Brentford, are that clubs are initially looking at current training, stadium or sleeve partners to fill the void.

Beyond this, crypto is an obvious contender and it’s surprising they haven’t yet stepped up to the plate for front of shirts. Often forecast as the “next gambling”, they’re already a Top 5 sponsor across all Premier League club’s sponsors, they’ve also plenty of money, are often based in offshore tax havens and heavily target Asian audiences.