Gambling sponsorships are likely to be a topic of more debate as the British government is finally, after four postponements, expected to publish its white paper on gambling reform next month.

These recommendations could result in a clampdown on betting sponsors, particularly when it comes to appearing on the front of sports team’s shirts. So, caytoo analysed the 135 leading men’s football, cricket and rugby clubs in England to ascertain how prevalent gambling sponsorships are and what format they take in relation to appearing on kits.

Note that back in August 2022, gambling was the second most prevalent industry (behind automotive) when it came to front of shirt sponsors. It was also the joint third-fastest growing sector, having experienced a “mini comeback” after falling back between 2019 and 2021.

There are now currently 51 sponsorship deals involving gambling firms across the 135 teams – and a further two league-wide deals (Sky Bet for football’s EFL and Betfred for rugby league’s Super League). Overall, 28% of clubs have some form of gambling sponsor.

Over half of the gambling sponsorships (55%; 28 of the 51) involve the gambling logo appearing on the kit; 20 (39%) in the main/central front of shirt position and eight (16%) elsewhere, such as on the sleeve, shorts or training kit.

Football clubs account for 45 of the sponsorship deals with the other six involving cricket clubs, meaning there are none in either of the rugby codes. All the football deals involve the top two divisions, which means 77% of clubs across these two divisions have a gambling sponsor.

In terms of the most prevalent players: there are four clubs who have three different gambling sponsors: Newcastle United, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town. In turn, Dafabet has the most deals (five) followed by Spreadex and Betway (four each).