Entain Demands Premier League Clubs Stop Promoting Unlicensed Gaming Firms
Posted on: May 8, 2026, 02:14h.
Last updated on: May 11, 2026, 07:57h.
- Premier League clubs will not have front-of-jersey gambling ads next season
- Entain wants the league to ban all ads involving unlicensed gambling companies
As the Premier League prepares for a historic 2026/27 ‘front-of-shirt’ ban, a new corporate battlefield is emerging—and industry giants like Entain are now demanding a total purge of unlicensed ‘shadow’ operators from stadium screens.
Clubs are officially ditching front-of-shirt gambling sponsors for the 2026/27 season, though fans will still see betting logos migrated to sleeves and on in-stadium digital signage.
The clubs voluntary ban comes in response to heightened problem gambling rates among young people in the UK, specifically, men. The exclusion of front-of-shirt gambling advertising is designed to lessen the gambling industry’s exposure in England’s popular sport.
This week, the Independent Football Regulator released its Second Licensing Regime Consultation. Entain, the parent company to Ladbrokes and Coral, in response submitted testimony asking the IFR to ban all sponsorships from gambling entities that aren’t licensed within the UK.
Ban Illegal Gambling Ops
Entain CEO Stella David is advising the IFR that Premier League clubs should be forbidden from partnering with unlicensed gambling websites and apps.
Several unlicensed operators have club deals in place, including the popular online sweepstakes casino Stake, which sponsors Everton. Other gambling platforms that don’t hold gaming licenses from the UK Gambling Commission that have Premier League exposure include W88 (Sunderland), SBOTOP (Fulham), bj88 (Bournemouth), and 96.com (Burnley).
Premier League clubs are being sponsored by criminal gambling firms. The Independent Football Regulator can stop this tomorrow by simply acknowledging that unlicensed gambling companies targeting UK customers through English football are breaking the law — plain and simple,” David wrote.
The IGR’s rules currently prohibit clubs from accepting income “connected to serious criminal conduct.” David suggests that the IFR rethink what defines criminal conduct to include unlicensed gambling businesses.
The regulator does not need any new powers, new legislation, or even a new rule to make this happen. We are asking the regulator to define and apply it before the next season begins. The IFR was created to fix English football’s governance failures. This is one of them,” David concluded.
Entain’s Ladbrokes is the official betting partner of Liverpool. Coral is not partnered with a Premier League club, though it advertises heavily in and around the league, predominantly focusing its efforts on UK horseracing.
Customer Acquisition Channel
David says black market gaming operators rely strongly on soccer for customer acquisition. His Entain submission argues that the game is “one of the black market’s most effective acquisition channels.”
Independent research commissioned by the UK Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) forecasts that sponsorships from unlicensed gambling businesses will account for more than half of all sponsorships in UK sports by the end of 2027.
The study concluded that unlicensed gambling enterprises are set to triple their advertising spend next year compared with their 2019 levels.
In February, the BGC called on the UK government to widen a prospective ban on advertising unlicensed gambling operators in football to all sports, as a way of protecting both consumers and the regulated market.
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