According to recent research, gambling-related companies are the most common form of shirt sponsors in European football for another year. Over one-fifth and more, precisely 21%, of all football clubs in Europe’s top 15 ranked divisions had a cooperation agreement with bookmakers.
How Are Gambling Rules Affecting Sponsorships?
The fact that many countries around the continent have set restrictions regarding gambling advertising in the past years hasn’t changed things a lot since 51 out of 244 clubs still have sponsorship by a gambling company. That means that 11 more clubs than the previous season agreed with betting brands.
According to UEFA's Country Coefficient Front of Shirt rights, in the top 15 European soccer leagues, the revenue has been constricted by 4.9% from $1,44 billion in the 2020-21 season to $1,37 billion in the 2021-22 season. At the same time, clubs in the Big 5 European soccer leagues (i.e. English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1) are estimated to collectively earn $1,2 billion through their Front of Shirt deals. With simple math, this is 87 per cent of the overall Front of Shirt value of the 15 leagues analyzed.
Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan, AS Roma and Paris Saint-Germain are only some of the biggest clubs that have an agreement with a gambling firm.