Entain has urged the Independent Football Regulator to prevent English football clubs from accepting sponsorship and advertising income from gambling operators that are not licensed in the UK. The request was made in Entain’s response to the IFR’s second licensing consultation, CP 2/26, which seeks views on a new club licensing regime for the top five tiers of English men’s football, from the Premier League to the National League.
The IFR’s draft licensing code already prohibits clubs from accepting income “connected to serious criminal conduct”. Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, is asking the regulator to confirm in guidance that the rule covers income from gambling companies operating in the UK without a license.
Under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, operators that are not licensed in the UK commit a criminal offense if they accept bets from British consumers. Entain said the IFR would not need new powers or legislation to act, because the proposed licensing code already gives it a basis to address the issue.
Stella David, Chief Executive of Entain, said: “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.”
She said the IFR did not need new powers, legislation, or a new rule to act, arguing that the regulator had already drafted the relevant provision and should define and apply it before the next season begins. David said the issue showed one of the governance failures that the IFR was created to address.
This season, Premier League clubs Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Bournemouth, and Burnley have shirt sponsorship deals with gambling companies not licensed in the UK, namely Stake, W88, SBOTOP, bj88, and 96.com, local media reports highlighted.
The issue is not limited to shirts. 18 of the 20 Premier League clubs have shown advertising for unlawful operators on LED boards at their grounds this season.
The Premier League is introducing a voluntary ban on front-of-shirt sponsorship by gambling companies from next season, but the measure does not address the wider unregulated market. Several clubs are expected to move existing front-of-shirt deals to kit sleeves, including Everton’s agreement with Stake.
Stake was licensed in the UK until last year, when it gave up its license during a Gambling Commission review of its practices after the company used a promotional video featuring porn actress Bonnie Blue.
Entain has also written to Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters, urging an immediate voluntary ban on sponsorship and advertising by unlicensed operators ahead of the 2026/27 season. David wrote to Masters in February proposing a meeting, which has not yet taken place.
In that letter, David raised concerns about the link between sports piracy and unlicensed gambling. The Premier League’s combined television rights deals are worth about £12 billion ($16.35 billion), including £6.7 billion ($9.13 billion) from the UK.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling’s national 2024-25 report said 89% of illegal streams in the UK feature adverts for bookmakers not licensed in the UK. Illegal streams in the UK have more than doubled over the past three years to 3.6 billion.
Research by Frontier Economics, commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council, found that 1.5 million Britons bet £4.3 billion ($5.86 billion) last year on unlicensed sites, giving the market a 9% share, up from 2% four years earlier. Yield Sec has estimated that 420,000 British schoolchildren are gambling with unlicensed operators.
The Gambling Commission found last year that 67% of GamStop users, who have actively excluded themselves from licensed gambling, had been targeted by advertising from unlicensed operators. Entain said unlicensed operators do not carry out affordability checks, offer self-exclusion tools, or report to a regulator.
Entain’s submission asks the IFR to require club directors to verify the license status of any gambling operator with which the club has a considerable commercial arrangement.
The consultation comes ahead of a separate Department for Culture, Media and Sport consultation on banning unlicensed gambling operators from sponsoring British sports teams. Entain has argued that the IFR should not wait for that process to conclude.
