ECB Introduces New Code of Conduct For Gambling Sponsorships

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has revealed a new ‘Code of Conduct on Sponsorship Agreements with Gambling Companies.’ 

The new code takes effect immediately, and the 2025 Country Championship season will begin on Friday, April 4. 

Domestic cricket clubs in the United Kingdom will now be required to follow stringent new standards for gambling sponsorships in professional cricket. 

Four Core Principles Behind the New Code

The ECB’s code is built around four central principles: reinvestment in sport, maintaining integrity, protecting children and adults at risk, and ensuring that gambling promotion is undertaken in a socially responsible manner. 

“All gambling-related sponsorship income should be reinvested into the sport in a way that supports competition, infrastructure, and grassroots development,” the code states. 

The ECB has outlined that teams can achieve compliance with the principle by investing in club infrastructure, such as cricket grounds and training facilities. Other options include, but are not limited to, providing cricket-related activities for local communities and investing in the development of grassroots cricket; providing education for professional cricketers on gambling-related harm and investing in welfare services to support those potentially suffering from a gambling problem; and paying player salaries and other benefits to players. 

Cricket has seen various high-profile betting-related integrity cases in recent years. The ECB is taking steps to ensure the integrity of the sport is upheld, requiring any gambling company that sponsors a league or team to comply with all aspects of the UKGC’s license conditions and codes of practice, specifically regarding betting integrity. 

Protecting Children and Vulnerable Groups

Several specific stipulations surround what gambling sponsorships can and can’t do, particularly regarding minors. The code specifies that any sponsorship of individuals, activities, teams, or events should be designed to limit its reach to children and those at risk of harm. 

Gambling logos and promotional material are forbidden on children’s replica kits, sportswear, and other merchandise primarily aimed at children. In addition, should a gambling sponsor have a front-of-shirt agreement, an adult kit without the gambling sponsor must be made available.

From a digital perspective, no gambling logos can appear on a team’s website’s family or junior sections. In addition, family areas within a stadium must be free from branding, and promotional activity on-site must not target those areas. 

The final pillar of the four is promoting gambling in a socially responsible manner. This encompasses raising awareness and education about the risks of gambling and promoting services available to people who may be prone to harm. 

Each team must make educational materials available for its professional players and support staff. Further, 20% of any gambling sponsorship inventory must be dedicated to safer gambling messaging. This includes social media, website advertising, pitchside advertising, and advertising in the matchday program. 

The ECB also requires cricket clubs to participate in industry and national safer gambling campaigns, including Safer Gambling Week.

Transparency, Compliance, and Enforcement

From a compliance perspective, teams must declare any sponsorship agreement involving a gambling company to the ECB. They must also report to the Board annually, confirming their compliance with examples of how they are implementing the four principles previously outlined. 

Each team’s annual compliance statement will be published on the cricket board’s website, along with a copy of the code and a list of sponsorship arrangements. The ECB says “non-compliance may be publicly reported in the ECB’s annual statement” and submitted to the UK government.

The move from the ECB is part of a concerted push across UK sports to regulate gambling sponsorship better. From next season, the Premier League will no longer permit front-of-the-shirt gambling sponsorships. Additionally, the UKGC has announced an effective ban on cross-sell promotions by gambling operators, further curbing the scope of marketing in the country. 

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 The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has revealed a new ‘Code of Conduct on Sponsorship Agreements with Gambling Companies.’  The new code takes effect immediately, and the 2025 Country Championship season will begin on Friday, April 4.  Domestic cricket clubs in the United Kingdom will now be required to follow stringent new standards for
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