Leadership of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has denied that the regulator is a ‘soft touch’ when it comes to policing football sponsorships, which continues to be a contentious topic affecting UK gambling.
The provisions of the 2005 Gambling Review provided UK gambling a loose remit to sponsor football clubs and leagues. The deals have provided clubs with a lucrative and consistent revenue source, yet sponsorships have been criticised by reformists as the takeover of the national game by bookmakers.
Mounting pressure over recent years has led to the future of football sponsorships in particular being put up for debate on numerous occasions. The presence of various Asia-facing companies in the top flight of UK football has been a particularly controversial development.
Andrwe Rhodes, CEO of the Gambling Commission, acknowledged football sponsorships as being one of ‘a number of challenges ahead of us’ during the regulator’s CEO Briefing this week. It is a challenge, however, that the regulator has been accused of lacking assertiveness around.
“I read some media coverage lately which claimed the Commission has ‘softened’ its position on this topic, but that’s not true at all,” he said. “The Commission thinks it is wrong that people are sponsoring football clubs who don’t have a licence in this country.
“We just think that is wrong – but it is not necessarily automatically an infringement of the licensing objectives, because if they are not taking any traffic from Great Britain, it is difficult to see how that would be an infringement, but our analysis is demonstrating that it is not quite as clear cut as that.”
As of the 2024/25 season, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has required its members to implement a voluntary Code of Conduct on football sponsorships, designed to promote safer gambling messaging, support community initiatives, and reduce brand exposure across stadiums and matchdays.
White labels stain football sponsorships
As noted above, football sponsorships have been a marketing tool of the betting industry for as long as many can remember. Betway’s sponsorship of West Ham United FC is a notable example, lasting from 2015-2025, standing out as one of the longest lasting commercial partnerships in the English top flight.
Some sections of politics, the public and football fandom have been growing fatigued with betting partnerships, however. During the two-and-a-half-year-long review of the 2005 Gambling Act, a ban on sports sponsorships was widely considered a likely outcome.
Adding fuel to the flames has been an influx of partnerships between Preier League clubs and overseas brands, many of which lack familiarity among UK consumers and some of which have not even been active in the country or were unlicensed.
White label agreements were central to this activity. Perhaps the most notable example is that of TGP Europe, which operated white label deals with Stake, Kaiyun Sports, DE.BET and BC Game at various points, all of which have maintained sponsorship deals in the Premier League.
The firm surrendered its Isle of Man and UKGC licences earlier this year and all of its domain names were shut down. It would later withdraw from the UK fully, being charged a hefty fine by the Commission in the process. Several months down the line, it seems the Commission is losing patience with white label deals, and Rhodes believes that the government is on its side.
“We’ve had genuine, grown up conversations about how the world has moved on and enforcement action has been taken in relation to some White Label providers which has meant they have exited the market.
“I think that is the right thing to have happened, but it’s given us a different challenge. And that is one that we’re addressing with the government and I’m really optimistic that we will be able to do something in this space.
“The answer cannot always be about expecting more and more from the Commission’s limited resources where a more strategic solution could be put in place.”
No more warning shots
The Commission’s impatience with illicit activity, whether intentional or not, is being increasingly tested. The fact that the gambling black market has found itself at the centre of a political debate has further added to this, with the industry lobbying extensively against tax hikes expected to be announced by the Treasury on 26 November.
“We have a budget coming at the end of this month and there has been a very active debate and focus on taxation of this sector,” Rhodes said.
“What started as a harmonisation consultation has become a much bigger debate. It has brought more heat and attention around illegal gambling and how that is taking place in other countries.”
Against this political backdrop, the Commission itself has been investigating the prevalence of a black market through a four-part study concluded last week. Other gambling stakeholders, like Gamstop, have also taken note of the extent of illegal activity, stating that around one-tenth of its users admit to being black market customers.
As stated the Commission has entered an enforcement overdrive against infractions, whether instances of companies conducting business without the appropriate licence or the all-too-familiar failures to comply with anti-money laundering and social responsibility standards.
“There will be no more warnings for those actors,” Rhodes remarked. “I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about providers who may be also servicing the illegal market. There will be no warnings.
“We have undertaken nine suspensions in the last few weeks, and these are all on issues that we have repeatedly warned about: provision of software and also self-exclusion.
“There are no excuses. We will not accept any excuses. And you should as a sector, expect to see more enforcement action in the coming weeks and months. We’ve been working on this area very actively, and we don’t intend to stop.”
Leadership of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has denied that the regulator is a ‘soft touch’ when it comes to policing football sponsorships, which continues to be a contentious topic affecting UK gambling. The provisions of the 2005 Gambling Review provided UK gambling a loose remit to sponsor football clubs and leagues. The deals have …