British gambling giant Entain issued a sharply worded open letter to the independent football regulatory body on Thursday, demanding an official ban on top league clubs such as the Premier League from accepting sponsorships from unlicensed gambling operators in the UK before the start of the 2026-27 season in August. Entain CEO Stella David was very direct in the letter—some Premier League clubs are accepting sponsorships from illegal gambling companies, and the independent football regulatory body only needs to acknowledge a simple fact to end it all tomorrow: those unlicensed gambling companies targeting British consumers through English football are blatantly breaking the law. Ladbrokes, under Entain, is the official gambling partner of Liverpool Football Club, and the Coral brand is the UK partner of the Championship team Birmingham City.
Six Premier League clubs sponsored by unlicensed operators in a grey area
Unlicensed gambling operators currently infiltrate the British football sponsorship system in two ways: one is through white label agreements with local licensed companies to indirectly sponsor British teams, but more notably, currently up to six Premier League clubs' sponsors do not hold any form of UK gambling license or local operating entity. Entain has made four specific suggestions in its formal response to the second phase of the license consultation submitted to the independent football regulatory body: confirm that unlicensed gambling constitutes serious criminal activity, add board verification in the club's annual statement to confirm whether major commercial agreements are signed with UK licensed operators, incorporate the reputational risks brought by business partnerships into the permanent governance responsibilities of football club corporate governance standards, and issue general guidelines on due diligence and obligations with gambling partners to all licensed clubs.
The flood of grey sponsorships and the race against time for industry self-defense
Behind this call is a set of alarming data. A report compiled by Frontline Economics for the UK Gambling and Gaming Commission estimates that about 1.5 million Britons bet approximately 4.3 billion pounds on illegal platforms each year. Another industry study completed by WARC predicts that if the expansion of unlicensed gambling sponsorships is not interrupted, by October 2027, their expenditure might exceed half of the total UK sports sponsorship amount. In February this year, the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has already initiated a public consultation to ban unlicensed gambling sponsorships within the UK. However, Entain's stance is clear: the independent football regulatory body should not just wait for DCMS's consultation process to complete before taking action. David also wrote to Premier League CEO Richard Masters, calling for the immediate implementation of a voluntary ban on unlicensed gambling sponsorships and advertising before the 2026-27 season.
PASA official website continues to track the latest developments in UK gambling regulation and sports sponsorship compliance, noting that Entain's proactive request for the regulatory body to cut off competitors' sponsorship channels is providing a new example of how licensed operators can maintain competitive boundaries in an increasingly crowded compliance market.
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