GAMBLING, CRYPTOCURRENCY, AND FINANCIAL TRADING SPONSORSHIP IN HIGH-LEVEL MEN'S SOCCER LEAGUES: AN UPDATE FOR THE 2023/2024 SEASON

Abstract

Gambling sponsorships are common in international soccer due to the substantial funds they provide to clubs. For example, in the 2022/23 English Premier League season, eight clubs collectively received an estimated £60 million from gambling shirt-front sponsorships.While the Premier League plans to ban gambling shirt-front sponsorships by 2026, this will not include shirt sleeves or pitch-side hoardings, which are the most frequently seen forms of in-game marketing. In contrast, Italy and Spain have fully banned gambling sponsorships and in-game marketing due to public health concerns. Relatedly, much less attention has been paid to the emergence of sponsorships associated with cryptocurrency or financial trading. These are both gambling-like products, which are engaged in disproportionately by those experiencing gambling-related harm, and which also use soccer to market themselves. Researchers have suggested that these products might look to fill the gap in high- level sports left by gambling sponsorship bans, and so have highlighted the need to monitor their use of sponsorship agreements with high-level soccer teams. We therefore provide an overview of gambling and gambling-like sponsorship of soccer teams within high-level leagues across England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Argentina. Overall, our findings indicate that gambling sponsorship remains prominent, but has reduced in comparison to previous seasons across most countries. However, we have observed betting ‘partnerships’ which circumvent gambling sponsorship prohibitions in Italy. In relation to cryptocurrency and financial trading companies, there are limited numbers of active sponsorships outside of the UK, but ‘partnerships’ between teams and these companies have become prevalent.