With front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships set to be banned by mid-2026, crypto companies are stepping in to fill the revenue gap.
According to a September 7 report by Bloomberg, Premier League (PL) clubs have secured a record-breaking $170 million in sponsorship deals from crypto companies for the 2024/25 season.
This uptick comes as league participants face tightening restrictions on gambling sponsorships, which have traditionally been a major source of revenue for them.
Per the report, several top clubs have already signed major crypto deals. For instance, leading crypto exchange Kraken is sponsoring Tottenham Hotspur, La Liga’s Atlético Madrid, as well as RB Leipzig from the German Bundesliga.
Meanwhile, in June 2023, reigning Premier League champions Manchester City extended their partnership with OKX for three years in a deal that will cost the platform $70 million.
Another crypto exchange, Crypto.com, is also heavily involved in football. The company, which owns the naming rights to the former Staples Center, hosting the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, among others, announced in August that it will sponsor UEFA’s Champions League until 2027.
The crypto sponsorship influx isn’t limited to just the biggest names in the biggest leagues; Turkish side Galatasaray recently signed a two-season deal with blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, worth about $4 million, to have its logo featured on the team’s shirt sleeves.
For PL clubs, these partnerships mark a major shift in the sponsorship landscape, especially with a looming proscription on front-of-shirt gambling ads by mid-2026. This is in addition to a 2019 “whistle-to-whistle” ban on gambling ads during live matches.
During the 2023/24 season, eight teams had front-of-shirt gambling sponsors, collectively earning them nearly $80 million per year.
However, according to Daniel McDonagh, an associate at UK law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, who was quoted in the Bloomberg report, crypto firms are now stepping in to fill the vacuum caused by the limitations on gambling sponsorship.
Some feel the move is part of efforts to clean up the image of the digital asset industry following the bad press that came with the collapses of several high-profile enterprises, including Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager Digital, and FTX.