Government clamp down on betting could hit clubs

Premier League football teams could be banned from accepting sponsorship from gambling companies without a UK licence, as ministers look to crack down on black-market betting. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy on Monday said it was “not right that unlicensed gambling operators can sponsor some of our biggest football clubs, raising their profile and potentially drawing fans towards sites that don’t meet our regulatory standards”.

The plans, which will be put out to consultation in the spring, are intended to reduce harm from gambling and “eliminate unfair competition” for companies regulated by the Gambling Commission, according to the government.

Several teams in the English football leagues, including the top division, have sponsorship arrangements with unlicensed gambling operators. These partnerships are not prohibited at present, so long as UK customers cannot access the illicit platforms.

But the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said ministers were “deeply concerned” that advertising could nevertheless lure UK consumers towards unlicensed gambling sites that do not adhere to consumer protection regulations, including mandatory financial vulnerability checks. Unlicensed gambling sites also do not typically adhere to the “self-exclusion” policies intended to prevent customers who are concerned about their betting habits from being able to access gambling sites.

The Premier League promised in 2023 to phase out front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships by the end of the 2025-26 season. But it did not ban operators from signing shirtsleeve sponsorships or bar gambling adverts on pitchside hoardings, despite calls for more action by safer-gambling campaigners.

Kit sponsorships are lucrative for sports teams. The Premier League said in 2023 that front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships at eight clubs delivered a combined £60mn in annual revenues. Last year, football clubs including Bournemouth, Fulham and Burnley were warned by the Gambling Commission over match-day shirt sponsorships for sites operated by TGP Europe. The company had earlier surrendered its UK licence after an investigation found it failed to carry out “sufficient checks” on its partners and breached “anti-money laundering rules”.

“Any move to prevent unlicensed gambling operators from gaining visibility through Premier League sponsorships is a positive step,” said Fiona Palmer, chief executive of Gamstop, a gambling harm-reduction non-profit group. The new consultation on sports sponsorships comes after chancellor Rachel Reeves set out steep tax rises on licensed betting companies in her November Budget. Companies, including Flutter and Entain, warned that the increases would lead to worse odds and push punters into the unregulated market.

The new taxes included raising the levy for remote betting from 15 per cent to 25 per cent from April 2027. Last year, Reeves said the measures were intended both to raise tax revenue and target gambling harms. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, estimated that the additional gambling taxes would raise £1.1bn by the end of the current parliament, even as it acknowledged that some of the expected tax yield would be reduced owing to “potential substitution to the illicit market”.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Spurs CEO attacks luxury training base

The Tottenham Hotspur chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has issued a withering assessment of the way the club was run under Daniel Levy, likening the state-of-the-art training centre to a five-star hotel rather than a centre of high performance. Venkatesham was appointed to his role in April 2025, having stepped down as chief executive at Arsenal the previous summer. However, he has said that some aspects of the club were “in a significantly worse state” than he expected. “Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world,” Venkatesham told BBC Sport. “But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer. I think there are many areas where the club hasn’t got the right level of expertise.” He explained that the football side of operations was the club’s main downfall when he arrived last year. [One Spurs fan wryly observed that it was like a water company sayi...

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...

The Political Economy of Football V2

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