Key Details:
- Aston Villa have agreed a club record £20m per year front-of-shirt sponsorship with Betano, according to The Telegraph
- Greek betting brand has agreed a two-year deal
- Contract will run up to start of Premier League’s ban on gambling brand shirt sponsorships from start of 2026/27 season
- Deal worth more than twice Villa’s current £8m-a-year BK8 sponsorship
SportsPro says…
With Premier League teams having agreed to outlaw betting sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts from the 2026/27 campaign, Aston Villa have decided to cash in one last time with a gambling brand.
Fans had urged the club to end its current tie-up with BK8, which is licensed in the UK but reportedly carries out its activities almost exclusively in Far Eastern countries where sports gambling is illegal, only for their calls to fall on deaf ears.
Financially, the union with Betano makes plenty of sense. The deal is worth a reported UK£20 million per year and pushes Villa closer to the top flight’s ‘big six’ in terms of front-of-shirt sponsorship deal value. Newcastle, who are very much a rival to Villa in terms of ambition to push up the table, hold the league’s seventh biggest shirt sponsorship by annual value, earning UK£25 million per year from Sela, a fellow member of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) portfolio.
The agreement with Betano will also help ease concerns over complying with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules after Villa recently revealed a loss of UK£119.6 million for 2022/23. The club’s hierarchy have said the financial results are ‘in line with the strategic business plan‘.
Even so, once the matchday shirt gambling sponsorship ban comes in after 2025/26, the likes of Villa will have to find new ways to plug the revenue gap offered by having betting firms as their main sponsor, even if other inventory remains available.
Typically, partnerships with betting firms have been worth more to clubs compared to other deals available on the market, hence the long history of unfamiliar brands taking up prime inventory on some of the most visible clubs in world soccer. Finding a deal that doesn’t represent a significant financial step back will be the challenge for Villa’s commercial team ahead of the 2026/27 season.
Currently, as detailed in SportsPro’s Premier League 2023/24 Commercial Guide, eight clubs have deals with betting brands. Of those agreements, in addition to Villa, decisions will need to be made on new partners for Bournemouth, Burnley and Fulham for next season. Clubs will still want relationships with betting brands going forward, given they will be allowed to sell them sleeve sponsorships and lower-tier deals, so it would hardly be a surprise if Villa are not the last team to ride out the big gambling money right up until the ban comes in.
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