With English Premier League (EPL) teams agreeing to stop having front-of-shirt gambling sponsors, it appeared that this move could hurt the finances of teams. However, sponsorship valuation platform Turnstile believes the upcoming ban could actually cause the prices of other sponsorship assets to increase.
Teams agreed to the ban last week; it will come into place after the 2025-2026 season. Impacted sides reportedly will lose between £5m ($6m) and £10m ($12m) in revenue each season as a result.
Turnstile general manager Dan Gaunt doesn’t believe that the ban will hurt clubs too much in reality. He predicts that they will be able to charge higher prices for other sponsorship opportunities that will still be available to gambling companies, including LED advertising boards, training kits, and shirt sleeves.
nine minutes of LED perimeter board time gives brands a similar amount of screen time
Gaunt explained that purchasing nine minutes of LED perimeter board time gives brands a similar amount of screen time as a front-of-shirt sponsorship. Companies can also get more creative with these LED messages. Shirt sleeve position prices in particular could converge to the current going rate for front-of-shirt sponsorship.
While the price that teams can command for frontal sponsorship might fall, Gaunt thinks that this will only be the case for smaller teams that are more dependent on gambling-related sponsors. Clubs that flirt with relegation often struggle to sign significant shirt sponsorship deals as their EPL future is up in the air. Ultimately, Gaunt believes that teams will be able to adapt to the changes as they have plenty of time to do so.