{"id":110048,"date":"2019-07-24T07:34:28","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T14:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=110048"},"modified":"2019-07-24T14:03:53","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T21:03:53","slug":"50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Percent of EPL Jersey Sponsors Are Now Sports Betting Operators, Most Focused on Unregulated Asian Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

English Premiere League teams are still winning big with bookies, but with brands many domestic fans have barely heard of.<\/p>\n

\"EPL
English soccer is awash with unfamiliar betting brands like Aston Villas sponsor W88, which is licensed in the Philippines and uses the EPL as a platform to target the hard-to-reach Chinese black market. (Image: Aston Villa\/W88)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The elite soccer league will enjoy a tenth successive record-breaking year of revenues from jersey sponsorship<\/a> when the teams kick off in three and a half weeks — and exactly 50 percent of those teams will come from betting companies.<\/p>\n

In the Championship, English soccer\u2019s second tier, 17 out of 24 teams will wear the logos of betting companies next season.<\/p>\n

The EPL\u2019s 20 teams will collectively score $435.8 million from jersey sponsorship — that\u2019s up $41.8 million from last year.<\/p>\n

In terms of dollar-spend, bookies occupy the middle-ground among EPL clubs. The biggest spender from the industry is Malta-based Betway, which has a $12.5 million deal with West Ham, closely followed by Kenya\u2019s Sportpesa, which has a $12 million deal with Everton.<\/p>\n

EPL: Springboard to China<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But of the EPL\u2019s ten jersey sponsors, it\u2019s notable that just three brands, Betway, Dafabet and Sportsbet.io, are directly licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.<\/p>\n

Some, like Sportpesa<\/a> operate indirectly in the UK through the white-label system, where a website is designed to look and feel like a company or brand, but the contents and services provided on the website are operated and managed by another company.\u00a0Thus, the UK facing \u201cSportpesa\u201d website is managed and operated under the license of TGP Europe Limited.<\/p>\n

\n

But most companies are focusing on the largely unregulated markets of Asia, using the EPL\u2019s global reach to get their brand seen by markets like China, where offering and marketing gambling is strictly illegal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Even Mansionbet, which has a UK license and a long history of EPL sponsorship, is pushing its Asian-facing brand, M88, which uses the tagline \u201cWhere Asia Plays\u201d and is unavailable to UK customers because it has no UK licence.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many of the other Asian facing brands — such as Fun88 (Newcastle), W88 (Aston Villa), Dafabet (Norwich) and Lovebet (Burnley) — have domestic fans scratching their heads wondering just who they are.<\/p>\n

W88, for example, is (lightly) licensed and regulated in the Philippines, a sign that it targets the illegal Chinese markets. While Dafabet has a UK and Irish license and is based in the Isle of Man, it markets itself as the \u201cMost Secure Betting Company in Asia\u201d and does most of its business under license from the Philippines\u2019 Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.<\/p>\n

Dubious Relationships<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Much is made of English soccer\u2019s uneasy relationship with gambling companies, especially when everyone involved in the sport is banned from betting on games. But this list of jersey sponsors also raises questions about the sport’s willingness to do business with companies actively engaged in black-market operations.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Guardian<\/em> this week, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Tom Watson was incensed that the UK gambling industry had committed to reducing the amount of gambling advertising in soccer, but jersey sponsorship had actually increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time for warm words is over,\u201d he said. \u201cEither the industry is going to act in good faith, or we will need stricter regulation of gambling advertising \u2013 starting with a ban on football shirt sponsorship.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what Watson fails to realize it that very few of this year\u2019s EPL sponsors are representatives of the UK gambling industry at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English Premiere League teams are still winning big with bookies, but with brands many domestic fans have barely heard of. The elite soccer league will enjoy a tenth successive record-breaking year of revenues from jersey sponsorship when the teams kick off in three and a half weeks — and exactly 50 percent of those teams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":110050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n50 Percent of EPL Jersey Sponsors Are Now Betting Companies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EPL betting company jersey sponsorship is on the rise again, but most are unlicensed in the UK and focusing on unregulated markets like China.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"50 Percent of EPL Jersey Sponsors Are Now Betting Companies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EPL betting company jersey sponsorship is on the rise again, but most are unlicensed in the UK and focusing on unregulated markets like China.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-24T14:34:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-24T21:03:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/villa.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/\",\"name\":\"50 Percent of EPL Jersey Sponsors Are Now Betting Companies\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/villa.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-24T14:34:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-24T21:03:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"EPL betting company jersey sponsorship is on the rise again, but most are unlicensed in the UK and focusing on unregulated markets like China.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/50-percent-of-epl-jersey-sponsors-are-now-betting-companies\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/villa.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/villa.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":666,\"caption\":\"English soccer is awash with unfamiliar betting brands like Aston Villas sponsor W88, which is licensed in the Philippines and uses the EPL as a platform to target the hard-to-reach Chinese black market. 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