Govt pledges to protect sports fans from rogue betting firms

New measures to crack down on the illegal gambling market in sport have been announced by the Government.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy plans to stop unlicensed betting companies using sports teams, including Premier League clubs, as a “platform” to appeal to a British audience.

According to The Guardian, a number of top-flight teams, including Everton and Fulham, carry logos on their shirts advertising unregulated gambling sites.

Unregulated

Lisa Nandy MP said: “When placing a bet on the big match, fans deserve to know the sites they’re using are properly regulated, with the right protections in place.

“It’s 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 Government acknowledged that clubs “are currently not acting unlawfully in maintaining these sponsorship arrangements as long as the gambling operators are not accessible to UK consumers”.

However, Ministers warned that unlicensed operators “do not adhere to laws and guidelines designed to protect customers”, such as financial vulnerability checks, and “often lack data protections, leaving customers vulnerable to fraud and identity theft”.

In England, Premier League clubs have agreed to ban all gambling logos from match-day shirt fronts from 2026 onwards, although the ban will not apply to shirt sleeves or pitch-side hoardings.

Organised crime

In January, a coroner called for better awareness of the “risks” posed by illegal gambling sites after a 36-year-old man committed suicide.

An inquest revealed that football fan Oliver Long took his own life in 2024, after losing his job, flat and relationship due to a “severe gambling addiction”.

Although he signed up to the self-exclusion scheme GamStop to prevent him from accessing gambling websites and apps, he started betting again after being “targeted” by unlicensed overseas firms that are not blocked by the not-for-profit organisation.

According to the Gambling Commission’s Tim Miller, some of these unregulated websites are operated by “criminal networks” who are involved with “terrorists and organised crime”.