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Entain Names Six Premier League Clubs in Push to Outlaw "Criminal" Unlicensed Gambling Sponsors

CEO Stella David tells the Independent Football Regulator it already has the rule it needs; General Counsel Simon Zinger writes to Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Bournemouth, Burnley and Wolves demanding UK-licensed sponsors only from 2026/27.

Category: iGaming News - UK · By Growl Games Editorial Team · Sun May 17 2026 · Updated Thu Jul 23 2026

Entain Names Six Premier League Clubs in Push to Outlaw "Criminal" Unlicensed Gambling Sponsors

Contents

1. Summary

Entain plc, owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, escalated its campaign this past week to end unlicensed gambling sponsorship in English football. CEO Stella David's response to the Independent Football Regulator's Second Licensing Consultation (CP 2/26), which closed 5 May, urges the regulator to confirm that income from operators without a UK Gambling Commission licence constitutes "income connected to serious criminal conduct" under the IFR's draft rules. On 15 May, Entain General Counsel Simon Zinger sent open letters to executives at six Premier League clubs — Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Bournemouth, Burnley and Wolverhampton Wanderers — demanding they commit to UK-licensed gambling partners only from the 2026/27 season. The intervention is the most pointed yet against a longstanding loophole that has let Asian-facing offshore brands attach themselves to Premier League shirts.

2. Entain's IFR Submission

The Independent Football Regulator was established under the Football Governance Act 2025 to oversee the top five tiers of English men's football. Its draft Annex B, Part IV states a club "must neither agree to accept nor take receipt of any funds offered or made available in the course of a business transaction, which it knows, believes or has any reason to suspect are connected to serious criminal conduct." Entain's submission argues that operators without a UK Gambling Commission licence commit a criminal offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005 whenever they accept bets from British consumers; income from such operators therefore falls squarely within the IFR's existing draft language. David's submission was direct: "Premier League clubs are being sponsored by criminal gambling firms. The Independent Football Regulator can stop this tomorrow by simply acknowledging that unlicensed gambling companies targeting UK customers through English football are breaking the law — plain and simple. The regulator does not need any new powers, new legislation, or even a new rule to make this happen. In fact, it has already drafted one."

Entain set out four recommendations: confirm in guidance that income from unlicensed gambling counts as funds linked to serious criminal conduct; require board-level annual attestations on the licence status of gambling partners with legal consequences for false declarations; strengthen the Football Club Corporate Governance Code to treat reputational risk from commercial partnerships as a standing board responsibility; and publish general due-diligence and notification guidance applicable to all clubs.

3. Six Clubs, Six Letters

On 15 May, Entain General Counsel Simon Zinger wrote open letters to executive figures at Burnley (sponsored by 96.com), Bournemouth (BJ88), Fulham (SBOTOP), Everton (Stake), Sunderland (W88) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (DEBET) calling on the six to "commit to only using UK-licensed gambling sponsors next season." None of these operators currently hold a UK Gambling Commission licence; all six previously operated in the UK via the Isle of Man-based TGP Europe white-label structure, which surrendered its UKGC and Isle of Man GSC licences in April 2024. Zinger's letter highlighted specific concerns about BJ88 in particular, citing what he described as "lack of transparency" and "aggressive marketing tactics in regions where gambling is prohibited, often using unregulated payment methods like cryptocurrency to evade financial oversight." He described Bournemouth and Everton as deserving "better than to be sold out to nefarious sponsors."

4. The Scale of the Unlicensed Channel

Research commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council and published in early May puts UK black-market stakes at £16.6 billion in 2025, more than triple the 2019 figure of around £5 billion. The regulated market's share has fallen from 97% in 2019 to 92% in 2025. A separate Frontier Economics study commissioned by the BGC found roughly 1.5 million Britons stake £4.3 billion a year with unlicensed operators — about 9% of total UK gambling market share by Yield Sec's estimate, up from 2% four years ago. A WARC analysis for the BGC projects unlicensed operators could account for more than half of all UK sports-sponsorship spend by October 2027. The Campaign for Fairer Gambling reported that 89% of illegal sports streams in the UK during 2024/25 carried advertising from operators not licensed in the UK; illegal streams have more than doubled over three years to 3.6 billion.

5. DCMS Consultation and Premier League Voluntary Ban

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport launched a consultation in February on banning unlicensed gambling operators from sponsoring British sports teams. Entain's argument is that the IFR should not wait for the DCMS process to conclude — its remit covers club governance and commercial conduct generally, and its consultation closed on 5 May. From the start of the 2026/27 season, which kicks off in August, Premier League clubs are subject to a self-imposed voluntary ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship; however, sleeve sponsorships, perimeter LED advertising and social-media partnerships remain permitted, and reports indicate the Premier League has lobbied DCMS to preserve unregulated brands on sleeves and stadium hoardings. Entain has separately written to Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters proposing a meeting and an immediate voluntary ban ahead of next season.

6. Outlook

The IFR's response to its second licensing consultation is expected in the coming weeks. The regulator is being asked, in effect, to clarify language it has already drafted rather than write anything new — a lower lift than waiting for primary or secondary legislation. For the licensed UK industry, the timing matters: the new Illegal Gambling Taskforce, whose terms of reference were published by DCMS on 13 May, is mandated to attack payment flows and online advertising for unlicensed operators, and Premier League shirt sleeves are among the most visible advertising surfaces in British sport. If the IFR accepts Entain's reading, the six named clubs would need to terminate or rebadge their current arrangements before August. If it does not, the campaign now has a clear set of named targets and a paper trail. For licensed sportsbook operators outside Entain's perimeter, the broader signal is that UK industry stakeholders are now actively naming offshore operators rather than allowing them to operate in the regulatory grey space that white-label arrangements created.

Sources

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