Gambling marketing persists after Premier League shirt ban, Bristol study finds

The fourth annual study tracked TV, radio, and social media, and found sleeve and training kit branding up 362.7% on the previous three-year average.

New research from the University of Bristol has found that the Premier League’s ban on gambling sponsors on the front of matchday shirts had a limited effect on the overall volume of gambling marketing during the 2026/27 opening weekend. 

The report, published on 21 October 2026, is the fourth and final study in an annual series run by the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research.

Key findings

• The University of Bristol recorded 15,571 gambling messages across the 2026/27 Premier League opening weekend, 41.57% above 2023.
• The front-of-shirt ban removed logos from shirt fronts, while live-match messages excluding sponsorship lead-ins fell only 10.5% against the 2023–2025 average. 
• Branding on sleeves and training kits rose 362.7%, and pitchside boards accounted for 72.06% of live-match messages.
• Paid social ads reached 18- to 24-year-olds 16.6 million times, despite the industry’s under-25 targeting rule.
• The researchers and the APPG for Gambling Reform are calling for legislation to replace self-regulation.

What the study covered

The report, titled ‘Gambling marketing and the Premier League: four years of failed self-regulation’, covers four channels:

• All seven Premier League matches broadcast live in the UK from 21 to 24 August 2026
• Sky Sports News on 22 August, from 6am to 9pm
• TalkSPORT radio on 22 August, from 6am to 9pm
• Social media posts and paid ads from the 10 GB-licensed betting brands with the largest followings

Researchers recorded 15,571 gambling messages in total. That is lower than in 2024 and 2025. It is 41.57% above the 10,999 recorded in 2023, when the shirt-front ban and football’s Sponsorship Code had been announced but were not yet in force. 

When several identical logos appear in the same shot, each one counts as a separate message. A single camera shot can therefore produce multiple messages.

Shirt-front ban and where branding moved

Gambling logos all but disappeared from the front of matchday shirts. The nine messages recorded in that position all came from archive footage of the previous season.

To measure the ban’s effect, the researchers compared 2026 with the average for 2023 to 2025. Total live-match messages fell 35.9% against that average. Most of the fall came from sponsorship lead-ins, which dropped 87.5% after changes to the Bet365-sponsored lead-in segment and how often it was shown. None of the measures studied covers lead-ins.

With lead-ins excluded, messages fell 10.5%. The researchers say this is the reduction associated with the shirt restriction.

Dr Raffaello Rossi, senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Bristol Business School and co-director of the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research, said: 

‘The front of shirt ban was effective in removing gambling logos from shirt fronts, but it did not remove them from football. Branding remained highly visible on pitchside hoardings and around stadiums, while some appears simply to have shifted to shirt sleeves and training kits.’

A separate University of Nottingham study found that front-of-shirt logos made up 27.1% of gambling appearances in Premier League highlights from the end of the 2025/26 season, before the ban. 

Live broadcasts

• The seven broadcasts carried 11,205 messages. That is 48.64% fewer than in 2025 and 60.85% more than in 2023, when six matches were analysed.
• At least one gambling message was on screen for five hours and 16 minutes, which is 19.62% of broadcast time.
• The average number of messages per broadcast minute rose from about 4.81 in 2023 to 6.95.
• Newcastle United v Liverpool had the highest exposure, with 2,702 messages. Gambling marketing was on screen for 40.71% of that broadcast.
• Electronic and static pitchside boards together accounted for 72.06% of messages.
• 7,816 messages (69.75%) appeared during the whistle-to-whistle period. That restriction applies to TV commercials only. It does not cover logos on boards, kits, or stadium structures.
• Betway, Bet365, and Betano together accounted for 65.18% of messages.
• Four of the 27 brands seen were not licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. They made up 8.46% of messages. 
• Harm reduction messaging appeared in 21.08% of incidences, up from 12.13% in 2025.

Social media and the under-25 rule

The researchers identified 1,522 gambling ads from the 10 brands studied. Of these, 499 were organic posts on X and 1,023 were paid ads on Facebook or Instagram. 

• 74% of organic posts were content marketing, and 93% of those were not clearly identifiable as advertising. The CAP Code requires marketing to be obviously identifiable as such.
• Organic posts drew 21.8 million views.
• Paid ads reached UK accounts 153.2 million times by 24 August. The same account can be counted more than once.
• Users aged 18 to 24 accounted for 16.6 million instances of that reach, or 10.9% of the total, and 75.6% of this younger reach was male.

International comparison

The report compares its UK figures with studies elsewhere that used the same coding method.

Calls for legislation

Rossi presented the findings to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Gambling Reform on 21 October.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, co-chair of the APPG for Gambling Reform, said:

‘These findings are further evidence that the voluntary approach to gambling advertising in football is failing. After repeated promises of reform, fans continue to be exposed to thousands of gambling messages during Premier League coverage.’

The report recommends four measures, delivered through legislation:

• extending the whistle-to-whistle ban to all gambling marketing during sporting events, including kit sponsorship, pitchside and stadium advertising, broadcast sponsorship, and related social media and radio 
• requiring clear harm warnings on all gambling marketing, with minimum standards for size, prominence, and duration
• banning gambling content marketing on social media
• limiting sponsorship and marketing to operators licensed by the Gambling Commission, with clubs, leagues, and broadcasters legally responsible for checking

The report notes that the House of Lords Liaison Committee reached a similar conclusion in September 2026. The committee described a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising as the most effective long-term option.

The post Gambling marketing persists after Premier League shirt ban, Bristol study finds appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.