Entain has reiterated its calls for the UK clampdown on unlicensed betting advertising in English football, taking its case to the new Independent Football Regulator (IFR).
The LSE-listed gambling group’s urging of the IFR comes three months after its Chief Executive Officer, Stella David, made a similar request to Richard Masters, the CEO of the Premier League, to intervene on the promotion of unlicensed online gambling brands, promoted by EPL clubs.
Concerns around the visibility of unlicensed betting firms in English sports, and particularly in the Premier League, are nothing new, with the lack of intervention called out by Labour and Conservative camps.
Yet Entain acts on the frontfoot as its leadership makes a stand against black market gambling as principal tenant of its corporate strategy in 2026.
An intervention is required as 2026 sees UK gambling licences implement further compliance safeguards, with no restrictions or policies to counter black market encroachment.
“Premier League clubs are being sponsored by criminal gambling firms,” Stella David said to the IFR.
“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 IFR was created by the 2025 Football Governance Act. The legislation originated under the Conservative government, a response to the backlash against the attempted breakaway European Super League (ESL). It was shelved ahead of the July 2024 general election, and was subsequently resurrected by the new Labour government.
Attempts to write an anti-gambling sponsorship policy were made during the bill’s development, particularly by Liberal Democrat peers. These were unsuccessful, but Entain now looks to flip this on its head and target unlicensed firms marketing via the Premier League.
The operator is citing an IFR remit to prevent English clubs from accepting income ‘connected to serious criminal conduct’. The firm argues that unlicensed firms are committing criminal offences under the 2005 Gambling Act whenever a customer places a bet via their platform.
Entain’s four point plan
The Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) is considering changing the above-mentioned rule that allows unlicensed firms to maintain Premier League visibility.
Earlier this year, the department created an Illegal Gambling Taskforce, chaired by Baroness Twycross. This task force is consulting on whether to ban unlicensed operators from sponsoring in UK sports entirely, not just in the English Premier League.
The Premier League, meanwhile, has already taken its own action around gambling advertising. From the end of the ongoing 2025/26 season, no operator will be able to market themselves on the front of Premier League shirts.
Deals covering sleeves, LED boards and social media will remain – but under current standards, these will be open to either licensed or unlicensed firms. Entain wants to make sure this advertising space is available only to the licensed market.
Entain has made four specific requests to the IFR. Firstly, it has called for the IFR to ‘confirm in guidance’ that income from unlicensed gambling operators would consist of funds ‘connected to serious criminal misconduct’ in the regulator’s draft.
It has also requested that the IFR require club directors to verify the licence status of any gambling partner, strengthen its Football Club Corporate Governance Code to require club boards to treat reputation risk from commercial deals as a governance responsibility, and publish general guidelines to all clubs around gambling deals.
“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,” David continued.
“We are asking the regulator to define and apply it before the next season begins. The IFR was created to fix English football’s governance failures. This is one of them.”
Entain’s new angle in the black market battle
UK gambling raising concerns about the black market is hardly uncommon. The black market has been cited as a rationale against affordability checks/financial risk checks, against higher taxation, and against marketing restrictions, among other changes.
This morning, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the UK trade body for licensed betting firms, cited research from H2 Gambling Capital estimating the size of the offshore betting market at £16.6bn in 2025, up from ‘around £5bn’ in 2019.
The BGC also argues that a lower proportion of bets are being placed on the regulated market, with the share of legal gambling falling from 97% in 2019 to 92% in 2025.
“What we are seeing is a harmful black market scaling up at pace,” said Grainne Hurst, BGC CEO.
“Illegal operators are becoming more sophisticated, more visible and more aggressive in how they reach UK customers. That should concern anyone who cares about consumer protection.
“The choice for policymakers is clear. If the regulated sector becomes harder to use or less competitive, customers will not stop betting, they will simply go elsewhere.”
In its own submission to the IFR, Entain has cited BGC-commissioned research which found that 1.5 million UK residents staked £4.3bn annually on unlicensed sites.
A challenge may be convincing UK politicians of the black market threat, many of whom have become numb to the industry’s argument that further regulation and taxation will benefit the illegal sector.
By gunning for football, however, Entain is taking a new approach.
The betting and football love triangle
The link between betting and football in the UK is incredibly close. Wagering on the country’s favourite sport is as old as the game itself, and football coupons have been a mainstay of the British betting shop system since the 1960s.
In 2019/20, football surpassed horse racing as the most bet on sport in the UK. It’s no surprise then that betting operators have sought out marketing space in football, and especially in the coveted Premier League with its global audience of over one billion people.
And for the clubs in question, the benefit is obvious – a financial pipeline. Betting deals rank among some of the most valuable in the Premier League, whether with licensed firms seeking UK exposure, or unlicensed ones seeking to capsule on the league’s popularity in other markets, particularly in Asia.
The most coveted of these deals? The front of the shirt – a notable example being Betway and West Ham United, the longest running deal in Premier League history.
The East London club now counts UK-and-Ireland omnichannel bookmaker BoyleSports as its front-of-shirt partner, while 2025/26 Europa League finalists Aston Villa have been partnered with Greek-based, UK-licensed Betano for two years.
Sponsorships have also included pitchside LED advertising and social media. While Entain’s brands have never had a front-of-shirt deal, they’ve still been keen to work with top-flight clubs – Ladbrokes is a partner of Liverpool FC, for example.
This coveted marketing space in the Premier League has also caught the attention of lesser known, and in many cases unregulated, operators too, however. This has been a source of frustration for fans, gambling reform advocates and the regulated industry alike.
Notable examples of active partnerships between unlicensed gambling firms and top-flight clubs include Stake and Everton, DE.BET and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and SBOTOP and Fulham, all of which are front-of-shirt partners.
Until April 2024, a number of Asian-facing brands held UK licences via the Isle of Man-based TGP Europe white label group – including the three named above. The TGP Europe group shut down in April 2024, surrendering its UK Gambling Commission and Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission (IoM GSC) licences.
Despite not holding licences, these firms are still able to maintain their partnerships as long as they can prove that their domains are not available to UK customers. Some companies, like Chelsea partner 8xbet, have gone to inventive lengths to prove this.
A lot of public frustration with the betting industry’s visibility in football has been fuelled by the prevalence of offshore, Asia-facing betting deals, and by securing a win against these, Entain may be hoping to secure a win for the regulated industry’s wider public image.