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Black Market Casino Continues to Sponsor a Premier League Team
The front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship ban comes into effect at the start of the 2026/2027 Premier League season, but that doesn’t stop the world’s biggest online casino from continuing to sponsor Everton Football Club on their match shirts.
The issue? Stake.com does not hold a UKGC license and is therefore a black-market casino in the UK.
What does the Premier League shirt ban look like?
In 2023, it was decided that a ban on gambling sponsors being visible on the front of Premier League matchday shirts would come into effect at the start of the 2026/2027 season.
However, this doesn’t stop gambling companies from being visible on match shirt sleeves, training kits, and pitch-side LED boards.
Stake.com has been one of Everton Football Club’s most prominent and important sponsors over the last four seasons and was previously the front sponsor on the match shirts. However, the new ban has changed their placement from the front to the sleeves of the Everton match shirts.
It has been reported that Stake has signed a new multi-year agreement to become Everton Football Club’s official sleeve partner.
How can brands that don’t hold a valid UK license sponsor Premier League teams?
The Premier League is feeling pressure to act and ban sponsorships from unlicensed gambling firms, but no full ban is in place yet.
The removal of gambling sponsorship on the front of match shirts affects not only unlicensed gambling companies, as even fully UKGC-licensed sites are no longer allowed to do so. So, this newly implemented front-of-the-match shirt ban is more of a crackdown on the whole gambling industry than targeted at non-licensed brands.
Entain, which operates popular UK sites such as Ladbrokes and BetMGM, has been a loud opponent of unlicensed gambling firms being allowed to sponsor Premier League teams, arguing that these black-market firms illegally target British customers and use top-tier football clubs to legitimise their operations.
The Premier League is today the most popular football league among audiences around the world, so it also serves as a lucrative marketing opportunity in global markets for these non-UK licensed gambling companies.
Who are Stake.com?
Stake is the world’s biggest online casino, founded in 2017 by Australians Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani.
Stake.com has seen exceptional growth through a crypto-first strategy combined with marketing focused on slot streamers and other high-end activities, such as sponsoring a Formula 1 team and a Premier League club, as well as other channels.
Stake is operated by Medium Rare N.V., a company incorporated in Curacao where it holds its online casino license.
Stake was previously licensed in the UK but lost its UKGC license in March 2025 after appearing in a widely viewed video featuring an adult actress outside Nottingham Trent University while displaying a Stake-branded-logo. Stake has over 200 employees according to its official LinkedIn profile.
