SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Asian betting firm W88 has been named the front-of-shirt sponsor at newly-promoted Sunderland FC.
In a new one-season white-label deal, W88 replaces another gambling company, UK-based Spreadex, who has appeared on the first team shirts since June 2022. W88 also becomes the club’s Asian betting partner.
Having previously been active in the UK via Midnight Gaming, W88 company surrendered its licence to the UKGC last summer. It is now most active in Asia and some parts of Latin America.
This may cause some issues for Sunderland, as fellow Premier League clubs Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace recently received warnings from the British regulator concerning their partnerships with Kaiyun Sports – another betting website that is not licensed to operate in the UK.
The code outlines that: “Where a gambling-related agreement provides consumers in the UK with facilities for gambling, competitions and clubs should only enter into agreements where the gambling company is licensed by the Gambling Commission or captured as part of a white label partnership”.
However, W88 still has had a presence elsewhere in the English top flight; In June 2023 the brand was named the front-of-shirt partner of Burnley FC for the 2023-24 season. Burnley did not seem to run into any issues with its links to the Philippines-headquartered firm.
A W88 spokesperson said: “It’s an incredible honour for all of us at W88 to be partnering with Sunderland AFC, a club with such a storied history throughout the last 150 years.
“Following an incredible return to the Premier League, we see SAFC as the perfect partner to activate with in our overseas target markets, and we can’t wait to be collaborating with them ahead of what promises to be another exciting season on Wearside.”
A short-lived relationship?
Sunderland’s return to the Premier League means that the partnership can only last for one year as the gambling sponsorship ban nears. In 2024, top-division clubs voluntarily agreed to ban betting companies from front-of-shirt sponsorships starting with the 2026–27 season for player safety reasons.
The W88 link-up is reportedly Sunderland’s biggest commercial deal ever, maximising the club’s revenue before they must soon look for another brand to place on the kit.
Sunderland’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ashley Peden, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with W88, who possess a proven track record of establishing successful partnerships with elite sporting organisations, including Premier League football clubs.
“The agreement represents the largest commercial deal in the club’s history, and it will contribute significantly towards enabling the club to compete in the Premier League.”
Mounting pressure
These kinds of Asian facing white label deals are facing increasing pressure in the UK at the moment due to transparency concerns, and some links to unlicensed offshore gambling markets.
The aforementioned Kaiyun Sports brand has previously been licensed under a ‘white label’ agreement with Isle of Man-based TGP Europe, and the expiration of this deal in 2024 is what led to the UKGC’s warnings to Crystal Palace.
The subsequent exit of TGP Europe from the UK market also stands to significantly impact Premier League clubs that relied on this model for sponsorship partners – Fulham, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth all being clubs with TGP Europe partners.
TGP Europe seems to remain at the centre of these investigations, whilst the UKGC recently announced that an investigation resulted in the company being issued a £3.3m fine for both due diligence and AML failures.
Asian-facing sponsorships have also caused the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) to raise some concerns over the years. In 2020, it said: “The huge Asian betting markets facilitate illegal betting, match-fixing and corrupting sport – this clearly leaves sports and teams who profess to cherish sports integrity open to accusations of hypocrisy.
“Asian-facing betting operators leverage on their association with respected sports teams to legitimise their products and target customers in Asia, where both European football and betting are hugely popular.”
