New pathways into sports have been opened for gambling firms as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) implements emergency procedures for The Hundred.
According to the Telegraph, The Hundred Board and the ECB have agreed on an emergency clause to open up the tournament for sponsorship opportunities by gambling firms.
This came about due to three out of the tournament’s eight teams finding themselves without front-of-shirt financial backing days before the competition starts on 21 July 2026.
The Hundred was founded by the ECB in 2021 to try and attract a new audience of cricket fans, modernising the format with the introduction of live DJs, trendy digital marketing, and free-to-air TV agreements with some of the biggest domestic broadcasters.
In addition, the ECB also went with a more family-friendly approach.
Hundred betting deals to be tightly controlled
For a long time, everything around The Hundred, including sponsorship opportunities, was centrally managed by the ECB. While this was the case, KP Snacks was the overarching sponsor of the tournament, with the food company’s portfolio of products supplying front-of-shirt branding for all teams.
This year saw this structure change significantly, with the ECB selling stakes in teams to investors, handing over the commercial governance into private hands.
But with close to 40% of all teams in the tournament failing to secure a front-of-shirt deal, the ECB was forced to call an emergency meeting with The Hundred Board, where the “last resort” decision to allow gambling firms in was taken, despite the competition’s family-friendly focus.
However, if an operator is looking to sponsor a team, it must do so under strict conditions:
- the deal will only be allowed during the 2026 season. All gambling sponsorships in The Hundred will be banned from 2027 onwards;
- sponsorships must first meet a certain financial threshold to be approved;
- even if a deal is in place, players can opt to remove gambling branding from their shirts if they want to;
- no gambling branding on under-18s replica kits;
- no gambling branding on under-18s professional kits;
- deals must abide with the Code of Conduct on betting sponsorships established by the Gambling Act review White Paper of April 2023.
For the Telegraph, an ECB spokesperson said: “While on-kit betting partnerships are permitted in county cricket and many other cricket leagues around the world, The Hundred Board has agreed that they should be banned in The Hundred given the competition’s family-friendly focus.
“Ultimately this is a decision for teams to make, and given the transitional nature of 2026, some teams remained keen to have the option to pursue visible betting partners for this year’s competition only. Consensus was therefore reached amongst the teams to permit on-kit betting partnerships in 2026, subject to a number of strict parameters.”
Are gambling deals guaranteed to happen?
It is not a prerequisite that the remaining three teams will sign a sponsorship agreement with a gambling firm. They can still play throughout the tournament with a blank front-of-shirt space if they fail to secure any other sponsor.
However, such a development would most likely hamper the financial targets for whichever team decides to play without a front-of-shirt sponsor.
Additionally, while betting firms are a common team sponsor across all three other cricket competitions that the ECB currently governs, attracting a similar sponsor for a team in The Hundred is not really guaranteed given the current regulatory landscape in the UK.
Gambling firms have historically been keen to increase their visibility across sports and secure financial backing for all teams involved. Front-of-shirt deals are perhaps even more desired as of now, given the upcoming voluntary ban of these agreements in the Premier League.
However, with the gambling taxes continuously being heightened, including the increase in Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40%, and the scheduled hike in gambling licence fees, operators are wary about how they prioritise their marketing budgets now more than ever.
