Chelsea Under Fire for Gambling Shirt Sponsorship Deal

Chelsea is permitted to sign new sponsorship agreements with bookmakers, but their choice to do so has drawn criticism

Chelsea Under Fire for Gambling Shirt Sponsorship Deal 

The rumoured shirt sponsorship agreement between Chelsea and the betting website Stake.com has been denounced by anti-gambling activists and fans as "completely tone deaf" and being led by "reckless billionaire owners."

According to sources, the Premier League club has entered "final negotiations" with Stake over a 12-month deal that would begin the following season and come close to matching the £40 million paid to the club by former sponsors Three, the mobile network, whose contract with the Blues expired earlier this summer.

Chelsea is permitted to sign new sponsorship agreements with bookmakers, but their choice to do so has drawn criticism because all Premier League teams have agreed to prohibit gambling industry logos from appearing on the front of players' jerseys starting at the conclusion of the 2025–26 season.

Contrary to popular belief, sleeve sponsors and pitch-side billboards will not be included in the blacklisting.

Although the Premier League stated that the three-year interim period would allow teams to "transition away" from such agreements, Chelsea seems to have continued to look for business options inside the industry.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of Clean Up Gambling and Coalition Against Gambling Ads told i: “The government’s failure to take proper and immediate action on gambling sponsorship in football is being exploited yet again by a cash-rich sector looking to groom the next generation of gamblers.

“Curbing gambling ads cannot be left up to voluntary agreements while football is run by reckless billionaire owners with no regard for the harm being done to their fans.”

The judgement was described as "completely tone deaf" by the organisation Gambling With Lives, which was founded by families who had lost loved ones to gambling-related suicide.

The UK government praised the decision to outlaw front-of-shirt gambling sponsors starting at the conclusion of the 2025–26 season, but emphasised that up until that point, the clubs themselves would be responsible for making sponsorship selections.

In a survey of its members conducted on Sunday, the Chelsea Supporters' Trust discovered that 77% of supporters opposed having a betting corporation serve as the team's major jersey sponsor.