Celtic could be affected further down the line after the Premier League agreed to make a big change to gambling sponsorship.
England’s top-flight has today announced that they will “withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of their matchday shirts”.
They will become the first UK sports league to take such a measure with the agreement beginning at the end of the 2025/26 season.
The Premier League says the agreement “follows an extensive consultation involving the League, its clubs and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of the government’s ongoing review of current gambling legislation.”
While this news obviously doesn’t directly affect Celtic, it does seem like a big change in attitudes towards gambling sponsorship.
Celtic are currently in partnership with online betting site Dafabet, who feature on the front of all of our kits.
That has been the case since the start of the 2016/17 season, with the deal to run until the end of the 2024/25 campaign. (Celtic)
Given Scottish football’s tendency to follow their English counterparts, it seems possible that a similar agreement could be reached here.
But even if that’s not the case, there will likely be pressure on Celtic to go down another route at the end of the Dafabet deal.
A Public Health England study released in September 2021 found that there are an estimated 409 suicides linked to gambling in England every year. (The Times)
It would be nice to see Celtic do their bit to bring about positive change in this regard.
In other news, Steven Naismith brought Celtic up at his first Hearts managerial press conference
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