Key Takeaways
- Entain’s general counsel wrote to six Premier League clubs on May 15 over unlicensed gambling sponsor deals.
- Zinger letters cite Stake’s “ cryptocurrency reliance” and BJ88’s “unregulated payment methods like cryptocurrency.”
- Escalation follows February’s letter to Premier League CEO and May 7 IFR submission.
Entain’s General Counsel Escalates Past Premier League and Regulator to Pressure Individual Clubs
This escalation follows Entain CEO Stella David’s February letter to Premier League CEO Richard Masters and the company’s May 7 (IFR) submission to the Independent Football Regulator’s licensing consultation. Entain General Counsel Simon Zinger wrote to executive figures at Burnley, Bournemouth, Fulham, Everton, Sunderland, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, all of which currently maintain shirt sponsorship arrangements with operators without a UK Gambling Commission license.
Zinger’s letter to Everton CEO Angus Kinnear argued that “ Stake’s heavy reliance on cryptocurrency and its history of operating in grey jurisdictions make it a lightning rod for concerns regarding money laundering and lack of player protection,” and that the company’s “rapid rise has been fuelled by an unregulated streamer culture that specifically targets the younger demographics your Everton in the Community programmes seek to protect.” Stake surrendered its UK Gambling Commission license in February 2025 after the regulator launched an investigation into a December 2024 social media campaign featuring adult performer Bonnie Blue.
In his letter to Bournemouth Chairman Bill Foley, Zinger wrote that “the sponsorship with BJ88 is particularly concerning given the brand’s lack of transparent corporate history and its focus on the grey market” and that “BJ88 has been frequently associated with aggressive marketing tactics in regions where gambling is prohibited, often using unregulated payment methods like cryptocurrency to evade financial oversight.” Zinger added that “by accepting sponsorship from a firm that operates in the shadows of international law, Bournemouth is actively legitimising the infrastructure used by the global black market.”
Four of the six sponsor brands Zinger named (BJ88, SBOTOP, 96.com, and DEBET) operated under the UK Gambling Commission’s licensing framework via TGP Europe, an Isle of Man-based white-label provider that surrendered its license on May 15, 2025, after a £3.3 million regulatory fine for failing to conduct business partner checks and implement anti-money laundering controls. The brands’ UK licensing status dissolved with TGP’s exit, but the clubs’ sponsorship arrangements with them continued. Sunderland’s W88 deal flowed through DM Limited Gaming, which surrendered its license in 2024
Entain’s campaign has unfolded in three stages. CEO Stella David wrote Richard Masters in February proposing a voluntary ban on unlicensed operator sponsorship and requesting a meeting. The company’s May 7 IFR submission, which asked the regulator to issue guidance that income from unlicensed UK gambling activity constitutes funds “connected to serious criminal conduct” under the IFR’s draft Annex B, Part IV. Bournemouth has since signed Vitality as its 2026/27 front-of-shirt sponsor; Everton has signed CMC Markets.
The Premier League’s voluntary front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship ban takes effect from the 2026/27 season but does not extend to sleeve patches, perimeter LED, or social media marketing, leaving operational space that Entain’s letters describe as insufficient. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Illegal Gambling Taskforce, chaired by Baroness Twycross since January 2026, is separately consulting on whether to ban unlicensed operator sponsorship in British sports entirely.
Entain’s escalation lands within a wider UK regulatory push: the UK Gambling Commission this week posted a senior “Head of Illegal Markets” role to coordinate enforcement against the £16.6 billion UK black market documented by Betting and Gaming Council-commissioned research, alongside £26 million in new government funding for black market enforcement. Separate WARC analysis projected in April that unlicensed operators will overtake the UK’s regulated gambling advertising spend by 2028.
