Everton could be impacted by potential agreement between the government and the Premier League over the removal of gambling sponsors from the front of shirts.
With a white paper on gambling regulation in the UK set to be published in the coming weeks, the BBC report that the government are 'likely' to agree a deal with the Premier League where clubs would be urged to make 'voluntary changes' to front of shirt sponsorships, which are prevalent in English football's top tier with eight of the 20 members clubs having front of shirt deals with gambling firms.
Everton are among those eight teams having signed a 'club record' multi-year deal with online casino Stake.com last year. That deal arrived after the Blues took up an option to end its previous main partnership with online car dealer Cazoo early.
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Just prior to the pandemic, at the start of 2020 Everton CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale said: "Moving forward, in an ideal world we would look to have a different type of sponsor on the front of our shirt."
That comment was made in relation to the decision to end the partnership with SportPesa, the global sports betting firm that had sponsored the front of shirt for the Toffees prior to Cazoo.
But with the impact of the pandemic on Everton's finances, something that only served to exacerbate an already difficult financial situation due to heavy spend during the early years of owner Farhad Moshiri's reign outstripping revenue growth, Everton made the decision to partner with Stake.com at a time when their Premier League status was under threat and the market that they would have hoped to have been fishing in wasn't as buoyant as they would have expected.
According to the BBC, Premier League clubs are yet to vote on any such proposals, while the government is not expected to propose banning gambling sponsorship of clubs by law, leaving the door open for continued commercial partnerships promoted in Premier League stadiums, and also on other parts of club shirts.
In 2021 the government undertook a review into its 17-year-old gambling legislation and its relationship with football in a bid to determine whether it was fit and proper for the modern age. As part of the review there had been some suggestion of a blanket ban on betting sponsorships in the Premier League, although those plans were reported to be shelved in June of last year as a more workable path forward was sought.
In January members of Aston Villa's Fan Consultation Group met with club CEO Christian Purslow after the club was reported to have signed a three-year deal with Asia-based betting firm BK8. Following discussions with the club the FCG issued a statement saying "the commercial reality is that to teams outside the top six, such sponsors offer clubs twice as much financially as non-gambling companies."
Everton's deal with Stake.com has not been without controversy, with a petition for the club to scrap the partnership having attracted over 20,000 signatures online owing to its promotion of gambling and potentially putting vulnerable fans at risk.
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