Esporte Clube Bahia SAF announced a three-month commercial partnership with Esportiva Bet in Brazil. The operator’s branding will appear on the club’s men’s shirts, stadium advertising screens and media backdrops, with promotional activities also planned at the training centre and through fan engagement.
Esportiva Bet gains club, stadium and fan-engagement promotional placements during the partnership.
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Crystal Palace plans to end its NET88 shirt sponsorship and move to US-based artificial intelligence company Temporal by the start of next season, according to a media report. The report says NET88’s deal began before the 2024/25 season and links the change to a wider shift in English football sponsorships ahead of a voluntary front-of-shirt gambling advertising ban.
Polymarket agreed a $22m front-of-shirt sponsorship with Italian football club S.S. Lazio, effective immediately. Italy’s ADM blacklisted Polymarket in October 2025, and regulators consider the platform unlicensed; the report says Italian law also prohibits gambling advertising and sponsorships. Polymarket presents itself as a digital insight partner, while its prediction-market classification remains contested.
A University of Bristol study recorded 15,571 gambling messages during the first weekend of the 2026/27 English top-flight season, with the voluntary front-of-shirt sponsorship ban cutting logo visibility by only 10.5%. Sleeve sponsorships rose 362% and pitch-side advertising accounted for 72% of messages during live matches. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, co-chair of the British parliamentary group on gambling reform, said the data showed the voluntary approach had failed.
Research carried out at the University of Bristol measured how often betting branding appeared on the front of shirts in the English top division. Compared with the season before, the voluntary restriction lowered the visibility of gambling logos by 10.5%. Over the opening weekend of the 2026/27 campaign, the researchers logged 15,571 gambling-related messages, amounting to five hours and 16 minutes of combined exposure.
England’s top football division began its season on Friday with a voluntary ban on gambling sponsors across shirt fronts. Clubs must replace agreements collectively estimated at around £80m annually, while gambling companies can still sponsor sleeves and training kits.
A football league starts its season on 21 August with a ban on betting sponsorships in prominent shirt positions. The report names Arsenal and Coventry City as opponents in the opening fixture.