Welcome to issue #084 of Contemporary Football, your inside look at how the game really works behind the scenes.
Monday to Friday, you’ll uncover a new perspective on football business, and sometimes a deeper story that sharpens your thinking and gives you an edge in the beautiful game.
If you need support on your football journey, just write me.
Something changed in the Premier League.
From next season, betting companies will no longer appear on the front of shirts.
And suddenly, a number starts circulating.
€90M.
That’s the estimated drop in sponsorship revenue.
But the number is not the story.
What betting companies were really doing
For years, betting companies were not just sponsors.
They were setting the price of the market.
They paid more.
They moved faster.
They valued exposure differently.
In many cases, they were not benchmarking against banks, tech companies or consumer brands.
They were benchmarking against attention.
And they were willing to pay for it.
Remove them, and the market resets
Take that layer out.
You don’t just lose sponsors.
You lose the reference point.
And when the reference point changes:
deals get renegotiated lower
clubs start reshuffling existing partners
negotiations take longer
some clubs begin the season without a main sponsor
This is already happening.
The illusion that breaks
Many clubs thought:
“Our shirt is worth X.”
That number was never fixed.
It depended on:
who was bidding
why they were bidding
how much they needed visibility
Betting companies were solving that equation in a very specific way.
Now that equation changes.
And some clubs are discovering that the “real” value is lower.
One league, two markets
This shift makes something clearer.
There are two completely different commercial realities inside the same league.
Clubs with global demand
They attract:
airlines
financial institutions
global brands
They sign long-term deals.
They operate in a stable market.
They are largely unaffected.
Clubs dependent on specific categories
They relied on:
betting companies
short-term deals
aggressive buyers
They are now competing for a smaller pool.
At lower prices.
This is not about betting
It’s about dependency.
If your revenue depends on a category that:
pays above market
behaves differently
has regulatory risk
then your pricing is not stable.
It’s conditional.
And conditional revenue always looks solid.
Until one variable changes.
What clubs are doing now
Some clubs are adapting in real time.
moving training sponsors to the main shirt
accepting smaller deals
waiting for better timing
Even large clubs have delayed sponsorship agreements.
Not by choice.
Because the market is not clearing at previous levels.
The real question
Football has always benefited from industries that:
needed visibility fast
were willing to overpay for it
Betting was one of them.
Now that layer is gone from the main shirt.
Who replaces that behaviour?
Without a category willing to stretch the price…
the market becomes more rational.
And rational markets expose weaknesses.
The gap that matters
€90M is the visible number.
The real gap is different.
It’s the distance between:
what clubs believed their inventory was worth and what buyers are actually willing to pay
That gap was always there.
Now it’s harder to ignore.
One question to think about
If one category disappears from your revenue mix…
How much of your business goes with it?
That’s all for today!
Federico