Shirt sponsorship. A gamble?

when I won the raffle for the front of the home shirt for Berwick Rangers I always intended to give it to somebody to whom it would benefit. Northen Soul Kitchen were the lucky recipient. This lead to some good publicity for them and for the football club. All good stuff. I was later interviewed via Skype for a segment on BBC look North. I managed to bumble through this although it was at the peak of my back pain at the time and I was on morphine tablets! One of the interesting questions/discussions we had (can’t remember if this was aired or not) was the fact that I had given it to a local community project. I never really though much about it, it was always going somewhere like that. But the interviewer did mention that it would make a nice piece on the news. It was a local Concern and would bring club and community closer etc. The interviewer mentioned that this was so refreshing in the current shirt sponsorship climate where most of the premier league teams and championship teams were now sponsored by betting firms. And the two biggest (arguably) teams in Scotland Celtic and Rangers are also sponsored by betting firms along with Motherwell and Hibs.. They also play in a league system sponsored by Ladbrokes, compete in the William Hill Scottish cup and the league cup sponsored by betfred. I never thought much about this but having just looked this up it’s actually quite staggering the number of teams sponsored by betting firms. This is by no means an exhaustive list ther will be others out there too.

Premier League Teams With Betting Shirt Sponsors
Bournemouth – Mansion 88
Burnley – LaBa 360
Crystal Palace – ManBetX
Everton – SportPesa
Fulham – Dafabet
Huddersfield – OPE
Newcastle United – Fun88
West Ham – Betway
Wolves – W88

Championship Teams With Betting Shirt Sponsors (LEAGUE SPONSORSHIP SKYBET)
Aston Villa – 32Red
Blackburn – 10Bet
Birmingham City – 888sport
Brentford – LeoVegas
Bristol City – Dunder
Bolton – Betfred
Derby County – 32Red
Ipswich – Magical Vegas
Hull City – SportPesa
Leeds United – 32Red
Middlesbrough – 32Red
Norwich – LeoVegas
Nottingham Forest – BetBright
Preston – 32Red
QPR – Royal Panda
Stoke City – bet365
Swansea – BETUK.com