By Daniel Feliciano

30th Mar, 2023 | 12:02pm

West Ham United could suffer £10m annual losses as Premier League agree new gambling advertisement rules

West Ham United could suffer annual losses of up to £10m as the Premier League is set to agree new rules to ban gambling advertisement on the front of shirts.

The Hammers are one of eight Premier League teams to have a gambling firm’s logo donned across the front of their shirt, with Betway emblazoned across West Ham’s kits currently.

But a new Premier League rule is set to be agreed to voluntarily ban it according to a report from The Times (29 March), which could see clubs lose between £5-10m annually from their income.

Gambling firms are notorious for paying big money to claim that space because they know football fans are a huge part of their market, but a vote is set to take place in the summer to bring that to an end.

Blow

West Ham are not in financial issues right now and the likelihood of them entering that sort of territory any time soon is unlikely.

However the fact that there are none of the “Big Six” clubs sponsored by those firms means they won’t be affected by the changes and the financial gap will only get bigger.

New companies will come in and take the spaces on shirts, no doubt, but they’re highly unlikely to pay the same sort of amounts as betting companies currently and that will leave a hole in the income for many.

It’s a tough situation for many, but the decision is the right one for the future of the game because gambling is a horrible thing that can consume people and it shouldn’t be at the forefront of the game.

But unfortunately, it is, and now the clubs will suffer for the decision because they’ll have to find a new way to plug the gap of up to £10m a year that is being taken away from them.