(AsiaGameHub) – Crystal Palace is the most recent Premier League team to arrange a new front-of-shirt sponsor in anticipation of the league’s upcoming voluntary prohibition on gambling firms.
The Eagles have announced an agreement with the American AI company Temporal, which will take over from the current front-of-shirt sponsor, NET88, starting in the 2026/27 season.
This comes after AFC Bournemouth’s decision to appoint their long-term partner Vitality as their primary shirt sponsor, revealed in December 2025. Vitality is set to replace BJ88—an operator lacking a UK licence, although it previously operated under a white-label arrangement with the defunct TGP Europe.
The UK-licensed bookmaker NET88 can find some comfort in knowing that its final appearance on a Crystal Palace kit will occur during the club’s historic first European final next week.
Why was the Crystal Palace agreement controversial from the start?
The Asian bookmaker signed a record-breaking deal to become Crystal Palace’s front-of-shirt sponsor at the start of the 2024/25 season, yet the alliance faced criticism right from the beginning.
Despite being a regulated operator, when the Crystal Palace contract was signed in June 2024, the company had no established presence in the UK, and its website was not yet operational.
This white-label entity is managed by RISQ Capital, an organization that has previously faced scrutiny over the sponsorship activities of another of its operators with a Premier League team.
RISQ also runs DEBET, which serves as the front-of-shirt sponsor for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Although DEBET holds a licence in the UK, its domain, debet.co.uk, is currently marked as ‘inactive’ on the Gambling Commission’s site, even though it remains readily accessible to UK users.
Regardless, the announcement that Crystal Palace has secured a new partnership will be positively received by the club as well as by the many voices campaigning against gambling sponsorship in the Premier League.
Entain pushes for a comprehensive ban on unlicensed sponsorships
One prominent gambling company, Entain—the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral—has been notably cooperative, having ceased all sponsorship involvement with English and Scottish football starting from the 2019/20 season.
However, Chief Executive Officer Stella David appears to be losing patience with regulatory bodies as she advocates for a total prohibition on unlicensed operators sponsoring English teams.
“It is unacceptable for clubs in the world’s most watched football league to be promoting gambling brands that do not possess a UK licence,” David stated in February.
“These operators fail to contribute to British sport, they avoid paying UK gambling levies, and they do not maintain the player protection standards that underpin our regulated market.”
Only last week, Simon Zinger, General Counsel for the LSE-listed firm, sent letters to six Premier League clubs—Burnley, Bournemouth, Fulham, Everton, Sunderland and Wolves—requesting that they engage exclusively with licensed operators for any sponsorship arrangements beginning next season.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has pledged to review gambling advertising protocols, with the government preparing to consult on a blanket ban targeting unlicensed operators, yet there has been little to no communication since the initial announcement in February.
David remarked: “We support the government’s dedication to reviewing this sector, and Lisa Nandy has emphasized that consumer protection is a top priority.
“However, as the consultation process continues, clubs are already ordering kits for next season and finalizing commercial agreements. The Premier League need not delay—it has the power to act immediately.”
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