The head of Italy’s football federation has called on the government to overturn the ban on gambling ads in the country, claiming that Italian clubs need the revenue to produce better domestic players.
It comes in the wake of Italy failing to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row.
Meanwhile, the cost of the Premier League’s voluntary ban on gambling ads has been chalked up at £80 million as clubs seek alternative sources of investment.
Debated Decree
It’s scarcely believable that Italy, one of the most successful teams in international football history, will once again be missing at the World Cup.
They lost in a play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina, condemning them to a third straight absence from football’s showpiece occasion.
Italy miss out on a THIRD consecutive World Cup after losing on penalties to Bosnia-Herzegovina! 😮 pic.twitter.com/QONU4SPwvL
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) March 31, 2026
There are numerous reasons why Italian football has regressed so dramatically over the past decade or so, with a lack of financial investment said to be one of them.
That situation was exacerbated in 2018 when the government penned a Dignity Decree, banning all forms of gambling advertising in the media and prohibiting football clubs from being sponsored by betting firms.
Although Italian clubs are unable to command the same exorbitant sponsorship fees as their Premier League equivalents, it’s still thought that the gambling ad ban has cost football in Italy around €150 million (£130 million) annually.
It’s money that the now departed chief of Italian football, Gabriele Gravina, believes the country needs in order to be competitive on the international stage again.
Gravina, who quit as the head of the Italian Football Federation on April 2, has published a report into the ‘structural deficiencies’ of the sport in what was once a footballing hotbed.
In amongst a series of problems identified by Gravina, which include a lack of Italian players featuring regularly in Serie A and a hectic fixture list, he also recognised a lack of investment in youth and grassroots in football in Italy as a main contributory factor.
He has called for the ban on gambling ads to be overturned, with a percentage of the revenue generated then ringfenced for spending on youth football infrastructure.
The battle will now need to be fought by the incoming Italian Football Federation president, who will be appointed in June. Gravina resigned, as did Italy’s head coach Gennaro Gattuso and key aide Gianluigi Buffon, within 72 hours of the galling defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Black Hole
As the 2025/26 season winds down, as many as eleven Premier League clubs are yet to sign a front-of-shirt sponsorship agreement for next term.
The voluntary ban on gambling sponsors will kick in this summer, leaving the EPL’s elite with the task of finding replacement companies willing to stump up the big bucks.
Of the eleven Premier League clubs currently sponsored by a gambling firm, at least eight – possibly more – will need a new sponsor ahead of the new campaign, which gets underway in August.
Meanwhile Middlesbrough, who are hotly tipped to gain promotion from the Championship, are currently sponsored by Unibet.
It’s widely accepted that non-gambling firms won’t pay as much as the current sponsorship deals, with clubs facing a drop-off in commercial revenue in the region of £80 million.
“Nearly everyone is losing money,” The Guardian quotes a current Premier League club executive as commenting.
“Outside the big six, shirt sponsorship offers have dropped by around 50% from a range of between £8m and £12m a season.”
One solution may come from an alternative, albeit gambling-adjacent, source…
It’s thought that America’s leading prediction markets, such as Polymarket and Kalshi, are looking to expand their empires with sponsorship of leading sports teams and competitions around the globe.
Kalshi has signed deals with the likes of the NHL and Fox Sports, while they’ve also agreed to pay Baller League US to have exclusive front-of-shirt sponsorship rights for that exhibition event.
Polymarket, meanwhile, has signed a partnership agreement with La Liga, so there’s an increasingly European look to the commercial activity of these prediction markets.
But the real question is are they gambling… or will they be able to circumnavigate the definition and sponsor Premier League clubs?
The answer is likely to be no, with the Gambling Commission decreeing in February that prediction markets are indeed a gambling platform that would need a licence to operate in the UK.
There may be an unintended side-effect of the Premier League ban. The EFL is yet to signal Its intention to ban gambling sponsorships; no surprise given that its three leagues are sponsored by SkyBet.
So will betting firms look to get their logos on the front of Championship and League One/Two clubs instead?