Manchester United have made a record summer signing… but it’s not a new striker. Instead, the club has shaken hands on a sponsorship deal with Betway, which is set to break records. The betting firm will pay United £20 million a year to sponsor their training kit… the highest fee ever paid for a non-playing kit agreement.
Record Breaking
🤝🆕🤑 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄: Manchester United to Sign Betway Training Kit Deal: https://t.co/96mut9y5CR
— Footy Headlines (@Footy_Headlines) May 28, 2026
After securing Champions League football for the 2026/27 season, things are looking up for Manchester United. The club still holds tremendous commercial appeal globally, which is perhaps why Betway were so keen to get involved. They couldn’t sponsor the front of United’s playing kit, of course, as the Premier League’s voluntary ban on gambling partnerships kicks in as of next season.
But other areas of football operations, including pitch side advertising boards and stadium concourse marketing, are not subject to the prohibition. Training kit is another area that gambling firms are likely to target moving forward, with this considered to be a lower-cost way to partner with influential clubs and still get plenty of eyes on their branding.
As well as featuring on training wear and at the training ground itself, the logos of betting firms can also appear on backdrops during press conferences and pre and post-match TV interviews. This Betway deal, with the news first broken by Mike Keegan in the Daily Mail, is the largest of its kind penned in English football, although the length of the partnership is not yet known.
🚨EXCLUSIVE
🤝Manchester United’s training kit deal with Betway is worth £20m a year
📈Multi-year agreement thought to be most lucrative ‘training kit-only’ deal in football
💰Boost to kitty – along with today’s figureshttps://t.co/fW1XtVJYs2 #mufc— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) May 27, 2026
Last season, Manchester United had a plain training kit with no sponsor of any kind, but they have decided to cash in as the Premier League switches to its new Squad Cost Ratio measure of financial reporting – placing a greater emphasis on off-field revenue streams. Betway has long been involved in sponsoring football clubs, with their agreement with West Ham lasting for a decade between 2015 and 2025.
However, that came to an ignominious end when the firm became embroiled in the Lucas Paqueta gambling scandal, reporting suspicious betting patterns involving the Brazilian to the Football Association. Betway provided evidence in the subsequent investigation and trial, which soured relations with the Hammers and ultimately led to their partnership coming to an end.
Initially, it was thought that the decision was taken to pivot away from gambling sponsorships ahead of the voluntary ban. However, just days after ending their agreement with Betway, West Ham signed a one-year deal with Irish betting firm Boyle Sports instead.
Keeping Their Hand In
Given that football sponsorships are a key part of their marketing mix, it was always likely that betting brands would try to find new avenues into the sport. More than a dozen operators have been jettisoned by Premier League clubs over the past few years since the voluntary ban was announced in 2023.
Bournemouth have switched to insurance firm Vitality for the new season, while Everton’s shirt will bear the logo of financial trading outfit CMC Markets. Aston Villa, meanwhile, have revealed their new kit for the 2026/27 campaign – the promo images are sponsor-less, with Betano forced to vacate the premises due to the ban.
With TV and streaming audiences reaching hundreds of millions globally, even sponsoring items away from the front-of-shirt will likely still bear fruit for Betway and others. A whopping 18 of the 20 Premier League clubs in 2025/26 displayed gambling messages on their pitch side advertising boards – enabling firms to tap into the UK market but also the likes of Asia and North America, where EPL games are watched religiously.
That pathway could be cleared if Entain get their way. They want the new independent football regulator to ban gambling operators that are unlicensed in the UK from carrying commercial agreements with clubs – citing the controversy surrounding the likes of bj88 and Stake.com, who formerly sponsored Bournemouth and Everton, respectively.
Stella David, the chief executive of Entain, said:
Premier League clubs are being sponsored by criminal gambling firms. The Independent Football Regulator can stop this tomorrow by simply acknowledging that unlicensed gambling companies targeting UK customers through English football are breaking the law – plain and simple. The IFR was created to fix English football’s governance failures. This is one of them.