Online Casino Operator W88 Announce Burnley FC Sponsorship

The online casino site and betting operator W88 has been revealed as the latest official shirt sponsor for Burnley FC as the Lancashire-based club makes its return to the top league of English football, the Premier League.

W88 has primarily operated in Asia since its inception in 2013 and offers up a wide range of betting services to its players including casino, sports betting, live casino, and poker.

The deal will see their logo placed on the Burnley FC kit for the 2023-2024 season. Burnley achieved promotion from the Championship last year having been relegated the prior campaign. The Clarets had previously been sponsored by Spreadex, a British company offering spread betting across a variety of sports. Spread betting involves speculating or predicting what will happen in a specific market or sports event.

Director for Burnley FC Stuart Hunt praised the partnership and said it would play a "significant role" in their upcoming season. 

"Following lengthy discussions, we are pleased to confirm W88 as our front-of-shirt sponsor for the upcoming season. As a newly promoted club, a partnership such as this plays a significant role in helping us to compete in the Premier League. W88 have established successful relationships with several Premier League clubs and sports brands across the globe and we have been impressed by their experience, knowledge and proactive nature in this area."

Gambling sponsorship of Premier League clubs has been the subject of much debate in recent years, and clubs from England's top football division have agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorships on the front of shirts beginning in 2026/2027. Eight clubs currently don gambling-based sponsors on the front of their shirts in lucrative deals thought to be worth £60m ($77m) a year.

W88 Business Development Manager Hilly Ehrlich is enthusiastic about the deal. "We're hugely passionate about Premier League football and delighted to partner with Burnley FC as the team returns to the Premier League. With Vincent Kompany at the helm, we're excited to see the team perform well this season," he commented.

Despite the upcoming ban, clubs were granted permission to seek deals with gambling companies in the interim, provided they don't extend beyond 2026. While front-of-shirt sponsorships will be removed from 2026, it's believed gambling companies will continue to feature elsewhere on shirts beyond this. It's expected casino sites will continue to feature on Premier League shirts for the foreseeable future given the outstanding relationships in place. 

The W888 website already features several Burnley players plastered on its homepage, with a countdown clock for Burnley's first fixtures of the new campaign - against treble winners Manchester City - also prominently featured. The site boasts a "sports betting interface specially designed for Asian players". Currently, UK players cannot use the site for betting services.