...as Bees bid to take betting firm off shirts

BREnTfORD are considering ending their shirt sponsorship with Hollywoodbets ahead of a Government clampdown on the Premier League’s financial links to the gambling industry.

The club have no plans to terminate their contract with the south African firm that runs beyond the end of this season, but are looking for a non-betting company to replace them. Brentford’s decision is understood to have been influenced by the Government’s forthcoming White Paper on gambling reform rather than

Ivan Toney’s impending ban for admitting multiple breaches of fA betting rules. A number of the seven other Premier League clubs with betting companies as shirt sponsors are also understood to be looking for alternatives, with newcastle’s deal with fun88 and Leeds’s with sBOTOP both believed to be under review.

The White Paper is expected to call on Premier League clubs to agree to a voluntary ban on shirt sponsorship from gambling companies. Eight of the 20 Premier League clubs display gambling firm names on the front of their shirts, which could effectively be outlawed from the start of the 2024-25 season if legislation is passed by the end of the current parliament.