How Premier League shirt sponsors have changed
From local timber merchant to multinational betting sites
EACH YEAR as the English Premier League prepares for kick-off, super-fans wait to see what their heroes will be wearing on the pitch. This year Manchester United stitched the words “youth, courage and success” inside players’ collars. Other changes have less high-minded motives: sponsorship. Once small and local (Arnold Laver, a timber merchant, sponsored Sheffield United from 1985 to 1995), now sponsors are multinationals. In the late 1990s tech and telecoms companies predominated; then financial and insurance firms muscled in. Since 2005, when gambling laws were liberalised, betting firms have worked their way up the league. This season they sponsor 45% of teams.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "How Premier League shirt sponsors have changed"
From the July 22nd 2021 edition
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