On 25 August 2026, Nottingham Forest named BOYLE Sports an Official Betting Partner for the 2026/27 Premier League season. The Irish bookmaker's brand will appear on LED advertising around the City Ground throughout the campaign, in front of the supporters inside the stadium and the far larger audience that follows Forest on television around the world. Neither side disclosed what the deal is worth, and Gambling.com noted that its length was not published either, although the club itself framed it as a partnership for the 2026/27 season.
On its own, an LED board deal at one Premier League ground would hardly make headlines. What makes this one worth a closer look is the timing and the buyer. It arrived in the opening weeks of the first season in which Premier League clubs may no longer carry a gambling brand on the front of their matchday shirts. And it came from a company that, in little more than a year, has gone from being known mainly in Ireland to holding commercial ties with three of England's best supported clubs.
For anyone working in iGaming, Sports Betting or brand partnerships, the story says a great deal about where gambling money now flows in English football, and about how an ambitious operator can build a national profile without the most visible asset on the shirt. It also carries useful lessons for brands, rights holders and operators far from Nottingham, including those watching the young regulated market in the UAE.
The package is built around stadium visibility. According to SBC News, BOYLE Sports will feature prominently at the City Ground through LED signage, and European Gaming reported that the agreement covers LED advertising boards throughout the 2026/27 Premier League season. Gambling.com said the branding was expected to appear from Forest's next home league fixture after the announcement. Yogonet described the intended audience as both the fans in the stands and the viewers who watch Forest's matches on screen.
Both sides spoke warmly about the fit. Liam McKee, Head of Sponsorship at BOYLE Sports, said: "Nottingham Forest is a club steeped in football history, with an incredible connection to its supporters and community." He added: "This partnership marks another important step in our commitment to English football." Paul Bell, Chief Operating Officer at Nottingham Forest, said: "We are pleased to have BOYLE Sports join the Club as an Official Betting Partner for the 2026/27 season. Their strong presence across football makes them a good fit for us, and we welcome them to Nottingham Forest."
It is worth being precise about what this deal is not. It is not a shirt sponsorship. Forest's front of shirt slot had gone a week earlier, on 18 August, to Marex, a global financial services firm with roots in commodities, in a multi year principal partnership reported by Pulse 2.0. Gambling.com described the BOYLE Sports agreement as a secondary deal sitting alongside that shirt partnership. Still, it may turn out to be more than a name on the perimeter: as reported by Invixos, the bookmaker could also run fan activations during the season.
Nor does Forest appear to be handing BOYLE Sports the whole betting category. An SBC News roundup of Premier League gambling partners listed three betting brands at the club this season: Bally Bet as an official partner, BOYLE Sports as official betting partner and FUN88 as official betting partner in Asia. SBC News also noted that all three appeared on the City Ground LED boards during Forest's opening home match against Leeds United, which Forest lost by a single goal. Rotating LED inventory makes that kind of sharing possible, because several brands can rent the same physical boards, each for its own slice of the ninety minutes.
The background goes back to 13 April 2023, when Premier League clubs collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of their matchday shirts. The League described it as the first voluntary measure of its kind by a UK sports league, and it took effect from the 2026/27 season. At the time, according to the law firm Osborne Clarke, eight Premier League clubs carried gambling sponsors on their shirt fronts, in deals worth a combined £60 million a year.
Crucially, the ban covered one asset only. Gambling.com pointed out that shirt sleeves, training kit and pitch side or stadium boards were all left outside it, and European Gaming listed the same open doors: LED hoardings, sleeves, training wear and official partner titles. That design explains why Online Gambling money did not leave the league. It simply moved to a different part of the inventory.
The numbers make the point. In its survey of the 2026/27 season, SBC News found that 19 of the 20 Premier League clubs had some form of gambling partnership, with Hull City the only club without one. Everton is a clean example of the shift. Stake, its front of shirt sponsor for four seasons, moved to the sleeve under a new multi year deal announced on 30 June 2026, while trading platform CMC Markets took the shirt front, Gambling.com reported. AFC Bournemouth signed online Casino brand MrQ as its sleeve sponsor and Official UK Online Casino Partner. Arsenal, Manchester City, Brighton and Chelsea all list Betway in betting partner roles of varying scope, and Liverpool works with Ladbrokes for the UK and Ireland.
SBC News went as far as to say the plan had "backfired", arguing that bookmakers had simply switched to other formats, and it pointed to a YouGov survey in which 77% of people supported the ban. Campaigners have long argued that stadium boards, rather than shirts, drive the sheer volume of exposure. A University of Bristol study of the 2024 opening weekend, reported by iGaming Business, counted 29,145 gambling adverts across the round, almost three times the 10,999 counted a year earlier. Whatever view one takes of the policy, the shirt front was always the most symbolic gambling asset in English football, never the only one.
BOYLE Sports is not new to betting, only to this level of exposure in English football. John Boyle founded the business in 1982, and European Gaming describes it as Ireland's largest independently owned bookmaker, with more than 390 shops across Ireland and the UK, more than 2,700 staff across Ireland, the UK and Gibraltar, and a head office near Dundalk in County Louth. Leeds United's own announcement described the company as family owned, with over 400 shops.
The turning point came in July 2025. As SBC News reported at the time, BOYLE Sports relaunched in the UK with a £100 million investment, funded by shareholders according to the group's chief executive, intended to open more than 200 new UK stores and create over 1,000 jobs, together with upgrades to its technology. Group CEO Vlad Kaltenieks called the UK "one of the most exciting, well-regulated and competitive betting landscapes in the world." Chief Commercial Officer Troy Cox put it simply: "At BoyleSports, we're investing significantly in our UK growth."
The launch vehicle was West Ham United. BOYLE Sports became the club's front of shirt sponsor and Official Betting Partner for 2025/26, the last season before the ban, in a multi year principal partnership announced by the club. The rollout included branded London taxis and a digital content series called "The Knowledge" on West Ham's global channels, all under the brand line "Back Yourself". Because West Ham were relegated to the Championship at the end of 2025/26, the bookmaker remains on the front of their shirt this season, since the Premier League restriction does not apply outside the top flight, as both Invixos and European Gaming noted.
Then came the 2026 run of deals. On 29 July, Leeds United announced a multi year partnership naming BOYLE Sports its UK and Ireland Betting Partner, with matchday LED advertising, permanent signage in the John Charles West Stand at Elland Road, and fan competitions and content. Phil Hardman, Partnerships Director at Leeds United, said: "We are excited to welcome BOYLE Sports as an Official Partner for the upcoming campaign." The bookmaker also put its name on the pre season friendly between Manchester United and Leeds at Croke Park, branded the BOYLE Sports Cup, according to SBC News. Forest followed less than four weeks later.
Sport for Business summed up the strategy neatly, saying the brand is using football sponsorship to accelerate its presence in the British market. With West Ham, Leeds and Forest, BOYLE Sports now reaches three large and loyal fan bases, plus the international audience that comes with Premier League broadcasting. For an operator that only relaunched in Britain a year earlier, that is a remarkable amount of brand awareness bought in a short time.
For Nottingham Forest, the BOYLE Sports agreement is one piece of a busy summer. Sport for Business recalled that the club are twice winners of the European Cup and returned to the Premier League in 2022, and Gambling.com noted they have stayed in the top flight every season since. That run has given the commercial team a stable platform to sell from.
Forest is also used to working with betting brands. European Gaming listed Betway as the club's official betting partner in 2024/25, with Parimatch holding the same role for part of that campaign, while Bally's Corporation took the front of shirt slot in 2025/26, the last season before the ban. When the shirt front had to go to a non gambling sponsor, Forest turned to Marex, which Pulse 2.0 reported will also act as the club's Global Markets Partner and exclusive provider of foreign exchange and other financial services. The betting category then moved to the boards, where it can be divided among several brands and territories.
That is a sensible template for any club facing a category restriction. The headline asset goes to a sponsor from a growing sector with no regulatory cloud, while the restricted category is kept alive through assets the rules still allow. The club protects its income, and the betting brands keep a route to the audience.
Sponsorship only pays off if there is something worth finding when a fan finally types in the brand name. BOYLE Sports appears to understand this. On 20 August 2026, days before the Forest announcement, it launched Squad Builder, a football betting feature it had trialled during the World Cup, G3 Newswire reported. Customers pick two to five players, choose from seven player statistic markets such as goals, assists, shots, tackles and cards, and combine those players' output towards one shared squad target. Adam Matues, Head of Sportsbook at BOYLE Sports, said: "Squad Builder gives football fans a brand-new way to back themselves."
The link between product and partnership looks deliberate. The "Back Yourself" message runs from the West Ham shirt to the Squad Builder launch, and LED inventory at Elland Road and the City Ground gives that message repeated airtime during live football, exactly when a football bettor is paying attention. InterGame noted that the feature went live after what the company called a "successful test period" over the summer. For Sports Betting brands, stadium boards work hardest when they point to a product that feels genuinely different, rather than to yet another generic welcome offer.
For an operator of BOYLE Sports' size, LED boards have practical advantages over a shirt. SBC News reported that betting firms had paid premiums for front of shirt deals, so a board package is a lower entry point into the Premier League. It can be bought for a single season, as appears to be the case at Forest, which limits the commitment while the brand measures its return. And it appears on the broadcast feed for long stretches of play, giving the brand screen time without the club carrying a gambling logo on replica shirts, the sensitivity that drove the original ban.
The UK tax picture adds another layer. Under the November 2025 Budget, as summarised by the law firm CMS, Remote Gaming Duty on online Casino and gaming products rose from 21% to 40% from April 2026, and General Betting Duty on most remote bets is due to rise from 15% to 25% from April 2027. In person betting stays at 15%, as do self service terminals in shops and all horse racing bets. For an operator expanding a high street estate, as BOYLE Sports has set out to do, that split favours retail. A national football presence on television can help drive customers into the shops as well as onto the app, which makes the Online Gambling and retail sides of the business work for each other.
There is a responsibility attached as well. A brand that puts its name in front of millions of football viewers takes on a duty to carry clear safer gambling messages and to respect the codes that govern how Online Gambling and betting can be advertised around sport. When Troy Cox set out the West Ham deal in 2025, the club's announcement noted that he emphasised responsible gambling alongside growth. With campaigners and researchers watching how the post ban era unfolds, operators that treat that duty as part of the brand, rather than a box to tick, will be better placed if the rules tighten again.
Several lessons stand out. First, regulation tends to reshape sponsorship rather than end it. BOYLE Sports secured a shirt deal for the final season it was allowed and then moved straight into LED and partner titles, so the rule change cost it very little momentum. That kind of scenario planning is now a standard part of iGaming Consulting work on any multi season deal. Second, a portfolio can beat a single trophy asset. Three clubs in different parts of England, each with a different mix of rights, arguably give the brand wider and more flexible reach than one bigger deal would.
Third, territory matters. Leeds sells BOYLE Sports its rights for the UK and Ireland, Forest has FUN88 for Asia, and Liverpool splits the UK and Ireland from Germany and Austria. Clubs now slice betting rights by market, and operators should only pay for audiences they are licensed to serve. Fourth, activation decides value. LED time is a reminder, not a relationship. The Leeds deal includes competitions and fan content, and Forest may see activations too. Operators that turn stadium presence into content marketing, social media and customer data tend to get far more from the same rights fee. Matching rights to licences, product and audience before money changes hands is exactly where good iGaming Consulting earns its keep.
These questions are no longer only European ones. In June 2026, Yogonet reported, the UAE's first licensed online sportsbook and gaming site, Play971, went live under the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority, with sports wagering and internet gaming licences, services limited to customers aged 21 and over, and a regulator promising a strict line on unlicensed offshore operators. As that market develops, operators, clubs and brands in the Gulf will face the same choices about which assets to buy, which territories to target and how to activate responsibly. Anyone exploring sports sponsorship opportunities in Dubai, or weighing a UAE football club sponsorship, can learn a lot from how English football has handled its betting category, and independent iGaming Consulting can help translate those lessons into local rules and local audiences.
For brands, the takeaway is broader still. The Premier League shows that restrictions on one category can open premium inventory to others, as Marex found at Forest and CMC Markets at Everton. Rights holders in the region who build flexible packages, mixing shirts, boards, digital and hospitality, will be ready whichever way regulation moves. Getting that mix right is the core of any sports sponsorship strategy, and a specialist marketing agency in Dubai can help brands find the assets that actually move their numbers.
BOYLE Sports' Forest deal is a modest one on paper: a single season of LED boards, value undisclosed. Seen alongside West Ham, Leeds and the £100 million UK relaunch, it looks like a carefully built plan to become a household name in British Sports Betting in the very season the Premier League tried to push gambling brands into the background. Whether that plan pays off will show up in the shops and on the app. For now, every time the boards at the City Ground light up, they tell the rest of the iGaming industry that the shirt ban changed the map, not the destination.
Sources: SBC News, Yogonet, European Gaming, Gambling.com, InterGame, Gaming Intelligence, Sport for Business, G3 Newswire, Invixos, Leeds United, West Ham United, Pulse 2.0, Osborne Clarke, CMS, iGaming Business
