Note: This advice is given by the CAP Executive about non-broadcast advertising. It does not constitute legal advice. It does not bind CAP, CAP advisory panels or the Advertising Standards Authority.
Gambling operators often have arrangements with football clubs as part of sponsorship agreements or partnerships.
Is sponsorship covered under the Code?
Can advertisers use the logo of the club they sponsor?
When does use of a sponsored club’s logo breach the Code?
Is sponsorship covered under the Code?
Sponsorship is a contractual arrangement between a brand and another party. The CAP Code does not apply to the arrangement itself, however, it applies to specific types of communication defined within its scope. As a result, the terms of the sponsorship and some related materials may fall outside the Code. However, advertising that is published under, or includes content relating to, the terms of a sponsorship arrangement - such as press ads, posters, or claims on a marketer’s website or social media posts - does fall within the Code’s scope.
Can advertisers use the logo of the club they sponsor?
When a gambling operator enters into an agreement with another party, such as a football club, then they often have contractual right or agreements to use their logos. While an advertiser may have the right to use the logo, the Code will still apply to advertising content, and so it must comply with all the relevant rules, including not having content that could be considered strong appeal. As football is of inherent appeal to under-18s, there is a high risk that featuring logos will be considered as having “strong appeal”, especially for well-known football clubs.
In determining “strong appeal”, the CAP guidance includes an exemption for when it may be possible to include a logo that could be considered “strong appeal”. Advertisers are allowed to use the logo of a sports team, tournament, or event to make a simple, text-based or visual reference to the subject matter of a bet (e.g., displaying a team logo next to betting odds for an upcoming match).
When does use of a sponsored club’s logo breach the Code?
In 2025, the ASA investigated complaints which featured the logo of Chelsea FC in an ad on YouTube. The complainant felt that by featuring the Chelsea FC logo, the ad was likely to be of strong appeal to under-18s. The advertiser stated that it had a contractual right to use the Chelsea FC logo as the club’s Official European Betting Partner and believed their rewards scheme formed an integral part of the gambling activity and was therefore in line with the exemption, which permitted identifiers that served a similar function to an audio or visual reference.
The ASA considered that had the logo only been used at the end of the ad, for example, in a standalone context then it would have been acceptable, as it would act as a visual reference to a subject of the gambling activity. However, the logo was shown throughout the video on fans’ scarves, lanyards and hats, as well as on team shirts in wall displays and on backdrops within the stadium building. The ASA considered that the logo’s appearance in this context went beyond any permitted exemption and so was found to have been a breach of the Code. The ASA also stated that the depiction of the team logo in an ad that showed a stadium experience for fans was likely to strongly appeal to children and young people who supported Chelsea FC or followed football more widely. The ad was therefore found to be a breach of the Code on a platform where under-18s couldn’t be excluded from the audience (Betway Ltd, 22 October 2025).