The West Indies are the first to benefit from international cricket’s open door for betting companies to sponsor shirts, wearing a Philippines gambling brand on their shoulders in the first Test against Australia.
The emergence of gambling sponsorship on kits is thanks to a recent change to regulations by the International Cricket Council that ended a prohibition brought in after the betting scandals of the 1990s.
The same equipment and clothing rules have been used by the ICC this summer to prevent Australian opener Usman Khawaja from displaying human rights messages on his shoes and bat.
The relaxation of regulations was made in May 2023 to give individual countries the right to choose whether or not to pursue shirt sponsorships, and posed no threat to the integrity of the sport, according to the international governing body.
“The ICC takes all measures to prevent corruption in the sport and all international matches are staffed with anti-corruption officials,” the ICC said in a statement. “Betting companies are in no way involved in running the matches nor liaise closely with those running the game.”
From 2005 until the middle of last year, the ICC’s clothing and equipment regulations listed an objective “to prohibit advertising connected with betting and/or gaming.” The new regulations have removed that objective.
Gambling sponsorships have exploded in recent years and Bet365 has had a long partnership with Cricket Australia. But many see betting brands on shirts – often worn by young supporters – as too pervasive. In English football, Premier League clubs have voted to end shirt sponsorship deals with betting companies from the start of the 2026-27 season.
A report from an Australian parliamentary committee chaired by Peta Murphy last year recommended all betting logos on player uniforms be banned. Some cricketers have protested against betting sponsorships on shirts: Pakistan’s wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan covered a logo on his Pakistan Super League team shirt with tape last year. The ICC’s decision allows betting brands to be worn on shirts in bilateral series, but still bars them from World Cups.
“This was a decision taken by the chief executives committee last year, which noted that some members had engaged with betting companies for sponsorship and felt that the members should have the right to determine for themselves if betting logos should be used in bilateral and domestic cricket,” the ICC said.
The ban on betting companies on uniforms was a response from the ICC to several major betting scandals that plagued the sport in the 1990s and 2000s. Former South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje admitted to match-fixing during a one-day series against India in 2000 and was banned for life. The ICC president at the time, Malcolm Gray, told the ABC in 2000: “We should have acted sooner, we should have acted with greater alacrity, and we should have done it better. We didn’t.”
Sir Paul Condon, a former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, was appointed director of the ICC’s anti-corruption investigation, and his report triggered major reforms to cricket, including the prohibition on betting logos.
Since the relaxation of the laws last year, the West Indies cricket team has worn shirts with gambling companies Betbricks and Dafabet. But even prior to the rule change, controversial online gaming platforms had already been adopted by international sides. MPL was worn by India for three years from 2020, and Dream11 became the team’s major shirt sponsor last year, despite both companies being banned in some Indian states.
In 2022 before a series with India, Ireland signed a short-term deal with Exchange22, an Indian company which describes itself as a “unique gaming fantasy platform”, after checking with the ICC. Ireland’s cricket body has subsequently brought in an internal policy that precludes such sponsors.(The Guardian)
