The U.K. is set to hit the brakes on the online gambling business — with significant implications for Premier League teams.

In an effort to ward off legislation, the Premier League is asking clubs to agree to a voluntary ban on new gambling shirt sponsor deals. 

• Premier League clubs will vote on phasing out existing gambling shirt sponsors — 14 of the league’s 20 teams are required for the measure to pass.
• Last season, 10 clubs had gambling company shirt sponsors.
• Under the Premier League’s proposal, clubs would end any existing shirt deals within three years.

The U.K. government plans to decide on a potential shirt sponsor ban by July 21.

Premier League clubs would likely be able to find equally lucrative deals with other companies. However, the second-tier English Football League, whose title sponsor is Sky Bet, said its clubs would lose $47.8 million per year. 

Risky Time for Gambling

The U.K. is considering sweeping updates to its 17-year-old gambling laws to combat addiction and other gambling-related issues.

Among the reported changes under consideration are a betting limit on online casinos of $2.40 to $6 per wager, bans on games that allow users to lose lots of money very quickly, and a ban on free bets.

NBCUniversal is shuttering the Olympic Channel after a five-year run. 

The end of the linear channel is a byproduct of NBCUniversal’s reevaluated programming strategy amid increased sports-related content on USA Network and its streaming platform Peacock. 

• NBCUniversal will cancel the Olympic Channel on Sept. 30.
• At the end of 2021, the channel reached roughly 47 million homes. 

NBCUniversal will continue to deliver Olympic-related programming to its millions of viewers. 

The company has held exclusive U.S. media rights to the Winter and Summer Games since 2000, and in 2014 secured rights with IOC in a $7.65 billion deal that runs through 2032. 

The Olympic Channel marks the second linear programming option NBCUniversal has shut down in the last year. In December 2021, the Comcast-owned company ceased operations of NBC Sports Network, which originally launched in 1995 as Outdoor Life Network. 

NBCSN’s previously featured content is now available on USA Network and Peacock. 

Big Business 

Comcast generated $31 billion in revenue in Q1, a 14% increase year-over-year, and $1.5 billion from the Beijing Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles.

Peacock has also secured $1 billion in upfront ad revenue this year, up from $500 million in 2021. Its 28 million monthly Q1 users included 13 million paid subscribers.

After a one-year pandemic-related delay, the 2022 UEFA Women’s European Championship begins Wednesday.

Around 500,000 tickets have been sold, more than doubling the record 240,000 fans who attended the 2017 edition in the Netherlands. 

• This year’s competition takes place in England, marking the first time the country has held a women’s soccer tournament since 2005. 
• The 31 games will be held at 10 stadiums across nine cities.

English soccer’s Football Association expects the 16-team tournament to be “the biggest women’s European sport event in history,” generating an estimated $65 million in revenue — nearly four times as much as the last tournament — due to higher ticket sales and media and commercial rights.

Last year, UEFA announced it would double its prize fund for the tournament to $18.75 million and include guaranteed payments for each team. The competition’s sponsors include Adidas, Nike, Visa, and Heineken.

The tournament will air in 195 territories and is expected to bring in more than 250 million viewers, up from 178 million in 2017. BeIN Sports and ESPN will broadcast in the majority of countries, with BBC holding rights in the United Kingdom.

Record Attendance

The influx of fans for the women’s tournament comes as no surprise. Barcelona twice broke the world’s attendance record for a women’s game in April. Club attendance records were also broken in France and England last season.

A Premier League team will stay with its current owner for now after a consortium failed to strike a deal and saw its period of exclusivity expire. 

Everton FC owner Farhad Moshiri backed away from talks with a consortium led by Peter Kenyon, former CEO of Manchester United and Chelsea, along with U.S.-based John Thornton and Maciek Kaminski, whose family was to provide the bulk of the funding.

• Kenyon’s group was in exclusive negotiations until July 1. Moshiri reportedly soured on the consortium.
• Moshiri is still open to investors who can provide funding for Everton’s $596.9 million stadium project. The sale talks with Kenyon’s group evolved from discussions on stadium funding. 
• Other groups are interested, but it’s unclear if Moshiri would still sell a controlling stake in the club.

Everton staved off potential relegation, ensuring that it will continue to bring in a substantial sum from the Premier League’s top-flight revenue sharing. 

Premier League teams each received $53.7 million in the 2021-22 season, representing half of the league’s revenue-sharing disbursements. The other half is determined by season results and how often a team’s matches were broadcast live.

New Digs

Everton is on schedule to move into its new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in the 2024-25 season, according to the team.

The club estimates that the project will add $1.6 billion to the U.K. economy while creating thousands of jobs and bringing 1.4 million visitors to Liverpool each year.