Everton slammed for 'short-sighted' shirt sponsorship deal with gambling firm

Everton have signed a gambling company as their main shirt sponsor in defiance of plans to ban such deals and despite previously stating they would ideally not do so.

A government source told Telegraph Sport the club had made “a real strategic error” by agreeing a minimum three-year partnership with Stake.com ahead of the imminent publication of a White Paper following a review of the Gambling Act.

Campaigners against front-of-shirt gambling sponsors also condemned the club for a “remarkably short-sighted” decision during a “cost-of-living crisis”, adding: “How can Everton continue to call itself ‘The People’s Club’?”

The forthcoming White Paper had been due to stop short of outlawing such deals, with ministers expecting Premier League teams to adopt a voluntary ban.

But the Telegraph has been told that could change after financially-stricken Everton announced a record partnership worth more than £10 million-a-year on the same day top-flight teams were due to discuss the issue at their annual general meeting in Harrogate.

“It’s a real strategic error by Everton and might force the Government to go further in its plans around sponsorship,” a Whitehall source said.

Everton signed the deal barely two years after terminating a similar partnership with Kenyan gambling giant SportPesa two years early, with chief executive Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale stating at the time: “In an ideal world, moving forward, we would look to have a different type of sponsor on the front of our shirts, like all football clubs would, but that is a commercial decision that we make as a football club.”

They subsequently signed a three-year contract with online car retailer Cazoo but terminated that a year early as well.

Their deal with