The football players (“soccer” in the U.S.) of the eight clubs of Portugal’s Primeira Liga (called Liga Bwin for sponsorship reasons) will wear sponsorships of bookmakers on their jersey at least until the 2025-26 season.
The relationship between Portuguese sports teams and bookmakers hasn’t always been so cordial, but things began to warm up this year. In 2015 several bookmakers stopped operating in the country, an absence that was felt because they had contributed to the national football’s commercial base since 2000.
Sporting and Maritimo players will carry Betano’s names on their jerseys every week. Other bookmakers whose names will be ubiquitous include Betway, Placard and Solverde.
In an interview with Publico, researcher Marcelo Moriconi of the Lisbon University Institute, commented, “I don’t think there is an ethical problem per se. Of course, the conflict of interest worries me, but speaking specifically about this match-fixing issue, I don’t think this is a problem of players getting any easier to corrupt. Sponsorship alone does not make clubs or athletes more manipulable. And I even believe that the clubs want to try to escape these schemes, in order to protect these companies that pay them so much.”
He added, “Due to the economic situation of the clubs, many with authentic financial holes, the bookmakers arrive with money and no one can say no.”
This contrasts with the U.K. and Spain that are increasingly cracking down on relationships between bookmakers and sports clubs.
