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Everton and Leicester sanctions: Keith Wyness reacts to new twist – ‘this is a big story’
Keith Wyness
5 – 6 minutes
Keith Wyness
Thu 27 March 2025 10:40, UK
Everton and Leicester City are at risk of more legal action after accusations have emerged around advertisements for their gambling sponsors.
The Premier League clubs have both faced profit and sustainability (PSR) issues over the past couple of years, with Everton deducted eight points last season.
‘I’m Hearing’ – Keith Wyness: Everton naming rights deal ‘Done Before Christmas’
Everton could have to make a multi-million-pound payout to Burnley, who have claimed for compensation after insisting the breaches impacted them.
Despite being charged by the Premier League, Leicester avoided a points deduction after exploiting a loophole in the rules.
However, The Athletic reported on 21 March Everton and Leicester have now been accused by an anti-gambling body of breaching the Gambling Commission’s demands by advertising gambling firms, which are now unlicensed in the UK but whose controls against UK customers using the sites are easily bypassed.
The Coalition to End Gambling Ads has written to Everton and Leicester, who display Stake.com and BC.Game’s logos on the front of their shirts, and urged the Gambling Commission to take action against them.
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Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – insisted both top-flight sides appear to have done the necessary due diligence on their sponsors.
Premier League sides will no longer be able to sign up to front-of-shirt sponsorships with gambling firms from the 2026-27 season after they collectively agreed to withdraw from such deals.
Everton
Everton and Leicester to ditch sponsors soon
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness insisted gambling sponsorships are a “very messy” category and he looks forward to them being removed from clubs’ shirts.
He told Football Insider: “This is actually a big story.
“When I started scratching the surface of this, it seems like one of the gambling pressure groups had almost manufactured this sort of complaint is what I’m reading about.
“It isn’t quite as obvious as it may seem. It does appear that Leicester and Everton have actually done their due diligence and have done what they were supposed to do.
“It was somebody actually trying to circumvent the rules, as I understand it that created this particular issue, so it’s not quite black and white. I do think that Everton, from what I can see, have followed the letter of the law.
“The whole issue is that this is a global sponsorship and that Stake certainly have got a large part of their business from overseas and not happening in the UK.
“This whole sanction is supposed to be around getting people in the UK to join up, which I believe is not really possible or not promoted by Everton.
“But overall, I think there is a lot of work to be done by clubs in terms of doing the due diligence on a lot of these gaming companies. I think that’s undeniable and I would hope they would do that.
“We are coming to the end of betting sponsorships very soon, and so that problem should be cleared up. It’s been a very messy category and I think the sooner that goes off of front of shirts, the better.”
Leicester
(Credit: Imago)
Everton well-placed to agree Tom Fellows deal
Football Insider revealed on 21 March Everton are well-placed to agree a deal for Tom Fellows after he’s impressed at West Brom.
An agreement had been reached with the 21-year-old on transfer deadline day at the end of the January window, but the two clubs were unable to finalise a fee.
Appearances (Starts) 38 (30)
Goals 2
Assists 11
Tom Fellows 2024/25 stats (all competitions)
Football Insider revealed on 7 February Everton are planning to return for Fellows when they are in a better financial position to meet a higher asking price.
The England Under-21 international has registered two goals and 11 assists in 38 appearances for the Championship promotion contenders this season.
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