Newcastle and BetMGM Sign New Multi-Year Deal as Scrutiny Grows

Key Points

• The official UK and European betting partner of Newcastle United Football Club has been BetMGM after LeoVegas Group extended their collaboration with the club in the 2026/27 Premier League season and beyond.
• The UK operations of BetMGM are carried out through LeoVegas Gaming PLC, which has a valid license issued by the Gambling Commission, unlike other bookmakers without licenses that are a matter of concern to the Premier League.
• Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, has formally written to Newcastle urging the club to end its separate Asian arrangement with 8XBet, an operator with no UK gambling licence, just as the DCMS closed its consultation on banning such deals.

Newcastle United and LeoVegas Group announced a new multi-year partnership on 9 September 2026, keeping BetMGM as the club’s Official UK and European Betting Partner at St James’ Park. The timing is not incidental. It coincides with the announcement by Entain that Newcastle is one of ten English Premier League clubs continuing to have connections with bookmakers who do not have a UK gambling license.

The BetMGM brand will be visible on LED boards, static advertising boards, and interview backdrops for every home game. Fans can expect the return of the BetMGM Half-Time Challenge, which gives supporters the chance to win a trip to Las Vegas, alongside the Flight of the Mags tournament, where fans compete against first-team players, club legends, and professional darts players for ticket giveaways and VIP hospitality.

Three Seasons, Three Deals

Initially, the collaboration came into force in September 2023 at the time of BetMGM launching its operations in the UK. During that period, it was essential for the brand to establish visibility quickly and gain credibility. For that matter, the decision to pick Newcastle was well thought out. The office of Newcastle in the UK is situated in Newcastle upon Tyne. Furthermore, at that particular time, the team was competing in Europe for the first time after 20+ years. In return, the partnership became that of an Official Betting Partner in June 2024, and this came with exclusive content from first-team players. Thus, by entering into this third agreement, BetMGM expands its activities to the European region.

Dave O’Connor, the Chief Revenue Officer of Newcastle United, stated that “Our partnership with BetMGM has been a true favourite among our fans over the last three seasons, providing us with incredible, fan-first moments and helping us achieve our marketing goals. Our continued partnership is proof of the successful relationship we’ve built with BetMGM.”

Speaking about the deal, the Managing Director for the UK and Ireland at LeoVegas Group, Andy Wright, commented on it: “The fans love the BetMGM brand, and times like the Half-Time Challenge are precisely why we wanted to renew our commitment. In developing our business further, collaborating with a club that wants to improve every single year is precisely what we need.”

It should also be mentioned that LeoVegas Group has officially released its in-house platform, Tiger, throughout the UK in August 2026 through the BetMGM, LeoVegas, and BetUK brands after its release in Denmark, Brazil, and Sweden previously.

What the Shirt Ban Produced?

The ban on advertising for betting companies on the front of shirts in the Premier League came into force from the beginning of the 2026/27 season through a voluntary arrangement by the clubs in the league. What has happened since is rather instructive. Betting companies have not stepped back from Premier League grounds; they have moved their logos to sleeve sponsorships, training kits, LED boards, and official partner agreements. Newcastle’s renewal with BetMGM is one example among many confirmed this summer, sitting alongside deals at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Manchester United.

The distinction worth paying attention to is who is signing with whom. Not every operator in this wave of new deals holds a UK gambling licence.

The 8XBet Complication

Separate from BetMGM, Newcastle also lists 8XBet as its Official Betting Partner in Asia. That arrangement is framed as a regional deal, officially restricted to Asian markets. 8XBet holds no licence from the Gambling Commission, a fact confirmed by the Commission’s own records regarding the operator’s former white-label structure through TGP Europe, which surrendered its UK licence in May 2025.

Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, formally wrote to Newcastle and nine other Premier League clubs, urging them to end affiliations with operators holding no UK licence. According to Entain’s research, reported by SBC News, 8XBet directs users around standard app-store channels via TestFlight, and its app contains imagery of Premier League players, drawing on club sponsorship assets. Entain also reported that one of its representatives was able to open an account within five minutes using a VPN connected to Vietnam. These findings are Entain’s own, and have not been independently verified outside of that reporting, but the government’s own consultation document cites VPN circumvention of geo-blocking as the central legislative problem it is trying to address.

Newcastle is not new to this territory. FUN88 served as the sponsor for the shirt sleeve of the club between 2017 and 2023, an operator who has since lost its license in the UK after the withdrawal of TGP Europe from Britain.

Our View: Two Deals, Two Standards

We think the licensed/unlicensed gap at Newcastle is precisely the story that commercial announcements like this one tend to bury. Newcastle renewing with BetMGM, a brand operated in Great Britain by UK-licensed LeoVegas Gaming PLC, is a legitimate commercial decision backed by three seasons of fan engagement. Andy Wright’s description of BetMGM as a challenger brand building trust through high-profile sports partnerships is the company’s own positioning, stated in a February 2026 interview, and it holds up as a coherent market strategy.

Nevertheless, the 8XBet deal occupies the same commercial space. It is fair to say that part of Entain’s campaign is competitive in nature, and this must be recognised; companies paying taxes in the UK and abiding by the Gambling Commission’s conditions of their license clearly have something to gain by having unlicensed competitors ousted from Premier League premises. This does not change the fact that the overall argument is correct. The DCMS consultation held by the UK government closed on 9 September 2026 and calls for the implementation of the ban in August 2027, provided there are no objections and the relevant legislation is introduced into Parliament.

Newcastle’s commercial team will argue the two deals serve different markets. That may be technically defensible under current rules. Whether it remains so by August 2027 is a different question entirely, and one the club’s revenue leadership will eventually have to answer in more than a press release.