Overview of the 2021/2022 Premier League sponsors

Who wears what in the English Premier League? Which apparel brands are dominating in England’s highest club competition? And are most shirt and sleeve sponsors gambling companies?

Below we answer these questions and more by giving you an overview of the sponsors – kit, shirt and sleeve sponsors – of the 2021/2022 Premier League clubs. We also take a look at the league’s official partners.

Kit sponsors: 20 clubs, 10 brands

The 20 Premier League teams are sponsored by 10 different clothing brands. The highest amount during the last five seasons. Adidas, Nike, Umbro, Castore, Puma, Hummel, Joma, Kappa, Kelme and Under Armour are all represented. In 2020/2021 there were seven different apparel brands, while there were eight in both 2019/2020 and 2017/2018 and just six in 2018/2019.

Adidas is once again the main kit supplier. However, with only four teams compared to seven last year, they have to share the honours with Nike. Arsenal, Leeds United, Leicester City and Manchester United continue wearing the German brand. But both Fulham and Sheffield United were relegated while wearing Adidas last season. In addition, the brand lost Wolverhampton, who switched to newcomer Castore.

Similar to last season, Nike sponsors four teams: Brighton and three of the traditional top six teams with Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Umbro follows the two giant apparel companies. After seeing their Premier League portfolio halved last season, they added promoted side Brentford this campaign. Bringing their total to three, with Burnely and West Ham already wearing the English brand.

British brand Castore, new kid on the block

Puma and Castore each sponsor two teams. Puma still partners with Crystal Palace and Manchester City. With the latter’s parent company, the City Football Group, they signed a ten-year partnership with a reported worth of £650 million before the 2019/2020 season. However, Puma lost Newcastle United, with the Magpies switching to Castore. The British sports wear brand first gained prominence by partnering with tennis player Andy Murray back in 2019. By having two Premier League sides wearing their brand, their international visibility increases even further.

Under Armour, Kappa, Kelme, Joma and Hummel complete the list by each sponsoring one team.

So only three teams have switched brands for the 2021/2022 season. Norwich from Erreà to Joma and Newcastle and Wolves from respectively Puma and Adidas to Castore.

2021/2022 Premier League Kit Sponsors

Shirt sponsors: seven industries, nine gambling companies

Once again, gambling companies remain a favourite partner for clubs when it comes to shirt sponsorships. Nine out of 20 Premier League clubs feature a gambling company on the front of their shirts this season. That is more or less the same as the previous four seasons, were the number of teams ranged between eight and ten. Two of the three clubs that won promotion (Brentford and Watford) have a gambling shirt sponsor. While Burnley switched from one gambling sponsor to another. 

It is notable that none of the traditional top six has a betting-related logo on their shirtfronts (or sleeve). Gambling companies are likely willing to pay more than most non-gambling companies to partner ‘smaller’ clubs, while ‘big’ clubs have more options to choose from.

Even if they do not have a shirt sponsor from the sector, all clubs partner with gambling companies. Some clubs even have deals with multiple firms.

Besides the gambling partners, four shirt sponsors are active in the financial services industry. While the rest of the shirt sponsors could be categorised as being active in the airline, online car retailer (both two), telecommunications, automotive and software (all one) sectors.

Only Cazoo sponsors multiple clubs

Online car retailer Cazoo is the only company active as shirt (or sleeve) sponsor for multiple clubs. The young e-commerce business entered a partnership with both Aston Villa and Everton before the 2020/2021 season. Both clubs had gambling sponsors on their shirt in previous years.

Six new shirt sponsors, including Man United’s €55 per year deal

Six teams changed their shirt sponsor this season. Brentford, Burnley and Watford all switched and are three of the nine teams with a gambling shirt sponsor. Norwich was also supposed to switch to a betting brand, but the club cancelled the deal after their partner posted provocative content online. Instead they entered a deal with automotive and Norfolk-based company Lotus.

The fifth team to have a new shirt sponsor this season is Leicester. The club changed from King Power, a company owned by the club’s owners, to online trading platform FBS in a three-year club-record deal.

Finally, Manchester United replaced automotive company Chevrolet with TeamViewer, a tech company “providing remote connectivity and workplace digitalisation solutions”. According to reports the deal is worth around €55 million per year. A reduction compared to the Chevrolet deal, but still ahead of other Premier League teams.

2021/2022 Premier League Shirt Sponsors

35% of shirt sponsors have UK HQ

The companies sponsoring the teams come from around the world and often operate on a global scale. Seven teams (35%) are sponsored by companies who have their headquarters in the UK (including Cazoo twice), while another four (20%) are Europe based. In addition, there are three companies who have their main office in Asia.

Sleeve sponsors: 19 clubs, Everton the exception

Since the 2017/18 season Premier League clubs are allowed to have sleeve sponsorships. Despite this opportunity, not all teams immediately jumped on the bandwagon. This season 19 teams don a logo on their sleeves.

Everton is the exception. Previously, the Toffees had Rovio’s Entertainment’s Angry Birds as sleeve sponsor, but talks over extending the deal broke down.

Tottenham on the other hand had no sleeve sponsor until January of 2021. That is when the London club entered into a partnership with online car retailer Cinch.

Overall it seems that the companies entering sleeve sponsorships are diverse. Like in previous seasons multiple companies are active in the financial services industry (four). Companies from the tourism industry (three), automotive and e-commerce (both two) are also favourites as sleeve sponsor. Yet, contrary to early seasons only one gambling company is involved.

2021/2022 Premier League Sleeve Sponsors

Cryptocurrency companies gaining prominence

The rise of cryptocurrency is also visible in the sponsorship deals in the Premier League. More and more clubs enter technical and/or strategic partnerships involving cryptocurrency. Whether that is with companies providing an online payment or trading platform, fan tokens or gambling options (for instance Watford).

2021/2022 Premier League sponsors

The Premier League lists eight official partners on their website. However, this does not include their various international and UK broadcast partners. The sponsors/partners have a clear ‘role’. For example Barclays in the official bank and Nike the official ball. As a result, partners receive exclusivity within their niche. Noticeable is that the Premier League does not list any regional partners (excluding broadcast partners). Several of the other Big Five leagues do.

The Premier League has the same amount of sponsors as the previous two seasons. But instead of Coca Cola as official beverage, Oracle is now the official cloud partner of the league.

2021/2022 Official League Partners