Overview of the 2022/2023 Championship sponsors

Who wears what in the English Championship? Which apparel brands are dominating in England’s second division? And are most shirt sponsors gambling companies?

Below we answer these questions and more by giving you an overview of the sponsors – kit and shirt sponsors – of the 2022/2023 Championship clubs. We also take a look at the league’s official partners and sleeve sponsors.

NOTE: This article will be updated as new deals are announced.

Related: Overview 2022/23 Premier League sponsors

Kit sponsors: 24 clubs, 9 brands

Nine different clothing brands sponsor the 24 Championship teams this season. Erreà, Hummel, Joma, Kelme, Macron, New Balance, Nike, Puma and Umbro are all represented. That is two less than in the 2022/23 Premier League.

Puma and Umbro sponsor the most teams with each four. The German brand supplies Black Pool, West Brom and promoted sides Rotherham United and Wigan Athletic. British brand Umbro has deals with relegated side Burnley, Huddersfield Town, Lutton Town and Hull City.

Umbro and Hull City have decided to retain the popular black third jersey from last season, although with a new shirt sponsor on the front.

Erreà, Hummel and New Balance add new teams

Nike sponsors three teams: Birmingham City, Preston North End and promoted side Sunderland. While Macron retained their portfolio from last year with Blackburn Rovers, Reading and Stoke City.

Erreà and Hummel both added new teams. The Italian brand added Sheffield United and Middlesbrough, while they already sponsored QPR. The Danish brand supplies Bristol City, Coventry City and from this season onwards Millwall as well.

Kelme (Watford) and New Balance (new partnership with Cardiff City) complete the list by each sponsoring one team.

After no longer sponsoring Cardiff City, Adidas sponsors no Championship team this season. A big difference with the Premier League, where the German brand is the main supplier with five teams.

Four teams change kit sponsor

Only four teams changed kit sponsor for the current campaign. Cardiff City switched from Adidas to New Balance. Millwall changed from Macron to Hummel. While Middlesbrough and Sheffield United switched from Hummel and Adidas respectively to Erreà.

2022/2023 Championship Kit Sponsors

Shirt sponsors: 30 sponsors, 20 industries

All Championship clubs have one or more shirt sponsors for the 2022/2023 season. Where all Premier League teams have one sponsorship deal covering the different kits, four Championship clubs have different sponsors for their home, away and/or third kit.

The 24 Championship clubs combined have 30 different sponsors that can be divided into 20 different industries. The gambling industry sponsors the most teams with six. This includes BoyleSports sponsoring two teams: Birmingham City and Coventry City. The total amount of gambling sponsors is two less than in the 2022/23 Premier League, even though there are four more teams.

The UK government would like to ban gambling sponsorships, but so far have stopped short of following Spain and Italy in imposing one. The Premier League now considers voluntarily banning gambling companies as shirt sponsor by phasing it out over a three year period. However, the ban will not apply to sleeve sponsorships nor to English Football League clubs, including Championship teams.

Energy company Utilita sponsors three teams

Besides betting firms, there are three property related companies, including construction and property development firms and a property and tech investment company.

Energy company Utilita sponsors three teams. They already sponsored Huddersfield Town and have added Blackpool and the home shirt for Luton Town.

There are also two financial services companies involved. Rotherham United features Asura on their away and third jerseys. While Wigan Athletic is sponsored by investment company EPIC GI, who have donated the front-of-shirt sponsorship space on the home and away shirts to charity organisation the Big Help Project.

10 changes in shirt sponsors

Ten teams have made changes to their shirt sponsor for the 2022/23 season. Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bristol City, Hull City and QPR all struck deals with new partners. Burnley, who got relegated from the Premier League, switched from SpreadEx Sports to Classic Football Shirts. While Middlesbrough switched from one gambling sponsor (32Red) to another (Unibet).

Luton Town changed their home shirt sponsor to Utilita from JB Development. Furthermore, Swansea City’s deal with Swansea University covered all jersey and now only the away one. For the home jersey they partnered with Westacres, while Owens became their third jersey partner.

The last team that has a new logo on their shirt is Wigan Athletic, because of partner EPIC GI donating the space to charity.

2022/2023 Championship Shirt Sponsors

73% of shirt sponsors have UK HQ

Of the companies sponsoring the teams 71 percent has their headquarters in the UK. That is far more than the 21 percent in the Premier League. This implies that the Premier League has a more global reach and therefore also attracts more foreign sponsors. While the Championship has more local partners as it is mostly followed by the UK audience.

Sleeve patches supplied by the English Football League

The big difference with the Premier League, is that Championship clubs are not allowed to broker their own sleeve sponsorship deals. The organisation behind the Sky Bet Championship, as it is officially called, has a deal with bookmaker Sky Bet and they supply the sleeve patches for the teams. One sleeve patch provides the name of the competition, while the other is the Sky Bet logo with below a gambling warning message – ‘Pause: take time to think’.

2022/2023 Championship sponsors

The Championship is part of the English Football League that also consists of the League One and League Two. The sponsors of these leagues are the same and the naming partner for all three leagues is Sky Bet.

The EFL lists twelve official partners on their website, which is three more than the Premier League. Included are two gaming partners with EA Sports and Football Manager, two e-commerce platforms with Cazoo and eBay and two energy related companies. One of them being Utilita, who also sponsors three Championship teams this campaign.

2022/2023 Official League Partners