UK Gambling Lobby Puts Illegal Premier League Bets at $1.09B

Trade Body Forecast Arrives in Disruptive Period

The Betting and Gaming Council said on Aug. 24 that the illegal gambling black market is expected to take up to $1.09 billion in bets across the Premier League season that began Aug. 21, with around $27 million staked with criminal operators over the opening weekend. The trade body forecast a further $272 million increase next season, taking the annual figure to roughly $1.36 billion, which it attributed to April’s planned increase in General Betting Duty.

The statement says the $1.09 billion is “expected,” the $272 million increase is “forecast,” and that “analysis suggests” a typical weekend sees between $20 million and $27 million staked with unlicensed operators. No research firm is credited for those figures, and no methodology is published. The opening-weekend number is also stated two different ways within three paragraphs: first as money already staked, then as an expectation that the first round of fixtures would land toward the top of that range.

The only attributed figures in the statement concern something else. The BGC cites H2 Gambling Capital forecasting that total staking with illegal operators in Britain will almost double from nearly $23.2 billion to more than $45 billion by 2028, and research by WARC finding unregulated operators now account for almost half of UK gambling advertising spend. Neither measure Premier League betting.

Grainne Hurst, the BGC’s chief executive, framed the money as a loss to the sport and the exchequer, saying, “these operators pay no tax, fund nothing and answer to no one,” she said. “Every pound they take is a pound lost to British sport and to the Treasury.” She added that with illegal betting “on course to reach £1bn a season,” the council supports action that keeps customers inside the regulated market. The BGC says that market supports more than 109,000 jobs, contributes $9.3 billion to the economy, and raises over $5.5 billion in tax each year – the same three figures it was circulating in April.

The independent estimate of what the tax rises will displace is smaller than the BGC attributes to one duty on one sport. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimated in November 2025 that recent tax changes would push roughly $681 million in additional gambling activity to the black market across all products – less than the $1.09 billion the council expects to reach unlicensed operators through Premier League betting alone.

This is the Premier League’s first season without gambling brands on the front of matchday shirts, a voluntary change clubs agreed in 2023 that ended a market worth more than $191 million a season. The BGC supports the change and has backed government plans to stop clubs taking money from operators without a UK license, while calling for that to extend across all British sport.

Rival Entain has meanwhile pressed the case against unlicensed sponsors in three stages: a February letter from chief executive Stella David to Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, a May submission to the Independent Football Regulator, and letters from general counsel Simon Zinger to executives at Burnley, Bournemouth, Fulham, Everton, Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Regulation remains in flux. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is moving to revoke the Gambling Act’s “aim to permit” duty, the statutory presumption that has shaped premises licensing since 2005, three weeks after taking office.