North America’s second-tier league, the United Soccer League (USL), has announced that it will permit teams to create shirt sponsorships with betting companies via a modification to its marketing rules.
According to a recent report in ‘Front Office Sports’, the change has been approved and shared with clubs, positioning the most expansive league organization in the United States and Canada soccer’s secondary league body in line with Major League Soccer (MLS).
Jake Edwards, President of United Soccer League, commented that they want to be early movers in this space and it is very important that their clubs have the flexibility to benefit economically from this category.
Edwards went on to say that they feel like it’s a dynamic that most soccer fans – whether domestic or international – are already accustomed to so they want to be as progressive as possible.
Allowing sports betting sponsorships will see teams in states with legal sports betting being permitted to strike such deals. The USL confirmed that all professional teams will be allowed to create such sponsorships, such as any team in USL Championship and USL League One.
Teams in USL League Two will not, however, be eligible as the league is defined as semi-professional/amateur league.
New sponsors will only be permitted to use data from an official data distributor, with the only such distributor currently being Opta. Prospective partners will be required to partner with Opta in addition to the teams.
At this point, clubs are forbidden to offer sports betting on their various websites and digital media platforms and can also not promote any live odds.q