There will be no gambling sponsors on the front of Premier League shirts this season.

There will be no gambling sponsors on the front of Premier League shirts this season.

For those who signed The Big Step petition, we wanted to share an update on where things stand.

When we started The Big Step in 2019, our aim was simple: to end gambling sponsorship in football.

We walked thousands of miles between clubs, stood outside grounds in the rain, spoke to decision-makers, clubs, fans and the media, and told our stories over and over again.

We laughed, we cried, we hugged, we argued. We kept going.

And it was hard.

We were told it couldn’t be done. That football needed the money. That gambling advertising didn’t cause harm, or cause people to gamble.

And ultimately, we didn’t win.

So this isn’t a post celebrating a big victory.

But when the Premier League season starts next weekend, there will be no gambling company on the front of a Premier League shirt.

That matters.

Young fans will watch their team in the stadium, on TV and in video games without seeing a gambling company promoted on the most prominent part of their heroes’ shirts.

But The Big Step was never just about getting gambling companies off the front of shirts.

It was about changing football’s relationship with gambling.

Getting to a place where every child and young person can watch a match without being encouraged to gamble.

We’re nowhere near there.

Gambling will still be on sleeves, around the pitch and in stadiums. There will still be advertising throughout broadcasts, online and across social media.

In many ways, exposure has got worse.

And behind all of this is an obscene level of gambling harm affecting individuals, families and communities across the country.

Lived experience was at the heart of The Big Step. It was people who had experienced gambling harm who made this campaign impossible to ignore.

Their voices need to remain at the centre of decisions about gambling.

We hope Prime Minister Andy Burnham and the new Gambling Minister Vicky Foxcroft — both of whom have previously supported action on gambling advertising — continue that leadership in government.

The front-of-shirt ban shows that change, albeit small, is possible.

We should mark that.

But then we need to look at the reality: far too many people are still suffering gambling harm, while there remains far too little action on the promotion and normalisation of gambling.

Thank you to everyone who signed the petition, shared our campaign, marched with us, spoke out, donated, challenged football and refused to accept that nothing could change.