The Legal Baseline
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 prohibits gambling sponsorship of events, teams and organisations aimed at children, alongside its ban on advertising that appeals to children. It is narrower than a blanket sport-wide ban — adult professional sport can still carry gambling sponsorship — but it draws a hard line around youth sport for the first time in Irish law.
The GAA Got There First
The GAA banned gambling sponsorship across all its competitions, teams and facilities back in 2018 — years before the Act. That is why you see betting brands on League of Ireland shirts and around rugby, but never on a county jersey. For the biggest sporting body in the country, the debate is already settled.
Where the Pressure Is Heading
The UK Premier League agreed to remove gambling sponsors from the front of shirts from 2026-27, and Irish policy debate tracks the UK closely. With the GRAI empowered to regulate advertising broadly, sponsorship of adult sport is the most likely next frontier — watch the regulatory updates on our tracker.
Why Sponsorship Rules Exist at All
Sponsorship normalises. A child who watches sport with a betting logo on every shirt learns that gambling and sport are the same product — and the research on early exposure is grim reading. The Act treats childhood as a protected space, the same logic behind the watershed.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Act bans it for events, teams and organisations aimed at children. Adult professional sport can still carry gambling sponsorship — though the GAA banned it voluntarily in 2018.
The GAA banned gambling sponsorship across all its competitions and facilities in 2018 — ahead of any legal requirement.
Not yet — but the regulatory direction and UK precedent (Premier League front-of-shirt removal) point that way.