All eight Hundred franchises have signed front-of-shirt sponsors from outside the gambling sector, avoiding a scenario that could have put a betting company’s logo on team kits for the tournament’s opening game on Tuesday.
The England and Wales Cricket Board had allowed gambling sponsorships as a last-resort option for this season, but every team found alternative partners before the deadline.
Sponsorship Market Grows Tougher After Central Deal Ends
For its first five seasons, the Hundred ran a single central sponsorship deal with KP Snacks covering all eight teams, with the ECB managing operations directly. That changed late last year when host counties and new investors took over team management and gained the right to negotiate their own commercial deals. The shift left teams to build sponsorship portfolios from scratch in a market that turned out tougher than expected.
Part of that difficulty stems from the Premier League’s decision to ban front-of-shirt betting sponsors starting with the 2026-27 football season, which narrowed the pool of companies competing for sports sponsorship space. In response, the ECB permitted Hundred teams to sign gambling sponsors for 2026 only, despite the tournament’s family-oriented branding. Only three franchises had front-of-shirt partners locked in by the kit launch on June 1. The remaining five have since signed with companies including an online estate agent, a logistics firm, a health insurer and several financial services providers.
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ECB Plans Full Betting Sponsorship Ban From 2027
Hundred managing director Vikram Banerjee confirmed that visible betting sponsorships will be banned across the tournament starting next year, calling it a stronger position than any other cricket league has taken. Some teams may still carry gambling logos on shirt sleeves or trousers this season, but the front-of-shirt ban takes full effect in 2027.
Banerjee said the board recognized gambling as a major part of sports sponsorship broadly, but wanted this year treated as a transition period given the scale of operational change underway. The board’s May vote approved gambling sponsorships for 2026 only under conditions that included a minimum valuation threshold, the option for players to wear sponsor-free shirts for religious or personal reasons, and a rule barring gambling logos from children’s replica kits entirely.
Other cricket leagues have taken different approaches to the same pressure. Cricket Australia has rejected gambling sponsors for the BBL and WBBL, citing the leagues’ family entertainment positioning, while the IPL operates in a market where gambling is illegal outright.
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Tournament Drops ‘Sets’ Terminology and Unveils New Trophy
Beyond sponsorship, the ECB is scrapping the term “sets” from Hundred coverage this season, reverting to “balls” after five seasons of trying to establish new terminology. Banerjee said the change had not achieved its intended goal of simplifying the game for new fans and had instead created confusion among existing cricket followers.
The tournament will also introduce a new trophy this year called the Hundred Helix, which combines men’s and women’s results into a single table to determine an overall champion alongside the separate men’s and women’s titles. All three trophies will carry equal prize money.
The changes come after private investors purchased stakes in Hundred teams for a combined fee exceeding £500 million over the past 18 months. Ticket sales have improved following a slow start to the buildup, and the ECB has said it expects higher playing standards this season compared to previous years.
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