If you follow Champions League football from India, you know the drill. The big games kick off at 1:30 am IST, there's a second screen open for stats, and the chai has gone cold by half-time. For almost two decades, those nights were built around one player: Lionel Messi. Today he plays his football outside Europe, and there is a new constant on screen: the bet365 logo running along the perimeter boards.
That logo is a bigger deal than it looks. For seven decades, Europe's elite club competition never had a sports betting sponsor. In August 2024, UEFA changed that, and bet365 became the first betting brand in the tournament's history to sign on as an official global partner.
Two seasons later, the deal is in its final year, and the next chapter is already being negotiated. Here is how it came together, what it actually includes and why it arrived just as the Messi era in Europe ended.
What fans actually see
For viewers in India, the Champions League plays out mostly on a phone. Early kick-offs land around 11:15 pm IST in winter and the main slot at 1:30 am, so plenty of fans follow the night through live scores, stats and highlights rather than a full broadcast. That is one reason so many of them look up how to download Bet365 app during the season: its match centre carries live stats and in-play trackers for Champions League games, which suits a match you are half-watching at 2 am.
In the stadium and on TV, the sponsorship is mostly visual. You see it on the LED boards behind the touchline, on the backdrop behind a coach at a pre-match press conference, and across UEFA's own digital channels.
The one part that reaches supporters directly is the ticket giveaway. Instead of selling seats, bet365 and UEFA handed out free match tickets to fans in selected countries, in what was billed as one of the largest giveaways in the competition's history. It is a smart play for a brand that wants to be linked with the matchday itself, not just with the odds.
The Messi era that came before
For most of the 2000s and 2010s, the Champions League had one face more than any other. Lionel Messi made his debut in the competition with Barcelona in December 2004, and over the next 18 years he set the standard for what a Champions League night could look like.
| Messi in the Champions League | |
|---|---|
| Goals | 129, second on the all-time list |
| Titles | 4 with Barcelona: 2006, 2009, 2011, 2015 |
| Seasons as top scorer | 6 |
| Hat-tricks | 8 |
| Clubs | Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain |
| Last Champions League match | 8 March 2023, Bayern Munich 2–0 PSG, round of 16 |
Numbers only tell half of it. The 2009 final in Rome, when Messi headed in the second goal against Manchester United. The 2011 final at Wembley, when he scored again against United and Sir Alex Ferguson admitted nobody had given his side such a hiding. The solo goal against Real Madrid in the 2011 semi-final, and the run past Jérôme Boateng against Bayern in 2015. For fans in India, those were the clips that turned casual viewers into people who set alarms for 1:30 am.
Then it ended. Messi left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, and two seasons later PSG went out to Bayern in the round of 16. That night in Munich turned out to be his last Champions League game. In the summer of 2023 he joined Inter Miami, and the 2023/24 season became the first in almost twenty years without him.
UEFA's deal with bet365 arrived a year later. It is hard not to see the two events as part of the same story: once the competition's biggest draw had gone, UEFA needed new ways to grow its audience and its revenue.
The deal at a glance
UEFA announced the partnership on 20 August 2024, nine days before the draw for the first season of the new league-phase format.
| Detail | What was agreed |
|---|---|
| Title | Official Global Sponsor and exclusive sports betting partner of the UEFA Champions League |
| Term | Three seasons: 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 |
| Competition | Men's Champions League |
| Branding | LED perimeter boards, media backdrops, UEFA's official digital channels |
| Fan activation | Free-to-enter match ticket giveaway |
| Fee | Not disclosed |
Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA's marketing director, presented the deal as a way to reach bet365's "over 100 million" customers, and made a point of "promoting responsible gaming practices" in the same breath. Alex Sefton, bet365's global chief marketing officer, linked it to the company's long football heritage and its "Never Ordinary" brand line.
Why UEFA finally opened the door
Betting and football have been intertwined for years. Betting brands sit on Premier League shirts, sponsor La Liga and Bundesliga clubs and pay for broadcast slots across Europe. UEFA simply kept its flagship club competition out of it.
So what changed? Three things at once. The competition had just lost Messi, the player who carried its global audience for the best part of two decades. The format changed: the 2024/25 season brought the biggest overhaul since the European Cup was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992, with 36 teams in a single league phase, eight matches each instead of six, and a knockout play-off round. And more matches meant more inventory to sell, while few categories value football inventory as highly as betting does.
The timing was delicate, though. Earlier in 2024, UEFA and the German government had faced criticism over Betano's sponsorship of Euro 2024, and several leagues were introducing or debating limits on gambling advertising. UEFA's answer was to pick one partner, make the deal exclusive and write responsible gaming into the announcement itself.
Who is bet365?
Bet365 is not a newcomer chasing visibility. Denise Coates founded the company in Stoke-on-Trent in 2000, famously starting out in portable cabins in a car park. It is still family-owned, and the Coates family also owns Stoke City, so football has been part of the business from the start.
Today it is one of the largest online bookmakers in the world. For the year to March 2025, revenue rose about 9% to roughly £4 billion, while pre-tax profit fell to £339 million as it spent heavily on expansion. In April 2026 it launched in Michigan, its 17th US state.
Football sits at the core of the product. Bet365 built its reputation on in-play betting and live streaming, and that makes the Champions League an obvious fit: a weekly European audience watching high-stakes games in real time. The UCL deal also fits a wider push into football media. In June 2026, bet365 became talkSPORT's headline bookmaker partner for the World Cup.
2026/27: the last season of the current deal
The current contract ends with the 2026/27 season, which builds towards the final at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid on 5 June 2027.
On paper, that final is where bet365's run as the competition's first betting partner ends. In practice, it may be only the end of the first chapter. From 2027/28, UEFA's club competition sponsorships are sold by UC3, the joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association, working with Relevent Football Partners. In June 2026, UC3 and Relevent said they had entered exclusive negotiations with an unnamed "selected betting company". Industry reports named bet365 as the brand negotiating an extension for 2027–31.
If those reports are right, the new deal would be much wider than the first one. It would reportedly cover:
- the Champions League
- the Europa League
- the Conference League
- the UEFA Super Cup
- the Futsal Champions League finals
That would be the first time all three UEFA club competitions sit under one betting sponsor. It would also land in a sales cycle where Relevent is reported to be on track for more than €1 billion a year in sponsorship and licensing revenue, with AB InBev, PepsiCo and Alibaba already confirmed as partners. Neither UEFA nor bet365 has confirmed the extension yet.
What the partnership tells us about football after Messi
Three things stand out two years in.
- The competition now sells itself, not its stars. Without Messi, UEFA leans on the format, the drama of the league phase and its sponsors to keep the global audience. A partner like bet365, built around live, match-by-match engagement, fits that shift.
- Being first is worth a lot. Bet365 will always be the betting brand that broke the Champions League barrier. No later sponsor can buy that.
- Responsible gaming is now part of the price of entry. UEFA put it in the opening statement, and any renewal is likely to carry the same message, especially with gambling advertising under pressure across Europe.
FAQ
When did bet365 become a Champions League sponsor?
UEFA announced the partnership on 20 August 2024. It started with the 2024/25 season.
Is bet365 the official betting partner of the Champions League in 2026/27?
Yes. 2026/27 is the third and final season of the original three-year deal.
Was bet365 the first betting sponsor of the Champions League?
Yes. It was the first sports betting brand to become an official partner of the competition.
How many Champions League goals did Messi score?
129, the second-highest total in the competition's history, along with four titles with Barcelona.
When was Messi's last Champions League match?
On 8 March 2023, when PSG lost 2–0 to Bayern Munich in the round of 16. He joined Inter Miami that summer.
Will bet365 sponsor the Champions League after 2027?
Reports in June 2026 said bet365 was in exclusive talks to extend the partnership for 2027–31 and widen it to all UEFA club competitions. It has not been officially confirmed.
Where is the 2027 Champions League final?
At the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid, on 5 June 2027.
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