Marex has agreed a multi-year principal partnership with Nottingham Forest that puts the financial-services company’s name on the club’s men’s and women’s football shirts and its netball dresses. The agreement announced by Marex on 18 August also makes the group Forest’s Global Markets Partner and exclusive provider of foreign exchange and other financial services.
Marex Replaces a Betting Brand After Forest Started Without a Sponsor
Forest entered the 2026/27 Premier League season without a front-of-shirt sponsor before announcing Marex. The club’s principal shirt partner during 2025/26 was Bally’s Corporation, following a two-season agreement with Kaiyun Sports. Both predecessors were associated with gambling, a category that Premier League clubs voluntarily removed from the front of matchday shirts from the start of the current campaign.
The restriction does not amount to a complete ban on betting sponsorship in English football. Gambling brands can still appear on sleeves and pitchside advertising, and the policy does not prohibit every other club partnership. It specifically removes them from the most visible position on Premier League matchday shirts.
The change created a commercial replacement problem for several clubs because gambling operators had often paid more than companies in other sectors. When the policy was agreed in 2023, The Guardian reported that eight shirt deals with betting companies were worth about £60 million a year collectively. One club executive said gambling offers could be twice those available from other industries.
Forest has now filled the most valuable inventory with a listed financial group rather than another consumer betting name. The arrangement covers more teams than Bally’s original men’s first-team shirt deal, giving Marex visibility across men’s football, women’s football and netball. The company and club said they also intend to develop financial-literacy initiatives and promote financial-services careers to women, but they have not yet supplied targets, budgets or a timetable for those programs.
The club’s recent sponsorship history provides another point of comparison. In August 2025, eToro announced a multi-year agreement as Forest’s Official Trading Partner. The new Marex release says Marex will be the exclusive provider of foreign exchange and other financial services. Neither announcement explains whether eToro remains a club partner or how the trading and financial-services categories are divided.
Marex Is Buying Recognition After 43% Revenue Growth
The sponsorship follows a period of rapid financial expansion at Marex. Six days before announcing the Forest deal, the group reported first-half 2026 revenue of $1.39 billion, up 43% from a year earlier. Profit after tax increased 79% to $267.7 million, although that figure included $35.5 million from discontinued operations, principally a gain on the sale of Winterflood’s custody business.
According to Marex’s second-quarter results, adjusted profit before tax increased 57% in the first half to $318.6 million. The adjusted measure is not an IFRS figure, but the company provides a reconciliation in its results. Reported profit before tax from continuing operations rose 53% to $308 million.
The numbers support Marex’s claim that the business has moved beyond its commodities origins. Agency and Execution generated $673.3 million of first-half revenue, including $496.2 million from securities. Foreign-exchange revenue within that division reached $83.2 million, compared with $14 million a year earlier, largely because Marex completed its acquisition of Hamilton Court Group in July 2025.
The Hamilton Court transaction added about 170 employees and expanded Marex’s corporate foreign-exchange and payments capabilities. That acquisition makes the exclusive FX element of the Forest partnership more commercially relevant. Marex can use the sponsorship to market a service it has materially expanded, rather than attaching its name to football without a related operating business.
Other acquisitions have extended the platform into equities and fixed income. Marex agreed to pay £103.9 million for Winterflood Securities, adding UK equity market making and distribution capabilities. It also completed its acquisition of Valcourt, which brought a client base of about 700 banks, asset managers and wealth managers into its fixed-income operation.
The growth has come with higher costs and risk. Average full-time-equivalent headcount increased 33% in the first half to 3,347, while total expenses rose 40% to $1.08 billion. Marex also recorded a $28.2 million trading loss and a $5.7 million credit-loss provision after a natural-gas client defaulted during the first quarter. The sponsorship is being signed by a profitable and expanding group, but the undisclosed fee prevents investors from assessing its direct cost or expected return.
Football Gives an Institutional Firm a Consumer-Scale Audience
Marex primarily serves commodity producers, banks, hedge funds, asset managers and professional trading firms. Its recent expansion includes a multi-asset derivatives execution desk for institutional clients. That makes a Premier League shirt different from advertising aimed at a mass-market brokerage client because the audience is broad while the services being promoted are largely institutional and business-to-business.
The objective is therefore corporate recognition as much as immediate customer acquisition. Marex listed in New York in April 2024 and has continued to broaden the business presented to investors and clients. A football partnership can make the group name familiar to prospective employees, corporate counterparties and investors who may know individual acquired businesses but not the wider Marex platform.
Ian Lowitt, chief executive of Marex, said the agreement would introduce the company and its capabilities to a wider global audience. “Our partnership with Nottingham Forest, a team with a proud heritage and a clear determination to compete at the highest level, will introduce Marex and our broad capabilities to an even wider global audience,” he said.
The club offers international visibility because Premier League matches are distributed across global broadcast markets. Forest also carries historical recognition as one of four English clubs to have won at least two European Cups. On the field, the club appointed Oliver Glasner as head coach in July after he won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt and the Conference League with Crystal Palace.
That sporting heritage does not guarantee commercial results for the sponsor. Broadcast exposure depends on fixtures and performance, while awareness does not automatically become institutional revenue. Marex will need to measure website traffic, brand recognition, recruitment, client introductions and use of the partnership in corporate hospitality rather than treating television impressions as the only return.
The Rights Extend Beyond the Men’s Premier League Team
The inclusion of Forest Women and Nottingham Forest Netball widens the agreement beyond the men’s side. Marex branding will appear on women’s playing and replica shirts and on netball dresses, while the planned career initiatives give the company a route to connect the sponsorship with recruitment. That is important because a logo across several teams does not by itself increase the number of women entering financial services.
The value will depend on the programs delivered alongside the rights. Measurable initiatives could include internships, mentoring, school workshops, financial-literacy sessions and published participation outcomes. Marex and Forest have said they will develop community activity, but the announcement does not identify delivery partners or commit to numerical goals.
The structure also gives Forest one principal brand across three sporting operations, creating a more consistent commercial identity. For Marex, the broader package provides exposure to different audiences and more activation opportunities than a men’s shirt-only arrangement. It may also help distinguish the partnership from finance-sector football deals limited to digital advertising or a secondary category.
The Undisclosed Fee Is the Main Missing Number
The parties describe the agreement as multi-year, yet its exact duration and value remain private. Those details matter because shirt sponsorship is one of a football club’s largest commercial assets and because Marex is now a public company. Without the fee, it is not possible to compare the deal with Forest’s previous arrangements or determine how much additional commercial revenue the club has secured after the betting ban.
The same limitation applies when assessing Marex’s return. A front-of-shirt deal offers continuous visibility, but the company sells services through regulated entities and relationship-led institutional channels. The sponsorship can open conversations and increase familiarity, while client onboarding, credit approval and revenue generation will still depend on Marex’s products, pricing and risk controls.
The strategic logic is nevertheless clearer than the language usually attached to sports sponsorship. Marex has reported 43% first-half revenue growth, expanded FX revenue through Hamilton Court and added equities and fixed-income capabilities through acquisitions. It now wants the market to recognize one group rather than a collection of specialist businesses.
Forest, meanwhile, needed a non-betting brand for the shirt position as the Premier League’s restriction took effect. Marex fills that space while gaining football’s largest recurring advertising surface and a role as the club’s financial-services provider. The deal’s success will depend on whether that visibility produces identifiable business and community outcomes, not simply how often the logo appears on screen.
