What famous kits are etched firmly in your memory? With a colour as defining as claret and blue, the logo on the front of the shirt is just as much a design feature as the strip. In Villa history, there have been numerous shirt sponsors, some memorable, others not. The most iconic are collected below.

Betano
Betano is the newest sponsor for the Villa shirt, signing a two-year deal starting with the 2024/2025 season. Reportedly, the deal was worth a club record of £40 million in total. However, it will be the last of its kind and the final time a gambling company features on Villa shirts. The EPL will seek to end front-of-shirt sponsorship for gambling companies by the 26/27 season. This will be a blow for Villa, who more than any other top-flight team have relied on gambling companies to sponsor them over the years. Look at the list: 32 Red, Genting Casino, Dafabet, Unibet, W88, and BK8.

Betano is a global brand and part of the Kaizen parent company. They were already a brand partner for the Euro 2024 football championship and Copa America. This shows they have their sights firmly set on the football sportsbooks market, despite any regulatory changes. However, they also have an exceptional online casino that has managed to build itself a reputation in the United Kingdom and abroad. Not only has this been down to its game selection., but also its attractive slots welcome bonus. It is also often included in the top casino ranked by review sites, experts in the casino field.

Cazoo
In terms of Villa shirts, the Cazoo branding was some of the most stylish. It had a yellow logo, with the A designed to look like a car. They adorned shirts between 2020 and 2023. Cazoo also sponsored a host of other European clubs, with rugby and cricket events also seeing their branding. Primarily, the company is a classifieds and online marketplace selling used vehicles. However, in 2024 the brand went into administration and was bought by Motors, another used car website. Thus, it would be surprising to see Cazoo return to any form of sponsorship in the next few years.

They existed on shirts made by Castore for a period, and though they looked great, it is unlikely this deal will continue. The partnership with the brand was a landmark multi-year, multi-million-pound deal. However, huge numbers of complaints arrived about the quality of the garments. This has been addressed recently, but it remains to be seen if it will be cut short or extended. This would be a shame, as the brand adds some great design elements to kits. These have included soundwaves taken from the Villa crowd.

MG Rover
MG Rover Group had a short life span, lasting only five years between 2000 and 2005. Yet its history was intrinsically linked with the Midlands area. It was also the end of an era when it closed, being the last domestic car manufacturer in the United Kingdom.

It was formed from the Rover group, which had been owned by BMW and then sold off. However, this had previously been British Leyland, which had a long history of automotive manufacture in the Birmingham area. Most of its most famous sons, such as Land Rover and Mini, were also moved elsewhere. While the plant was in decline, it always held a special place in the hearts of Midlander’s.

In a clever piece of marketing, though a little unfair on the home kit, MG Rover used two logos. Its everyday brand, Rover, was given the utilitarian text font and plastered on home shirts. Yet the prestigious MG part of the brand adorned the away shirts, and it was this logo that really gave the strip a touch of class. They held the spot between 2002 and 2004.

Davenports Brewery
The first shirt sponsor the club ever had was a truly local firm. Davenports Brewery had been in the area since 1829, when records show Robert Davenport as owning a number of establishments in the Birmingham area. By 1867, John Davenport and sons had been established as a family business. They then began homebrewing and selling the beer through their city centre pubs.

This is a method that continues to this day, with the business brewing a range of classic and contemporary beers. Both the home and away shirts were simplistic with a truly retro design. This complemented the logo, and they held the position from the 1982 to 1983 season. These kits are now highly sought after by collectors.