Ted Lasso: What Is Betway? & Why Does Nate Wear It?

When TV shows create their storylines around real-life happenings or events, seeing how that pans out is always interesting. As an avid football fan, when Ted Lasso first came out, I was immediately interested in the show’s setting, in this case, in the Premier League, the elite tier of English football. TV shows tend to overdramatize their setting for the sake of the plot, but despite some inaccurate aspects, Ted Lasso did a really good job of replicating the atmosphere of English football and its culture, which is one of the staples of the United Kingdom. Since Ted Lasso is set in the real-life football landscape, some details were unknown to foreign and non-football fans, and this article will focus on Betway, the sponsor we see on West Ham shirts, predominantly worn by Nate Shelley.

Betway is an online gambling company founded in 2006 that offers services for betting and other gambling products. Since 2006, Betway has established itself as one of the leaders in online gambling and betting services in the United Kingdom, and for that, the company became the main sponsor of the English Premier League club West Ham United. In Ted Lasso, Nate constantly wears his West Ham gear since becoming the manager of the team, which does have its main sponsor in Betway.

Betway brand holds licenses worldwide, and besides the UK, those include Malta, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, and more. We will discuss this brand more in the article and what’s the meaning behind Nate’s constant wearing of West Ham gear. We don’t promote gambling in any shape or form, and we will mostly spend time “painting the picture” behind the sponsor and putting it in the context of Nate’s character. If you are interested, stay with us until the end.

Betway features a lot in Ted Lasso show

As we already mentioned, Betway is an online gambling company that offers betting and gambling products worldwide. The company was founded in 2006, and since then, it has become one of the biggest gambling and betting service in the world. Of course, the betting and gambling companies’ names are featured in sports since it is the physical activity people gamble on the most. Football, or soccer, became the biggest sport in the world, and its popularity kickstarted many gambling and betting companies worldwide.

Betting in itself is where the money flows the most, and the sport of football is the most “bettable” activity in the world. In the United Kingdom, football is the most popular sport, and English Premier League is the country’s most elite tier of football. One would say Premier League became the biggest footballing league in the world for its popularity and, significantly, money.

Betting and gambling companies are sponsoring clubs and leagues worldwide; since Betway is one of the biggest betting companies in the UK, it’s not a surprise they are sponsors to some sports clubs.

West Ham United is an English Premier League club established in East London and is also referred to by their iconic nickname, “Hammers.” Its rich history stems from 127 years in English football and being one of only eight clubs that have never been below the second-tier league. Like many clubs in English football, West Ham United changed many sponsors in the last thirty years, especially after the establishment of today’s Premier League in the 1990s, and since 2015, carried Betway name on their shirts.

In February of 2015, the football club announced the sponsorship with Betway, which became the main sponsor of the club, as seen on the team’s merchandise.

Only a year later, West Ham and Betway announced the renewal of the partnership, which marked the largest sponsorship deal in West Ham United’s history. Since then, West Ham has carried the name Betway on their shirts. Ted Lasso show is set in a real-life football competition with real clubs (sans AFC Richmond), hence why we see so many sponsors in the series. Moreover, that’s why we see Betway name on Nate Shelley’s clothes, which is an interesting detail for his character in Ted Lasso, so let’s discuss that aspect of Nate Shelley.

Why does Nate Shelley wear only West Ham United merch?

Nate Shelley has been the most notorious character for Ted Lasso fans in season two of the show. At the beginning of the series, Nate is a bullied kitman who no one respects, but when Ted realizes that the man knows football, he immediately lets him be part of his coaching team.

Ted Lasso gave Nate Shelley a chance no one did before, but despite the opportunity, Nate decided to go against Richmond and Ted’s kindness. Of course, Nate’s knowledge of football is his own work, but if not for Ted, the man would never realize his potential. Nate’s insecurities have plagued his life, and even his father never respected him, which is clearly seen in season two when Nate goes behind everyone’s backs.

Specifically, Nate goes to Rupert, who only wants to hurt Rebecca and her happiness after their divorce, and the owner of West Ham United sees the opportunity to use insecure Nate for his own agenda. Of course, Nate being Nate, he immediately buys into Rupert’s manipulative actions and becomes the West Ham United manager and the opposition of AFC Richmond, his old team.

In season three, Nate is clearly manipulated by Rupert, and despite his success as the manager in West Ham, Nate is still insecure and an unhappy man who is clearly guilty of what he did to Ted. It hurts him even more when he sees that Ted just wants to make amends with him and move on, and Nate himself cannot move away from grudges and, in predominantly his case, insecurities.

Maybe it’s not that deep, but Nate constantly wears his West Ham clothes with Betway sponsor on his back because that is his “armor.” Being a West Ham manager in the most elite flight of English football is Nate’s biggest achievement, and when he wears his West Ham clothes, he feels good.

We see that when he meets other people, especially a woman named Anastasia, whom Rupert set up for Nate after the win against Richmond. However, that whole thing goes wrong because Nate doesn’t like her, he doesn’t have a “game” at all, and even the West Ham clothes cannot help him with women and other people in life.

This only proves that despite his success and journey from mere kitman to West Ham manager, Nate is still insecure and an unhappy man. However, the last few episodes see Nate progressing in his personal life by finally asking Jade out, which might be the turning point for the character.

Nevertheless, Nate’s choice of clothes is really interesting for his character since it does allude to showrunners wanting to present the character as insecure and his West Ham United clothes to be his armor or a trophy. This is clear when Nate wants to ask Jade out on a date – the woman just doesn’t bat an eye for a man until he finally “gets out of his shell.” Betway sponsorship is only there because they are the real-life sponsor of West Ham United football club.