Today almost every team of the Premier League has a betting partner as a sponsor, and you’ll see betting ads both before, after, and during the games of the Premier League. But how did these sponsorships come into the Premier League?
With all the world’s attention focused on the Premier League, different sponsors of the world have a huge potential to advertise their products to all the world. Especially the billion-pound industry of gambling has found a huge potential in placing their names in the world’s biggest football league.
Weirdly enough, the history of the partnership between betting companies and football clubs is relatively short. The first Premier League club to get a sponsorship deal with a gambling company was West London club Fulham. In the 2002/03 season Fulham signed a deal with Betfair, who became the club’s shirt sponsor.
Promoted to all of Europe
Fulham and Betfair’s agreement only lasted one season, but now the door was open. In 2006 Bwin became the shirt sponsor of one of the finest clubs in Europe, AC Milan. When AC Milan won the Champions League final in the 2006/07 season, Bwin was on the shirts of star players like Paolo Maldini, Filippo Inzaghi, Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo, and Kaká. It served as great international branding for the gambling company, which wanted to promote itself internationally.
Not all countries allowed gambling advertisements, but by being on the shirts of the Champions League winners, Bwin would be advertised all over the world.
International sponsorship deals
The same logic follows today when gambling companies have become one of football’s main sponsors. Especially Asian gambling companies have made their way into the shirts of the Premier League players. It’s a great sign of how international the TV audience has become in the Premier League, when you see shirt sponsors from Dubai, Malta, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Abu Dhabi, and Curaçao.
The result has been of great interest to both parties. The online gambling industry is a booming market. Today there are plenty of opportunities for online casino games that would allow football fans to relax after a stressful match. With a huge variety of different spinning casino games. The booming industry has been giving the football clubs new potential for massive sponsorships which has been to the benefit of clubs.
They have gained bigger sponsorships to attract better players in the international battle between the clubs. For instance, Derby County was able to attract the English star striker Wayne Rooney. He was playing with number 32 – simply because the club’s shirt sponsor was the gambling company 32Red. In that way, the company saw a great potential to promote the company with one of the games’ most famous players.