Top 10 Football Clubs With Casino Sponsors

In many countries in the world, local laws and regulations have changed in recent years to adopt online gambling. In order to provide online gambling services in a region, gambling companies must apply for licenses or permits. Once awarded, it is essential for them to quickly create brand awareness and conquer market share as competition is fierce. Sponsoring football clubs is known to be highly effective.

Betting partners are finding their way to the shirts of sports teams these days, especially if you’re a fan of Premier League football. There are an immense number of professional football clubs that are sponsored by gambling companies — both as shirt sponsors and official betting partners. In this guide, we will give you an up-to-date list of sponsorship in football in 2022. These football teams can be found in mainly Europe and South America.

10. (Atlético Mineiro, Brazil, Betano)

Brazilian champions Atlético Mineiro announced a sponsorship deal in 2021 which saw betting company Betano take up the main space on the club’s shirt. Banco MG, the at that time main sponsor of the football club based in Belo Horizonte, was consequently forced to move to the back of the shirt. Interestingly, Banco BMG was not notified about the deal with the new betting partner which is why they were caught by surprise by the club’s announcement. The Banco BMG company was founded by Ricardo Guimarães‘s family, who is also one of the former Atlético Mineiro-presidents.

9. Everton (England, Stake.com)

Early 2020, Everton’s CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale said that only “in an ideal world” the football club wouldn’t have to be sponsored by a betting partner. She had a strong preference for a company from another industry. Yet, the Liverpool-based club was sponsored by Kenyan betting firm Sportpesa between May 2017 and May 2020 and succeeded by Stake.com, an international gambling company founded in 2017. The multi-year partnership with the leading casino brand starts on the 1st of July 2022 and is the biggest value front-of-shirt sponsor deal in the British club’s history.

8. Manchester City (England, MarathonBet)

English champions Manchester City work with Marathonbet as their first training kit partner which is a different type of deal than the ones we have come across so far. The agreement between MarathonBe and the English football club stretches to both the club’s adult men’s and women’s teams with both collections seeing the brand’s logo added to their training wear. The partnership between the two is an extension of the 18-month deal worth millions of pounds. The exact amount of the new deal has not been announced.

7. Vasco da Gama (Brazil PixBet)

Also based in Brazil, Vasco da Gama signed a deal with PIXBET, a bookmaker that only operates in the South American country. As is common in the country, the short term contract was only signed for a year, yielding around 9 million reais (NZD $ 2,69 million) to the Brazilian football giant. Due to the new agreement, the BMG bank brand was repositioned to the back of the shirt. According to the Brazilian site GE, the Rio club earns about R$ 5 million (NZD $ 1,59 million) from the financial institution. Edmundo, a former striker of both Brazil and Vasco, was used as the brand ambassador to promote the deal.

6. West Ham United (England, Betway)

London-based West Ham United has had a rough few years after relegation to the second-tier Championship, but is still very popular in the UK. The Hammers, as the club is often referred to, also has one of the most reputable betting operators in the world as their financial partner, after they signed the deal in 2015. The deal with Betway was “the biggest deal in the club’s history” at the time it was sealed. Thanks to the millions of pounds received by the club, it managed to finish 7th in the 2021-2022 Premier League season, closely after the traditional top 6.

5. FC Porto (Portugal, Betano)

Portuguese giants FC Porto have a sponsorship deal with Kaizen Gaming’s sports betting brand Betano which is the same brand operating in Brazil. The Betano deal, which covers both the first and second team and B, sees media giant Altice end their shirt partnership with the Portuguese side. That brought Porto a total amount of € 457.5 million (NZD$ 758,57), during a 10-year agreement signed in 2015, including tv rights to Porto’s home league games. Club president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa confirmed Altice’s MEO pay-TV brand will stay a partner without revealing anything about the fees this comes with.

4. Arsenal (England, vBET)

Premier League football club Arsenal has a deal with the online sportsbook and casino platform VBET. As such, VBET became the Betting and Gaming Partner of the London-based clubs for a period of 3 years, until the end of the 2022-23 season. The partnership allows VBET to produce exclusive content including productions with both first-team players and club legends. Assisted by former Arsenal player Ray Parlour, the online casino brand will leverage its access to the first-team squad to launch interactive content. VBET is the Official Presenting Partner which means they’re not the club’s main sponsor.

3. Borussia Dortmund (Germany, Bwin)

In addition to being a popular sportsbook, Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG also offers other services such as an online casino and a live dealer platform. The company has sponsored numerous other sports teams in recent years since its focus on signing sponsorships. This includes football giants like Real Madrid, Bayern, Man U, and other teams that have had deals with Bwin. In August 2021, Bwin signed extended deals with various football clubs from Germany, including Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin, and Köln as well as second-tier clubs St. Pauli and Dynamo Dresden.

2. Ajax (The Netherlands, Unibet)

Ajax Amsterdam has teamed up with betting company Unibet in June 2022. The three-time Champions League winner club has entered into a multi-year agreement with the Scandinavian betting company that recently received a licence to legally offer online games of chance in the Netherlands. As part of Dutch regulation, gambling companies in the country need to stress responsible play. For years, online gambling was banned in the Netherlands, pushing people away to foreign, illegal websites. Since October 1, 2021, licenced gambling companies are allowed to offer online gambling, provided they check that a player sticks to responsible play. Unibet is therefore going to work with a Player Safety Early Detection System, to intervene as soon as a player loses control. The deal was nonetheless welcomed with criticism by football fans and industry experts.

1. Liverpool (England, 1x2Bet)

Liverpool FC teamed up with 1xBet in 2021, in a new multi-year partnership. The deal saw how 1xBet became the official global betting partner of Liverpool Football Club, enabling fans of The Reds to obtain exclusive offers and sporting entertainment. The club will use the partnership to increase brand awareness within its key global markets by the means of stadium branding at the Anfield stadium and branding on the club’s digital platforms, along with access to the first team in order to provide fans with additional ways to interact and engage with the club. Known as one of the fastest developing companies in the industry, 1xBet features the biggest number of markets available in pre-match and live betting odds, as well as traditional online games such as live casino games and online pokies.

References

• https://www.evertonfc.com/news/2642194/everton-signs-club-record-deal-with-stakecom
• https://english.ajax.nl/articles/unibet-new-official-partner-of-ajax/