Getting shirty: The rise of second-tier shirt sponsorships

A great deal was made about the penetration of betting sponsorships in the Premier League last season. More than £45m was spent on top-flight betting partnerships for 19 of the 20 teams in the division, with Tony Bloom’s Brighton and Hove Albion the only exception.

The influx was described as a “tipping point” by industry commentators, with betting firms expected to go out of fashion, much like the electrical goods sponsorships of the 1990s; think JVC at Arsenal and Sharp at Manchester United. But fast forward to the beginning of a new campaign, and the saturation of betting and gaming sponsorship has seemingly filtered down to the second tier of the UK’s professional football pyramid.

The Championship is now under the microscope. All 24 competing teams have revealed new kits for 2018/19, and 17 of them display betting brands. Remarkably, five of those 17 brands are Kindred Group’s UK-facing casino, 32Red. Its logo will appear on the shirts of Derby County, Preston North End, Middlesbrough, Leeds United and Aston Villa. Another four are taken up by LeoVegas and its sub-brands. The operator is the principal sponsor of Norwich City and Brentford, while QPR has partnered with Royal Panda and Swansea City with BetUK.

Betting partnerships are still rife in the Premier League, but they tend to be with newly launched, lesser-known brands looking for exposure worldwide. But for Nordic casino brands with a focus on UK customers, the Championship really is the place to be. But why? “There are a lot of deals for betting in the Premier League but those have a slightly different audience than us in the Championship as we have a UK focus,” says Kindred Group’s UK general manager Neil Banbury.

“We wanted to put together a breadth of clubs to give us a wide platform in the Championship compared to the Premier League where the prices reflect global exposure. Focusing on the UK market means we have a more efficient spend on the Championship clubs.”

Cost plays a significant part in any sponsorship deal but with five of the biggest Championship teams displaying your brand all season long, it is easy to understand why Kindred has veered away from the top flight. 32Red also sponsors Scottish giants Glasgow Rangers, and Banbury reveals that the marketing spend for all six deals equates to roughly the same amount spent by the firm on a betting partnership with Swansea City when the South Wales club was in the Premier League.

Casino firm Dunder sponsors Bristol City

City living

Banbury says Kindred targeted Derby, Preston, Middlesbrough, Leeds and Villa as each club has a strong connection in the local community and good media exposure. He says: “There are certain clubs in the Championship that have a bigger fan base and local reach than some of the Premier League clubs.” One of those Premier League clubs is Burnley, who recently agreed a sponsorship deal with Asian operator Laba360. A spokesperson for the operator said: “Clearly a Premier League club gets more exposure than a Championship club. Burnley will also be playing in the Europa League thanks to their excellent season last year and that international exposure will also be beneficial for Laba360.”

While the football team is undoubtedly a cornerstone of the community in Burnley, and the club will indeed provide worldwide exposure through its Europa League participation, it is a town of 73,000 people. Leeds is a city almost six-and-a-half times the size, so Banbury’s point stands up, especially as 32Red isn’t targeting global customers. Its different horses for different courses.

It’s a similar story at Bristol City where Dunder, the Malta-headquartered casino firm with Swedish roots, is now emblazoned across the team’s shirts for the upcoming campaign. As an embryonic casino brand looking to make a move on the UK market, you might not necessarily consider Bristol as the an obvious destination.

Yet the operator’s head of acquisition, Adam Webber, believes the city is steeped in the company’s values and acts as a home-from-home for its Scandinavian founders. “The make-up of Bristol is quite a young, affluent area and it is very forward thinking when you look at the firms round there,” he says.

Size matters

Webber admits Dunder considered tackling the Premier League, but management felt the timing wasn’t right as this is the company’s first-ever above-the-line marketing initiative. “We looked at some Premier League clubs in the past and it isn’t really where we want to be at the minute because our company is only two years old, but we felt this deal was a good level and a chance to dip our toes in the water. For us, it makes a lot more financial sense than the £3m to £6m that some of the guys are paying for Premier League clubs, but they obviously have a much bigger marketing budget.”

Webber is a Newcastle United fan. Newcastle were fined £7,500 by the Football Association in April for using the logo of Asian operator Fun88 on youth team jerseys, and Dunder is keen to learn from the mistakes of its peers to ensure social responsibility. Bristol City youth jerseys will instead display the club’s nickname, the Robins, but in the same font and style of the Dunder logo in order to maintain continuity.

Naturally, there will always be a section of supporters not comfortable with the idea of their club being sponsored by a gambling company. Several betting analysts on Twitter have raised concerns that the sheer volume of gambling sponsorships in football could serve to wave a red flag at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), encouraging ministers to investigate.

For harmony between operators and regulators to continue in this space, Kindred’s Banbury believes that promoting responsible gambling initiatives should be part and parcel of all sponsorship deals. Sky Bet sponsors the entire English Football League and has pledged to invest £1m in a gambling harm education programme for all 72 Football League clubs.

For 32Red, an operator fined £2m in June for social responsibility and AML failings, this ought to be particularly important. “We are hoping we can take this opportunity and platform to communicate some of our safer gambling messages,” says Banbury. “We think they are important and a big part of what builds the reaction from fans, so we want to be clear that they are important and that this is more of a partnership than a brand exercise. The onus is on us as operators – the regulatory environment is evolving on almost day-by-day basis. We want to be proactive about making sure these partnerships are used positively,” he adds.

Interestingly, Kindred has conducted its sponsorship deals under the Kindred umbrella for the first time this season. While the 32Red logo will appear on shirt fronts, Unibet might appear on the training kit, or as a team’s main betting partner through a new multi-brand approach. LeoVegas has opted for the opposite strategy of separating its brands across different clubs. “Because of the industry we are in, it can sometimes raise concerns with fans,” Banbury remarks. “But our main interest around Unibet and 32Red is to combine sport and entertainment. That can build bridges and give fans more access to their club and players, so it is down to us to make sure that we are viewed positively.”