Betway strikes £15m West Ham sponsorship deal

Betway has signed a multi-million pound sponsorship agreement with English Premier League football club West Ham United.

eGaming Review understands the operator has paid £15m to become West Ham’s principal sponsor for the next three-and-a-half years, taking the sponsorship to the end of the 2017/2018 domestic football season.

Betway has become shirt sponsors of the club while the operator has also gained naming rights to the West Stand of West Ham’s stadium, the Boleyn Ground.

The deal is effective immediately and the first fixture in which West Ham’s shirts will feature the Betway logo is this Sunday’s Premier League encounter with Manchester United, which will be televised on Sky Sports.

Speaking to eGR this morning Betway sporting events and media manager Alan Alger said the contract represented a “significant opportunity” for a firm which had previously withheld from football sponsorships for favour of a highly visible shirt sponsorship deal.

Betway has been ramping up its visibility in the UK market since last year sponsoring the Carl Froch v George Groves rematch at Wembley Stadium, which Dutnall said at the time was “the start of something big”.

Sponsorship of a number of horseracing events has subsequently followed however the West Ham deal is its first move into football.

Betway executive director Bob Dutnall said the operator was “thrilled” to have secured the sponsorship with West Ham currently sitting eighth in the Premier League.

“The Barclays Premier League is the world’s most popular football competition and the sport is synonymous with excitement and betting, making it a perfect fit for our growing brand,” Dutnall said.

West Ham had been searching for a replacement sponsor since mid-January after Alpari the brokership collapsed after the Swiss National Bank’s surprise removal of its currency’s ceiling against the Euro, prompting it to suffer heavy losses.