Sky Bet puts responsible gambling at heart of new EFL sponsorship deal
Five-year agreement will see responsible gambling messages on every club shirt as operator also launches new marketing campaign
Sky Betting & Gaming (SB&G) has secured a five-year extension to its sponsorship of the English Football League (EFL), coinciding with the launch of a new responsible gambling marketing campaign.
The new EFL agreement represents a 20% year-on-year increase from 2019-20 on the current deal and will see the operator’s flagship Sky Bet brand maintain its headline sponsorship until the 2023-24 season.
As part of the deal, more money will now go to the 72 EFL clubs, which will all feature responsible gambling messages on their respective club shirts.
“We’re delighted to sign this new deal with the EFL and believe the additional focus we and the League are both placing on responsible gambling will show that well run betting operators can play an active part in raising awareness of problem gambling,” Richard Flint, SB&G CEO, said.
“By using our sponsorship and marketing capabilities to highlight how customers can gamble safely we hope to ensure that nothing gets in the way of people’s enjoyment of sport, definitely not betting,” he added.
SB&G today also announced the launch of a new responsible gambling marketing campaign, featuring a ‘When the Fun Stops, Stop’ TV advert fronted by Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ6oewHaIl8&feature=youtu.be
The first 30-second ad will air this weekend during Sky’s coverage of the Premier League and EFL Championship, and will be supported by campaign content across digital, social media, print and Sky Bet products.
Sky Bet will also highlight the same messages in all EFL match day programmes across every fixture this weekend and on LED boards across grounds throughout the country.
Rob Painter, brand and people director, at SB&G said: “Obviously tackling gambling related harm goes beyond raising awareness of responsible gambling tools but we felt it was important that we put our marketing and sponsorship expertise behind our efforts to help our customers gamble safely.
“I’m proud that we’ve put responsible gambling at the heart of all aspects of our marketing strategy.”
Today’s announcement comes after EGR Intel yesterday revealed Sky Bet had launched a new “world-first” online payments feature enabling customers to have funds paid into their bank account in real-time.
Earlier this month SB&G also announced a 38% year-on-year rise in full-year revenues and profit, driven by strong double-digit growth across all key areas of the business