Sky Bet to make British Heart Foundation donation through weekend’s EFL fixtures
Operator pledges £1,000 for every goal scored during Championship, League One and League Two games as part of World Heart Day
Sky Bet has agreed to make a potentially sizeable donation to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) as part of the ‘World Heart Day’ event on 29 September.
The operator has pledged £1,000 for every goal scored across this weekend’s round of English Football League (EFL) fixtures.
There are 36 Sky Bet EFL games scheduled to take place at the weekend, spread across the Championship, League One and League Two.
Sky Bet and the BHF also announced that their joint ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign has led to 90,000 people learning to perform CPR via the BHF’s online training portal, RevivR.
The charity plans to use the first £400,000 raised through the campaign, which began in May, on community resuscitation activity, training more people in CPR and funding 80 more defibrillators across the UK.
The campaign has so far raised £520,000, £380,000 of which came from the Sky Bet play-offs in May.
A further £140,000 has been raised since August through Sky Bet’s pledge to donate £10,000 for every stoppage time goal during the current EFL season, of which there have been 14 so far.
Every Minute Matters ultimately aims to donate up to £3m to the BHF while encouraging 270,000 people to learn CPR – the equivalent of filling Wembley Stadium three times over.
Steve Birch, Sky Bet’s chief commercial officer, said: “We set ourselves a really ambitious goal of encouraging 270,000 people to learn CPR by May 2025 and it’s amazing to reach the 90,000-mark.
“Hopefully this weekend can raise awareness of the importance of learning this life-saving skill to a whole other level with the support of the EFL.”
Charmaine Griffiths, the BHF’s CEO, added: “At a time when the British Heart Foundation’s work has never been more needed, Every Minute Matters is going from strength to strength and Sky Bet’s generous support is making a real difference. The money raised through this partnership will be truly lifesaving.
“Together with Sky Bet, not only will we be able to place defibrillators in communities that need them most, but we’ll be able to ensure that fans, families and communities across the country can be trained in lifesaving CPR and defibrillation. Creating a nation of lifesavers will give people the best chance of survival in the event of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
“We’ll be eagerly watching the scoreboards this weekend and celebrating every EFL goal scored to raise money for this life-saving work.”