Winamax loses sponsorship deal after mocking Bordeaux during loss
Board of the French Ligue 1 side states social media posts “not in the spirit of a partnership”
French poker operator Winamax has landed itself in hot water after a series of tweets sent on Sunday ended up with French Ligue 1 club Girondins de Bordeaux terminating its shirt sponsorship deal with the firm.
The deal, which saw Winamax’s logo emblazoned across the front of Bordeaux’s shirt, started at the start of this season and was due to run for three years.
Winamax are known in France for their tongue-in-cheek social presence, however, their ribbing of Bordeaux as the side lost 0-6 at home to Lille on Sunday was a bridge too far for the French club.
Girondins de Bordeaux 2021/2022 :
pic.twitter.com/QAHrRVdiHS— Winamax Sport
(@WinamaxSport) January 16, 2022
Things have not been rosy at Bordeaux this season with a number of high-profile players, including former Arsenal and France centre-back Laurent Koscielny, being forced to train away from the first team with the club looking to offload their vast wages following record losses.
As a result, the club are languishing just one place off the bottom of Ligue 1.
It is believed that with issues on and off the pitch the Bordeaux hierarchy were not impressed that one of the club’s most prominent sponsors would find the situation funny.
Bordeaux chief operating officer said: “We are terminating our partnership with Winamax, whose communication through videos or tweets about the last match. We have humour but here this is not in the spirit of a partnership.”
Winamax responded to the comment with another cheeky post that read: “We have been looking for a good defence for an hour but, like the Girondins, we can’t find it.”
It is believed that during the duration of the sponsorship, which covered the front of shirt sponsorship, the firm made over 30 derogatory tweets about the club.
It is not the first time Winamax have found themselves in trouble on social media.
In 2020, the operator was reprimanded for tweeting lyrics to a song by French rap dup PNL that were deemed to be homophobic.
At the time, the minister for sport Roxana Maracineanu urged Twitter to take further action against the firm. The tweet was swiftly deleted and an apology was issued.