Changing the game: Where next for shirt sponsorship deals?

The Premier League is the most watched sports division in the world, broadcasting to approximately 4.7 billion people worldwide. However, many of these viewers don’t tune in for the spectacle or the drama – they watch exclusively to bet on the competition. So it’s no wonder gambling firms are constantly fighting for advertising space.

“The reason betting companies have been so active in this space is clear,” 12BET consultant Rory Anderson recently told EGR. “In many parts of the world, people watch the Premier League solely to punt – and they have zero emotional attachment to any of the teams. It’s actually quite similar to how people in the UK watch horseracing.”

Established UK-facing firms like Ladbrokes seemed to announce a new betting partnership on an almost daily basis throughout the summer, but there are also embryonic Asian firms, like Huddersfield Town sponsor OPE Sports, which pay clubs vast amounts in order to push their brand to a worldwide viewing audience.

Nine Premier League clubs have sportsbook sponsors on the front of their shirts this season, while 19 clubs have official betting partners. Newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion is the only exception. As a result, gambling operators are looking further afield in a bid to stand out from the crowd and a whole host of sponsorship deals have been announced with sports teams and events outside of football.

“Rapidly increasing prices and oversaturation is surely starting to dilute the value of Premier League deals,” Anderson adds. “Brands must be starting to ask themselves if their marketing spend is better spent elsewhere.”

Niche opportunities

County cricket, while not as lucrative or as televised as the Premier League, appears to be a preferred target of sportsbook marketing agencies. Sky Bet, for example, kicked things off in June after striking a three-year deal with Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The agreement was the operator’s first major partnership outside of football and horseracing, as the firm looks to obtain new digital and branding opportunities.

In July, Kindred Group’s Unibet brand followed suit, signing a two-year agreement with Warwickshire County Cricket Club and T20 partner Birmingham Bears. Head of marketing for Unibet UK Sam Mead says: “As official betting partner, we look forward to providing Bears and England fans with a variety of exciting and innovative bet types on the many big matches they host.”

Unibet partnership with Warwickshire CCC unveiled by Bears and England star Chris Woakes, Ed Nicholson, head of Unibet sponsorship, and Gareth Roberts, commercial director for Warwickshire

Football and horseracing provide an obvious target for betting firms as both sports offer up an attractive audience of punters. Mead’s comments indicate that Unibet will target cricket fans in the same manner, providing them with betting portals at matches and specialist odds on the games they are attending.

But Marcus believes Sky has found a clever way to attract football fans that also go to the cricket, as footie punters comfortably provide the firm’s biggest source of revenue. He adds: “I don’t personally think Sky Bet is trying to get people betting on those sports. Cricket is the fifth biggest betting market so we’re not talking about badminton where nobody gambles, but I think they’ve found out that a decent number of football bettors also watch cricket. There is a definite market out there for understanding what else your football punters like to watch and bet on.”

Thinking outside the box

Rugby is another sport that isn’t necessarily synonymous with sports gambling. Marcus recalls a campaign he worked on for Sky Sports where the only advertisements during their Friday night coverage of Rugby League would be for the football that same weekend. The firm didn’t ask people to bet on the rugby league event they were watching; instead, it was more a case of reminding people to bet on the upcoming football.

Betsafe is the latest firm to branch out into rugby by securing the shirt sponsorship of European champions Saracens. The three-year deal marked the first ever rugby sponsorship for the Betsson Group, which has targeted other significant sports away from football by signing with boxer Tony Bellew, as well as sponsoring MMA event, Cage Warriors.

Marcus thinks that due to the majority influx of Asian operators vying for space on Premier League jerseys, small European sportsbooks, such as Betsafe, are being forced to look elsewhere.

Grosvenor Casinos, for example, a UK gambling brand, agreed a sponsorship deal with Championship club Fulham for the 2017-18 season. When asked why the firm hadn’t opted for a Premier League club, a spokesperson said: “Clubs in the Premier League were an option, but they come at a clear cost. We are nearly an entirely UK-facing business, and Premier League premium comes from drawing millions of viewers from across the globe. That is not an ambition of ours just yet, so we believed the Championship was and is the right choice.”

Grosvenor Casinos are officially announced as the new sponsors for Fulham Football Club

England’s second tier provides a better fit for some operators, including Grosvenor. The firm chose to focus on a London-centric team in Fulham, as nine of its 53 casinos reside in the capital.

Television advertising time during Premier League football is also extremely limited, with a small window before the match, during half-time and after full-time. The established players with the biggest marketing budgets like bet365, Ladbrokes and PPB dominate airplay, while Asian firms take up room on shirt fronts, meaning smaller European operators must look further down the sporting ladder for a ROI.

“If regulation changes, I’m not sure how many Asian bookies are going to have a licence in the UK, because right now they’ll have an Isle of Man licence, and their real licence is somewhere in Asia,” says Marcus. “If the UK regulation changed and the Chinese government got strict on that kind of thing, the Premier League would open up to the European bookmakers which can’t get a look in right now.”

Isle of Man-licensed 12BET agreed a deal with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to become the official partner of the BWF World Championships 2017. The partnership with badminton’s international governing body saw 12BET obtain product category exclusivity and branding within the arena’s field of play at the August event in Glasgow.

Anderson, who helped secure the deal for 12BET, says: “For us, we look at the markets and it’s about the credibility that comes with sponsoring high profile world championship level events. It’s obviously a positive association and gives your brand credibility and also trust.”

Sponsoring a world championship can allow operators to hit up to six key markets in a meaningful way as popular UK sports like badminton and table tennis have even further reach in Asia. And Marcus believes firms like 12BET target popular Asian sports to attract eyeballs to its branding because of strict advertising laws.

“When you look at sponsorship, it’s very important to separate between Asia and Europe because they are very different business models,” he says. “It’s impossible to advertise anything (in Asia), so what you want are branding eyeballs, so it makes sense to look for popular sports in Asia, like badminton and table tennis.”

What’s the ROI?

So why else do some operators opt for niche sports instead of battling for space in the Premier League? Apart from the kind of brand credibility sponsoring a world championship can provide, the obvious answer is value for money.

Marcus believes an ROI approach to marketing is what leads gambling companies to look further afield. Betsafe sponsoring Saracens is a clear example of this.

“Everyone wants to sponsor Manchester United. If you can’t afford that, then what is the next best option?” he says. “But I’m not sure the next best option is always a worthwhile one, because the further down you go in teams and divisions and then into other sports, you are weakening your marketing strategy. Then firms need to ask themselves, what ROI are we really getting?”

If Asian operators and Europe’s biggest sportsbooks continue to dominate the Premier League marketing space, we could end up with a situation where smaller betting firms choose to target specific sports. Sun Bets might claim sponsorship of the darts, while BoyleSports exclusively partners with UFC, for example.

But if governing bodies in Asia further clamp down on foreign brand advertising and the Gambling Commission tightens its sanctions on domestic licensing structures, the Premier League sponsorship space will be thrown wide open once again, with some of Europe’s leading sportsbooks ready to take advantage.