The English Premier League was created in early 1992 and at a time when English football had just emerged from a rather long period of mediocre popularity. Since established, the league has evolved not only into a national phenomenon, but also into a global one, reaching audiences from every corner of the world.
And while there are millions of people whose fanship for English football and for one EPL football club or another approximates emotional attachment of the highest possible scale, the EPL has also turned into an important advertising channel. For years now, major companies from different business fields have been spending millions of dollars on sponsorship deals with one of the 20 EPL clubs or another with the purpose of capitalizing on the global popularity of the league and securing considerable exposure of their brands during fixtures.
As recently reported by Sporting Intelligence, the 20 EPL clubs will earn a total of £281.8 million during the 2017-18 football season from shirt sponsorship deals. The figure reported reflects an increase of £55 million from last year. Here it is also important to note that the deals’ collective worth more than doubled since the 2010-11 season, when the sports news outlet first issued a report on the matter. Back then, sponsors spent a total of £100.45 million.
*Table from Sporting Intelligence
Why Are Businesses Investing in EPL Sponsorship Deals?
As it has become clear, Manchester United will earn £47 million from its shirt sponsor Chevrolet during the 2017-18 season, Chelsea will cash in £40 million from Japanese tyre producer Yokohama, and so on and so forth. The huge brand exposure that deals of this kind secure is what really makes them so attractive to companies from different spheres of the business realm.
The English Premier League has a massive viewership with audiences from the US all the way through China. The fact that both domestic and international broadcasters are readily paying higher and higher sums for EPL television rights deals is an important testament to the phenomenality and popularity of England’s top football league.
The Premier League is set to earn more than £3 billion from international broadcasters of its fixtures in the period between 2016-2019. And earlier this year, the league locked lucrative deals for 2019-2022 that will see a significant increase in the money it will win from TV rights.
Chinese digital firm PPTV agreed to pay £180 million per year for 2019-22 for the right to broadcast EPL fixtures in China. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where the league enjoys massive popularity, SuperSport will be paying £168 million a year in 2019-22. In the US, the NBC extended its agreement to broadcast EPL matches from 2019-20 through 2021-22 in exchange for a $500-million-worth deal.
Securing TV rights in several of the world’s largest markets, the EPL has also secured investment from companies that are hungry for brand exposure and ready to spend big on advertising. Despite being worth millions, shirt sponsorships are actually one of the most cost-effective means for advertising to larger audiences.
Gambling Companies and EPL Shirt Sponsorships
Betfair, now part of the larger Paddy Power Betfair group, was the first bookmaker to secure a sponsorship contract with a Premier League football club. That happened back in the 2002-03 season.
Although the Football Association announced earlier this summer that it was ending its sponsorship deal with gambling operator Ladbrokes as well as its commercial relationships with other bookmakers, gambling investment in EPL sponsorship deals increased significantly before the start of the 2017-18 season. There are nine gambling companies that are sponsoring EPL clubs during the 2017-18 season, with collective investment of close to £50 million. The figure represents an increase from £15 million invested in shirt sponsorships during the 2009-10 season.
Football is one of the most popular sports among bettors and this is why gambling companies’ interest in shirt sponsoring should not be found as an unusual trend. And as mentioned above, locking deals of this nature, operators are also securing global brand popularization and recognition both through shirts (which are not only worn by players during fixtures but also by fans from all around the world) and through stadium exposure.
To present a better look into gambling companies’ investment push into Premier League sponsorship, we have prepared a list of some of the most expensive sponsorship deals from the past decade.
Betway – West Ham (£10 million)
Last year, Betway announced an extension to its contract with the Hammers, under which the football club will earn £10 million from the operator for the 2017-18 season. In comparison, Betway paid West Ham £6 million for each of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 football seasons.
SportPesa – Everton (£9.6 million)
Kenyan sports betting operator SportPesa has decided to capitalize on the popularity of the Premier League in its homeland as well as the rest of Africa by becoming the shirt sponsor of Everton for the current season. The company has been sponsoring Kenyan clubs for some time, but has recently announced that it would withdraw its sponsorship due to the introduction of a 35% betting tax by the Kenyan government.
Mansion – Tottenham Hotspur (£8.45 million)
Mansion spent £8.45 million on a shirt sponsorship deal with the London-based club back for the 2009-10 season. The Gibraltar-headquartered operator later on became a shirt sponsor of Crystal Palace. Mansion invested £5 million during each of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons to secure brand exposure during the club’s fixtures throughout the two seasons.
Genting – Aston Villa (£8 million)
Genting sponsored Aston Villa for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 Premier League seasons. Under the two parties’ contract, the operator had to pay £8 million per season to secure the much-useful brand exposure.
In the UK, Genting operates a chain of land-based casinos across the nation and also holds a license for the provision of online gambling services. The company’s UK subsidiary is part of the larger Genting Group, known to be one of the world’s biggest casino developers and operators with presence across multiple jurisdictions.
ManBetX – Crystal Palace (£6.5 million)
Crystal Palace kicked off the new 2017-18 season with a brand new shirt sponsor. The football club replaced Mansion, from which it earned £5 million during the 2016-17 season, with another gambling brand – the Malta-based ManBetX.
The operator holds a license from the UK Gambling Commission, but is also known to be primarily targeting Asian betting customers.
