UK-regulated online betting firm Betway announced it has sealed a sponsorship deal that would enable it to adorn the jerseys of Spain’s Espanyol de Barcelona football club with its logo. The online gambling company is to replace the previous sponsor of the club, LD Sports that hails from China. The Chinese content brand had initially sealed a two-year sponsorship contract with the Spanish team at the beginning of the 2019-2020 season but broke it off at the expense of €4 million after Espanyol dropped out from La Liga, Spain’s top division for professional football.
The details regarding the sponsorship’s length and the sum paid are yet to be revealed. This is not the first football sponsorship contract Betway has signed in recent times. The online gambling company also agreed on a two-year sponsorship deal with the La Liga team Real Betis Balompié, starting at the beginning of the 2020-2021 season.
This, combined with gambling operator Dafabet’s recent announcement of sponsoring the Cádiz football club, has attracted the attention of the Spanish Minister of Consumer Affairs. Minister Alberto Garzón called out the gambling brands for their recklessness. The Minister of Consumer Affairs insisted that both Betway and Dafabet have inked these partnerships in spite of being aware of the Spanish authorities’ plans to prohibit gambling companies from sponsoring local football clubs.
Tougher Betting Sponsorship Regulations Loom Ahead
The country’s government announced its intentions to introduce tougher regulations on gambling sponsorships in October. When enforced, the new rules will effectively prohibit Spanish professional teams from advertising gambling firms on the fronts of their jerseys. Displaying the firms’ logos on stadiums could also be disallowed under the new advertising restrictions that loom over the betting companies.
The Spanish Minister of Consumer Affairs was outraged by the gambling operators and the football clubs’ decision to sign the deals despite knowing about the government’s goal to restrict betting sponsorships and gambling-related advertising. Minister Garzón went as far as to express his displeasure during a local radio broadcast, referring to sponsorship partnerships like Betway’s as a challenge to the Spanish authorities.
The politician thinks it wrong to expose underage fans of football, among other sports, to gambling brands like Betway. Minister Garzón equated the promotion of betting firms to encouraging compulsive consumption that could result in serious issues. If the Spanish government goes through with its plan, the football clubs from the country’s top division might suffer losses as big as €80 million, resulting from the changes in their contracts with the betting firms. While they will still be able to maintain some kind of partnership, the sponsorship deals’ worth could see a reduction to only 30% of their present value.
As for Betway, it has sported a number of sponsorship deals over the last decade across a variety of sports, including tennis, football, boxing, and horse racing. The Guernsey and Malta-based betting company has sponsored major top-division UK football clubs such as West Ham United as well as the German Werder Bremen team.
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Olivia Cole
