Football's Dodgy Sponsors

[MrBlack]

With the plan to ban Betting companies from front of shirt sponsorship in the coming years, you'd think football would be trying to find ways around the gap in its finances that's this will leave. Whether trading firms will fall under the banner of gambling and hence be banned i'm not sure, but clubs are definitely trying to make use of them wherever possible.

There's plenty to mention, and there's no sign of the deals slowing down.

 

And so the first post of shame in this area goes to Fulham. Who have replaced their none existent Contract For Difference (CFD) trading sponsor (previously Titan Capital) with another seemingly none existent one (IUX). 

Titan Capital lasted as Fulham's sponsor for a total of 6 weeks back in 2022, before fulham realised they didnt actually exist.  They have finally signed a deal with a different CFD company, and the brilliant Martin Calladine has a cracking thread on their "none-existent" employees:

a highlight from the thread:

 

 

I suspect (although don't know) that these companies may well end up banned as front of shirt sponsors through the betting sponsorship ban, and we'll just see the none existent CFD, crypto currency platforms, and illegal betting sponsors (just like Net88) limited to the sleeves or websites of clubs.

But while the money from them still makes its way into the game,  you have to wonder where and when it's actually going to end.

Edited September 9 by MrBlack

[MrBlack]

And currently a live thread revealing IUX probably breached some UK finance regulations...

 

 

[ender4]

Surely Chelsea wins this award?

They couldn't find a sponsor for the 23/24 season willing to pay what they wanted. A quarter of the season passed without a sponsor. 

Then suddenly, a sister company of their owners called Infinite Athlete sponsored them for £40-60 million a season, despite this company having virtually Nil revenue in the previous year.

Edited September 9 by ender4

[HanoiVillan]

This was the breakdown of front-of-shirt sponsors in 1992/3:

This is where we're at today:

A few things leap out, eg there have been no alcohol sponsors since 2018, having been 20-25% of the league for much of the 90s and 00s. But the big thing is of course that the sectoral variety has almost entirely disappeared. If you remove those clubs whose sponsorship is fundamentally just an additional relationship to the owner (Ipswich, Chelsea, Newcastle, City), you really only have five clubs (Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Brighton) who have non-gambling, non-related sponsorships. Even *within* the gambling segment, we can see it's basically all white-label companies targeting the Asian market; only Hollywoodbets, Betway and Stake are actually attempting to attract British customers, AFAICS, and Stake is particularly dubious in its primary use of crypto. 

Soon, gambling sponsors are going to be banned. Who is going to step into the void, because it doesn't seem like quality brands or even just local British businesses are stumping up? Presumably clubs are going to be taking massive haircuts on their next deals. 

[MrBlack]

10 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

This was the breakdown of front-of-shirt sponsors in 1992/3:

This is where we're at today:

A few things leap out, eg there have been no alcohol sponsors since 2018, having been 20-25% of the league for much of the 90s and 00s. But the big thing is of course that the sectoral variety has almost entirely disappeared. If you remove those clubs whose sponsorship is fundamentally just an additional relationship to the owner (Ipswich, Chelsea, Newcastle, City), you really only have five clubs (Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Brighton) who have non-gambling, non-related sponsorships. Even *within* the gambling segment, we can see it's basically all white-label companies targeting the Asian market; only Hollywoodbets, Betway and Stake are actually attempting to attract British customers, AFAICS, and Stake is particularly dubious in its primary use of crypto. 

Soon, gambling sponsors are going to be banned. Who is going to step into the void, because it doesn't seem like quality brands or even just local British businesses are stumping up? Presumably clubs are going to be taking massive haircuts on their next deals. 

We might see some more banks step up. Chase (JP Morgan) or some other American finance companies like Amex?

I'd guess a couple will find a way to use related parties of the wealthiest owners, and owners will be able to point to the money made from gambling sponsors to say its fair value.

But you're right, it's a lot of money leaving the game, and I think it may force a few clubs to cut their cloth accordingly.  This would be a great thing to remove the obscene amount of money in the game, if only it wasnt impacting the smaller clubs. The scum 6 already having massive deals that don't rely on gambling means we'll see the gap at the top widen and football go more down the pan.

[villa4europe]

Maybe the right thread for this..

Who has the craziest official partner?

Personally I think it's man utds official bedding and pillow partner but I'm interested if theres some proper out there ones (like mongolias tourism board sponsoring fulhams training kit)

[VillaJ100]

Are alcohol sponsors actually banned?

[Jenko#4]

8 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said:

Are alcohol sponsors actually banned?

I don’t think they are, Heineken still sponsors the Champions League.

I know in the Spanish league and in F1 for example, any advertising has to be for the alcohol-free version. Deportivo and McLaren are both sponsored by Estrella Galicia 0.0%

[Zatman]

18 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said:

Are alcohol sponsors actually banned?

I dont think so they just dont pay as much as gambling companies

[OutByEaster?]

It's worth looking up the work of Josimar - an investigative journalism platform for football.

Some of the stuff they do is eye opening.

[Tegis]

3 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

This was the breakdown of front-of-shirt sponsors in 1992/3:

 

Off Topic
Personal blast from the past. I used to work for Tulip Computers. Very quirky company with cool stuff on the business-PC side. I especially loved this pizza-carton sized 486 system. Nothing like it back in the day. (If you see one for sale, buy it)