Chelsea Football Club have ended discussions over a potential sponsorship with Australian-Curaçaoan online casino operator, Stake.com.
This decision has come in response to the mounting pressure from the London football club’s fans, particularly the Chelsea Supporter’s Trust, which issued an official demand to reject a sponsorship deal.
The Chelsea Supporter’s Trust
The trust argued that a deal of this nature would not be in the best interests of its members, supporting its claims with a vote which yielded a 77 per cent majority of its members expressing some level of disagreement towards the potential deal.
An open letter addressing the Chelsea co-owner was also published. This expressed concerns about any sort of sponsorship deal of this nature harming the club’s charity foundation along with running the great risk of isolating a large component of the fan base.
Sponsorship implications
Pertaining to sports specifically, this showed a rare glimpse of a fan base’s power over such a powerful organisation, even when related to commercial or financial decision-making.
In the global context of sponsorship dealings, this case highlights that the broader implications and the complexity of decision-making extends far beyond direct financial gain.
Gambling sponsorships across the footballing landscape
There have been numerous controversies and landmark moves in relation to gambling sponsorships and UK football of late.
The most notable has most certainly been the suspension of Brentford FC star, Ivan Toney. The blistering forward was handed an eight-month ban accompanied by a £50, 000 fine for repeatedly breaching the UK Football Association’s (FA) betting regulations.
The Bees keep Hollywoodbets
Despite this ban on their veritably key player, Brentford has chosen to remain with their already agreed-upon sponsors, which include betting company, Hollywoodbets as a back-of-shirt sponsor.
A decision that has been criticised by many including Jay Harris, a reporter for sports journalism leader, the Athletic, who had this to say:
“By sticking with the gambling firm, despite Ivan Toney’s ban for breaching the FA’s betting rules, the club has made the wrong call.”
Collective sponsorship ban
Hollywoodbets’ continue inclusion is also confusing given the new agreement The Premier League has entered into with clubs throughout the top tier of British football.
The teams will voluntarily agree to ban gambling advertisers from the most valuable marketing space on the front of kit shirts. Brentford’s decision is not and has not exercised intent to breach this regulation however it may seem close to the mark for many.
Coming into effect for the 2025/26 season, this ban does not prevent any other area of kit or club property from being branded by gambling operators representing the crystal clear stance that the Premier League has taken.
Football Supporters Association survey
A representative body for fans in England and Wales recently conducted a related survey which found that 73 per cent of the 10,000-fan sample size agreed with the statement: “I am concerned about the amount of gambling advertising and sponsorship in football.”
In lieu of the pressure, fans have been putting on football, particularly within the UK, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s (DCMS) director of sport and gambling, Ben Dean, suggested that the Premiership agreement was sufficient enough action to combat the situation.
He made this statement on the matter:
“We were most worried about appealing to children and young adults. The strongest link there was with Premier League players, where children want to wear the shirts of their favourite players, so stopping that was a priority for us.”
Sports-betting’s Perception
When questioned further, Dean expressed a strong reluctance to enact any further action against gambling sponsorships.
He explained that while teams in the Premier League have the financial power to choose sponsors above and beyond simple economic factors, clubs in the lower tiers of British football don’t have such luxuries.
This was very telling of an implication David Meltzer, a seasoned expert in the field of sports betting and monetisation made in the upcoming Manila edition of the SiGMA Magazine.
He postulated that the nature of European Football as a whole is so lucrative that at this moment in time, there is no need to accept sponsorship bids from any sector that is not holistically preferable.
Combining this with what he believes is simply a poorly propagated perception of gambling and sports betting which has demonised the industry, the sector’s position as a powerful source of income has been substantially impacted in British football.
Meltzer claimed that “when there is a need, the pendulum may sway”.
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