Over the past decade or so, major sporting has seen a large shift as sponsors have moved away from telecom giants and car manufacturers and increasingly into the arms of online casino sites and online betting sites. The premier league has been the visible of this change with lower leagues of English football quickly following suit, but other sports like Formula 1 have seen this change too.
Whilst it has been suggested there will be a crackdown on this type of sponsorship with Premier League teams voting for a ban on these companies sponsoring the front of football shirts by the end of the 25/26 season, other sports will likely stick around with these sponsorship types for quite a while. But what has led to the rise of these kinds of sponsorships in such a short period of time?
Easy Marketing Opportunity
Perhaps the most important factor behind these sponsorships is the ease of marketing with a huge audience overlap, particularly in football. It’s safe to say the majority of fans know what betting is and at some point have bet on a game of football, they’ll be familiar with the bigger brands that are now appearing on shirts and won’t be offended by them sponsoring their teams.
It leads to a very easy marketing opportunity by being able to be shown to a significant audience who aren’t opposed to the brand, may already be interested in what these brands have to offer, and may be more likely to participate too.
Money Is a Big Motivator
Sponsorship is an expensive endeavor, particularly in today’s market where money will attract the biggest players with bigger buyouts and bigger contracts, money brings more viewers and more fans, and money is what allows for these sponsorships to last for a good period of time.
There’s a reason why these big gambling sites, airlines, and most recently crypto exchanges made such good sponsors, they have the capital to meet the growing demands of sponsoring elite sports teams and can take full advantage of the benefits despite the high cost.
A Changing View
Whilst gambling sites were once considered to be a bit iffy with a majority audience being unsure of things like legitimacy or safety, times have changed. As a whole the general public largely trust these brands, they’ve developed online personalities through social media and through quippy adverts, and it has helped lead to a changing view on these sites too.
They’re not longer a tiny niche that only interested the small few, but have grown into a powerhouse with an audience that grows year by year, and this changing view much like the easy marketing opportunity means a majority audience don’t find offense in these names being across the front of shirts and displayed in a large way on liveries and banners.
For the time being it doesn’t look like there will be any slow down on casino or betting sponsors despite the proposed premier league ban as other sports will continue to pick up these sponsorship and alternative sports particularly esports having a heavy reliance on these types of sponsors, but it leads to an interesting question too.
After the big airline companies, the car manufacturers, the crypto giants, the big names in telecoms, and now the biggest names in iGaming, which type of sponsor may look to fill the hole that comes next and meet the growing demands of elite level sporting sponsors?
