Everton have entered a club record shirt sponsorship deal with gambling firm Stake.com.
The Blues have agreed a 'multi-year' arrangement with the company, which describes itself as an online sportsbook and casino. The length and size of the contract has not been revealed, but Everton said it amounts to the biggest shirt sponsorship deal in the club's history. The ECHO understands the uplift on the deal with outgoing sponsor Cazoo, the online car retailer, is significant and runs into millions of pounds.
Confirmation of the deal with Stake.com comes amid scrutiny over shirt sponsorships with gambling companies and just over two years after chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale accepted at a club AGM that “in an ideal world” Everton would have a different type of sponsor than a gambling firm.
At that meeting Professor Barrett-Baxendale added the approach taken by the club would always be a "commercial decision", however, and Everton entered an arrangement with a different gambling firm as recently as December.
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Everton declined an extension of its two-year Cazoo deal following talks late in 2021 as officials sought to find a more lucrative partnership. The club activated a break clause in the contract, which was initially valued at around £9.6m a year. The two-year contract concludes at the end of this month.
The club is said to have adopted a pragmatic approach as it attempts to find maximum value from its partners, an effort led by an expansion in its commercial department, which has hubs in London and the USA as well as Liverpool. The club's commercial deals were impacted earlier this year with the suspension of arrangements with USM after owner Alisher Usmanov was sanctioned over his links to the Russian president Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.
Stake.com, which was established in 2017 and says on its website it then became the "world’s biggest cryptocurrency sportsbook and casino", will sponsor the playing shirts of Everton's men's and women's teams, and its branding will appear at Goodison Park and Finch Farm. The ECHO understands the Stake.com partnership holds record value for Everton both annually and cumulatively. The conclusion of the arrangement paves the way for progress on Everton's new kits, though their release is still likely to be weeks away.
Welcoming the deal, Prof Barrett-Baxendale said: “Stake.com is an ambitious organisation with impressive growth plans and we’re all very excited to enter into a partnership with them at this stage in their journey. My talented colleagues in our new revenue team have made excellent progress in recent months and worked tirelessly to secure what is the biggest main partnership deal in the club’s history - I’d like to congratulate them on this achievement and, on behalf of everyone at the club, express my gratitude to Stake.com for choosing Everton as a long-term partner. Finally, I am pleased to say that we have already been working together with Stake.com on some exciting activities and content for our local and international supporters and we look forward to sharing more detail on these plans soon.”
This is not the first involvement of Stake.com in the Premier League - the company's logo was on the front of Watford shirts last season. The Vicarage Road outfit also entered into a 'multi-year' deal with Stake.com but were relegated, meaning Everton will be the only top flight side with the company's logo on its shirts. The company has deals in other sports around the world, including partnerships with UFC.
Speaking in January 2020, Prof Barrett-Baxendale commented that “in an ideal world” the club would have a different type of sponsor to a gambling company. Her words came after a growing number of supporters expressed concern over the deal with betting firm SportPesa while the club's official charity, Everton in the Community, helped people who suffer with addiction issues.
At the time, she reportedly said: “In an ideal world moving forward we would look to have a different type of sponsor on the front of our shirts like all football clubs would, but that is a commercial decision that we make as a football club. SportPesa have actually been a fantastic partner to Everton Football Club in terms of the funds they have given to support Everton in the Community, but I do agree it is responsible betting. We can’t stop people taking a choice but certainly don’t want to be responsible for driving irresponsible betting.”
Stake.com is regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission. The company is registered to an address in the Isle of Man. Last season, 10 Premier League clubs had betting firms as their principal shirt sponsor.
Commenting on the deal Akhil Sarin, head of acquisition for Stake.com, said: “We are incredibly proud to be partnering with Everton, a club steeped in tradition and with a passionate and loyal fanbase respected the world over. Everton is a club that perfectly complements our own growth ambitions as we seek to expand our presence globally and strengthen our top-tier sports sponsorship portfolio. It’s a huge honour for everyone at Stake.com to be joining the Everton family and playing our part in supporting the club in the transition to the new stadium. We look forward to celebrating this most exciting chapter in the club’s history with Evertonians everywhere.”
Everton launched a new link with a gambling firm as recently as December, agreeing a commercial arrangement with i8.BET, which became the club's "exclusive official betting partner in Asia".
Details of the Stake.com deal come at a time when the role of gambling companies in football is under intense scrutiny. The government launched a review of gambling laws in December 2020 and draft proposals are expected to be published in the coming weeks. Reports have suggested the issue of gambling firms sponsoring the shirts of Premier League clubs could feature, though details of any recommendations are yet to be confirmed.
The House of Lords' Select Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry has previously argued: "Gambling operators should no longer be allowed to advertise on the shirts of sports teams or any other part of their kit. There should be no gambling advertising in or near any sports grounds or sports venues, including sports programmes."
The government responded: "To date, the government has not seen evidence demonstrating a causative link between exposure to operator logos in this context and problem gambling in children or adults. Nor have we seen evidence that a familiarity with operator logos is linked to problem gambling."
