Everton main shirt sponsor Stake.com is in talks with Chelsea over a similar deal, despite a Premier League ban on such partnerships being just three years away.
As part of an ongoing government review into gambling legislation, following discussions with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the League and its member clubs, a collective decision was taken back in April to place a voluntary ban on front of shirt gambling sponsorship deals from the 2026/27 season.
Clubs who had multi-year deals already in place, of which Everton were among a number, were given three years grace to honour such deals before the new legislation arrived, although sponsorship deals could still be struck for new front of shirt partnerships during the three-year grace period provided they came to an end in time for the start of the 2026/27 campaign.
According to SportBusiness, Chelsea are open to making use of that grace period and have held discussions with Stake.com, among other brands from a variety of industries, over a shirt sponsorship deal for the next three years. The Stamford Bridge club are to end their deal with mobile operator Three in time for next season, with that deal having been worth a reported £40m per year to the London side.
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Everton inked what was described as a club-record sponsorship deal with online casino Stake.com last year, a little over two years on from when former CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale had told members at the club’s AGM that “in an ideal world” the club wouldn’t partner with a gambling firm again following the end of their deal with SportPesa.
However, as the coronavirus pandemic squeezed football club revenues and saw some of the industries that had been active in the sponsorship market space pull back, gambling and cryptocurrency firms offered clubs the opportunity to maintain and even increase the value of their front of shirt offering during extremely challenging economic times.
It was a deal that wasn’t without controversy and backlash, with a petition set up by Everton season ticket holder Ben Melvin attracting more than 20,000 signatures calling for the club to reverse its decision.
Speaking to the Press Association in June last year, Melvin, who lost hundreds of thousands of pounds over more than a decade, explained exactly why he was firmly against the Blues' move.
He said: “When I heard Everton had signed a partnership with Stake.com it was a shock because it wasn’t something I saw as fitting well with Everton’s standards they set themselves. This jeopardises that and I don’t see how it can fit with the work they do with Everton in the Community looking after vulnerable people.
“A lot of people were saying, ‘we need every penny we can get’, but that doesn’t involve selling the soul of the club for it. At a time when clubs are trying to step away from it and think it is not a good thing, Everton have taken a giant leap towards it for a big payday.
“We hosted a Gambling Harms education programme for Everton in the Community last year and it went really well and I now think, ‘what’s the point in that?’"
The value of Everton’s deal was last summer understood to be the largest outside of the so-called ‘big six’, although the arrival of Saudi events firm Sela as Newcastle United in a £25m per year deal has almost certainly pushed the value of the Toffees’ deal down the list.
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