Newcastle United will look to 'follow the route' pioneered by Manchester United in securing geographical sponsors after confirming Sela as the club's new principal sponsor. That is the view of football finance expert Kieran Maguire, with Fun88's recent switch to becoming the club's official betting partner for Asia already a sign of this likely strategy.
Fun88 were replaced as the club's front-of-shirt sponsor following six seasons this summer, although the betting firm's association with the Magpies will continue in a new capacity. Newcastle's new arrangement with Sela is understood to be worth around £25 million per year, with the club's pre-season tournament at St James' Park also named after the Saudi events company.
It represents a sizable improvement on the previous agreement with Fun88, but one that still leaves the Magpies trailing the Premier League's elite. United have taken early strides to address this commercial deficit, most notably with the appointment of chief commercial officer Peter Silverstone, and Maguire reckons the club will look to replicate the model in use at Old Trafford.
The Price of Football podcast host told ChronicleLive: "I think they need to follow the route which was pioneered by Manchester United in having geographical sponsors. Manchester United have their official Japanese tyre sponsor and their Indonesian energy drink sponsor.
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"I would imagine Newcastle, it might take them a year or two, will aim to go down that route. What they need to do is qualify for the Champions League and make progress. Manchester City had commercial income of £25m in 2008, and that is now £309m.
"If we contrast that to Newcastle, they had a commercial income of £26m in 2008 and by 2022 it had gone up to £28m. Mike Ashley is a smart businessman but he's a bad brand in his own right, and he became the brand for Newcastle to a certain extent which had implications for the club's ability to maximise commercial revenues."
Manchester United are still in search of a new lead sponsor after a reported £235m deal with TeamViewer came to a premature end. Liverpool's agreement with Standard Chartered is said to be worth in excess of £50m per season, illustrating the scale of the task still facing the Magpies when it comes to closing the financial divide.
Maguire added: "Manchester United are on around £53m or £54m, although their deal with Teamviewer has effectively been stopped. Liverpool will be on around about £50m, but you need to look at in the context that they've won the Premier League, the Champions League, they've also been runners-up and have got a huge global fanbase.
"I think Newcastle fans have to be realistic, they have got a long, long way before they can break into that."
