Sam Jeffrey, the commercial director of Norwich F.C., has shared that the club does not intend to sign a gambling operator as a shirt sponsor anymore, adding that the football club must finally start to self-regulate when it comes to such agreements in the future.
Instead of signing gambling sponsorship deals, the English professional football club plans to sign a 1-year partnership contract with Lotus Cars, a car manufacturer based in Norfolk. The latest home kit of the football club, which features Lotus Cars as a sponsor, was officially released at the end of June 2022.
While Norwich F.C.’s commercial director emphasised that the club needs to take into consideration all opportunities for future sponsorship deals and assess them, he decisively ruled out future sponsorship agreements with gambling operators. Mr Jeffrey explained there had been some opportunities for the club, especially when it comes to the gambling sector, and added that those opportunities had derived a higher partnership fee than in economic sectors such as gambling.
As mentioned above, Mr Jeffrey shared that, according to the club’s officials, it was high time for the club to start self-regulating when it comes to displaying a betting company’s logo on the front of its shirts.
High Time for the English Professional Football Club to Start Self-Regulating, Official Says
Norwich F.C.’s commercial director rejected the opportunity for the club, in its current structure, to feature a gambling brand on the front of its shirts.
When it comes to its latest partnership contract, Mr Jeffrey said that the English professional football club had always been interested in working in collaboration with Lotus Cars. He further noted that the recently-announced sponsorship agreement was a better choice than a significant offer from a gambling company, not to mention that it came at a time when it was the right time for the club to self-regulate.
The football club’s official explained that rejecting the gambling company’s sponsorship offer was a challenging decision to make from a commercial point of view, especially considering the fact that the revenue derived from featuring a gambling company’s logo on the shirts’ front was bigger. According to Mr Jeffrey, this applies to all gambling sponsorship agreements in the English Premier League (EPL) and the Championship.
The revelations made by the commercial director of Norwich F.C. preceded the upcoming meeting of EPL shareholders, at which a voluntary ban on sponsorship deals with gambling companies is set to be discussed. As Casino Guardian already reported, The Big Step recently urged Premier League football clubs to choose voluntary suspension of betting sponsorships in order to avoid more serious restrictions being imposed on the sector.
Currently, the debate on potential limitations on the gambling sector in the UK is still ongoing as part of the long-expected review of the 2005 Gambling Act. Reportedly, gambling sponsorship deals in football have been part of the White Paper that is still expected to be officially unveiled by the Government. The White Paper has already been delayed several times, with the latest delay coming as a consequence of Boris Johnson’s recent decision to resign as Prime Minister.
- Author
Olivia Cole
