Betclic to end Marseille shirt sponsorship deal
Betclic Everest brand replaced with Intersport by Ligue 1 football club.
Betclic will not renew its sponsorship of French football club Olympique de Marseille beyond the end of this season.
The deal, initially signed in May 2010, cost the French operator 7m a year according to newspaper Le Figaro, slightly less than the 16m over two years which it is believed to have paid for its sponsorship of Italian club Juventus.
Betclic’s logo will be replaced on the shirts of the club – currently playing in Ligue 1 and the Champions League – by sports retail company Intersport, with the new deal set to begin at the start of the 2012-13 season and run for two years.
The brand, part of French operator the Betclic Everest Group (BEG), shares sponsorship of another Ligue 1 club, Olympique Lyonnais, with fellow BEG member Everest Poker, while it also has deals in place with 28 Portuguese professional football clubs according to its website.
However the deals in Portugal could be under jeopardy as a court in the EU member state ruled that the sponsorship activities of another operator, bwin.party, must be ceased.