Q&A: Devin Heffer on Hollywoodbets’ CSR strategy promoting RG while sponsoring a Premier League team

Hollywoodbets became shirt sponsors to Premier League club Brentford at the start of the 2021/22 season, as the West London side embarked on their maiden season in the top flight. The betting group recently extended its sponsorship to include Brentford’s training wear.

Yet with the scrutiny surrounding gambling sponsorship in sport, and with the government’s whitepaper into the Gambling Act 2005 review slated for release in May, it could lead to a sudden change in how brands promote themselves, especially those who are shirt sponsors.

Here, Hollywoodbets brand and communications manager Devin Heffer talks to EGR about what an overhaul of the regulations could mean, and how the South African-based operator hopes to further develop the relationship with Brentford.

EGR Marketing: How has the relationship with Brentford evolved?

Devin Heffer (DH): We began our partnership with Brentford in October 2020, while they were still in the Championship. Since then, it has been a long-distance relationship as we are based in South Africa and Brentford are in London – throughout Covid-19, the relationship has been managed on Teams and WhatsApp. It was great for the club when Brentford got into the Premier League.

At the time, we were only associate sponsors, and then the front of the jersey became available when they got promoted. So yes, it was fantastic to be on that journey with them. We take a lot of guidance from Brentford in terms of how we promote ourselves to their fans and make sure that if there is any feedback or any sentiment in terms of our campaigns, we take that on board and act on it.

EGR: Once Brentford were promoted, was there a big change in the sponsorship requirements compared to the Championship?

DH: It wasn’t significantly different because it wasn’t a big talking point. We already place a huge focus on compliance, so we made sure that we abided by the Premier League rules and those of the UKGC. We also moved from an associate sponsor (on the back of the jersey) in the Championship to a principal partner (front of jersey) for the Premier League, so already, there was more we learned along the way. We also went from the closed-door Championship experience (with no fans) to the Premier League with a full stadium. Throughout the whole sponsorship and change in Leagues, we had Brentford guiding us.

EGR: Are there any plans for the 2022/23 season in terms of what you’re going to bring Brentford and the local community of Hounslow as well?

DH: Yes, it’s not even waiting till the 2022/23 season because we still got to get through the rest of this one. And I think welcoming fans back to the Brentford Community Stadium was massive for us. And it provided us with an opportunity to understand the Brentford fans a lot better. And we’ve learned that mainly through our association with the staff at BFC, we want to add value to the brand, and more than anything try to make their whole stadium experience a lot more enjoyable.

As the Brentford fan slowly starts to get to know us and starts to see us as a sponsor that has a name, and it’s not this faceless brand, they’ll see that we actually care about them and their community and will hopefully give back to them.

The Hollywood Heroes’ campaign that we’ve done has been a brilliant one, which kind of defines that in the sense that we were in a situation where we said, ‘Well, how can we get a bit more involved in the community?

During Covid-19, we were hearing all these incredible stories about Brentford fans and what they were doing to support the communities.

So we decided that person was a friend of theirs, we treated them to an all-inclusive, match experience where they get free food and drink. They sit in the director’s box, sit on the halfway line, they get to take in everything. But not only that, what is quite important about their campaign was that we shared this story in the matchday programme for that day. We also shared it on the Brentford website so that people could see it. And as recently as two weeks ago, we managed to get the stadium announcer also to announce them at half-time.

Fans also get an opportunity to nominate who their Hollywood hero is, which is quite nice because you’ve now got fans supporting fans and seeing people making a difference and generating more support for them through this exposure.

EGR: Football and gambling sponsors is somewhat of a sensitive subject here in the UK, so was that something that weighed on your mind when you became front-of-shirt sponsors?

DH: Definitely, it was always going to be considered. When we were starting, it was something that we couldn’t quite ignore. So it had to be decided if we were going to do it. Or we’re not going to do it. And we said, ‘Listen, it’s a unique opportunity, especially for us as we are new in the UK. It’s still legal to do it, it’s still something that can be done. So we said, ‘Let’s do it.

But let’s change the approach and how we do it in terms of our projection as a brand, so we are quite cautious in our approach, even with regards to our LED branding. We didn’t go with in-your-face billboarding, bombarding people with betting products and advertisements used in our billboards.

We try to use this exclusive sponsorship to promote our culture and our brand and values. For example, with our Hollywood Heroes campaign  we show that our brand shows that we support the communities we operate in. We also support responsible gambling and safer gambling.

EGR: Are you looking at the possible changes to the regulations here closely? And are you worried that that could affect your relationship with Brentford?

DH: It’s been a big talking point. We still have quite a lot of time until our contract as the front-of-jersey sponsors comes to an end. I think most football clubs in the Premier League and Championship have gambling sponsors as front-of-jersey sponsors. So as a client or as a brand, we don’t see it ending abruptly.

Depending on the outcome, I think brand sponsors are such a critical revenue for these clubs. One hopes that they will be afforded a reasonable opportunity to find suitable replacements. From our side, once the legislation comes out, we will see what kind of level of sponsorship we’re still going to be allowed to be involved in.

The fact is, we were not in this for a short period of time, and I think anyone who is front-of-jersey sponsors wants to be in for the long haul. In the two years we’ve formed a relationship with them, we love the club’s culture. We love how they play their football, Matthew Benham, the owner, and Jon Varney, the CEO, and the whole team at the club; there is a good thing going there.