Betfair not renewing Blue Square's conference sponsorship
Deal with English football's fifth tier had been due to expire this summer.
Betfair will not renew Blue Square’s sponsorship of the Football Conference, the fifth tier in England’s football pyramid, and the regional divisions in the tier below.
The operator acquired Blue Square’s customer database and other selected assets for £5m earlier this week, and eGaming Review exclusively revealed yesterday that upwards of 40 employees at the sports betting business face consultations over potential redundancy.
A statement from the Football Conference confirms that the league’s board is set for a meeting in London today where the subject of ‘Title Sponsorship’ in the future was said to be “high on the agenda”.
The headline sponsorship was initially signed ahead of the 2007-08 football season, before being renewed in 2010 under the ‘Blue Square Bet’ brand (after three years as just ‘Blue Square’).
Football Conference chairman Brian Lee described the former Rank Group company as “a tremendous partner for six long seasons”, and singled out Blue Square PR manager Alan Alger for particular praise.
While Betfair has said it was “reviewing what to do” after the end of the current season, eGR understands there are no plans in place to attach Betfair’s brand to the Conference going forward. A spokesman for the operator was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
Blue Square is the second egaming brand which will see a football sponsorship deal come to an end in the summer, after 32Red confirmed to eGR last month that it had agreed to discontinue its shirt deal with Premier League club Swansea City.
Today’s news follows the announcement that Betfair will be the title sponsor of this month’s World Snooker Championships in Sheffield.