Everton axe SportPesa as main club sponsor after commercial review
Deal terminated two years early, while Kenyan firm now also no longer sponsors Formula One team Racing Point
Premier League club Everton will end the deal with its main sponsor, SportPesa, two years early at the conclusion of the domestic football season in May.
The Toffees and the Nairobi-based online operator put pen to paper in 2017 on a five-year partnership worth an estimated £7m a year. SportPesa became the club’s main kit sponsor as part of the tie-up.
The decision to bring the deal to an end followed a comprehensive review by Everton of its commercial strategy, the club announced in a statement issued on Sunday evening.
“This has been a difficult decision but one that allows us to best deliver on our commercial plan and to grasp the new opportunities now open to us,” a club spokesman said.
“The club would like to thank SportPesa for all of the work that has been done together. Our partnership has seen our first team visit Africa on two occasions, as well as former players and club staff take part in numerous activations in the region.
“This has allowed us to grow our own footprint in Africa and further strengthen our special relationship with the continent.”
At the club’s general meeting in January, chief executive Dr Denise Barrett-Baxendale revealed that “in an ideal world” Everton would not have a shirt deal with a betting company.
A big well done to @Everton this evening for choosing to end their association with #gambling partner SportPesa.
Sports organisations should follow their lead and assess their commercial relationships and the impact they may be having on fans, spectators & the local community. https://t.co/gO6H4OGbVv
— Healthy Stadia (@healthystadia) February 16, 2020
SportPesa, which operates in the UK through a white-label deal with TGP Europe, has been busy building its brand presence in the past few years with partnerships including deals with Arsenal, Southampton and Hull City.
However, earlier this month, Football Association Ireland terminated a two-year sponsorship with SportPesa just 11 months after inking the deal in Dublin.
SportPesa was also sponsoring Formula 1 team Racing Point, with the bookmaker’s blue and white logo emblazoned on the car’s front and rear wings, as well as the engine cover last season.
Yet, when the car that will compete in the 2020 season was unveiled this lunchtime, the SportPesa logos seemed to have disappeared from the car’s predominantly pink livery ahead of the new season. Rumours, which turned out to be true, had circulated online at the weekend that Racing Point and SportPesa had parted ways ahead of the new season, which starts in Melbourne on 15 March.
SportPesa signed the multi-year deal in February 2019, with the team called SportPesa Racing Point. It was one of the first deals involving a gambling brand after the sport’s owners, Liberty Media, ended its ban on betting sponsorships in September 2018.
In SportPesa’s home market of Kenya, the operator has endured a challenging period of late, including the government’s decision last year to refuse to renew the operator’s licence due to concerns around gambling addiction rates and suicides connected to gambling debts. Last October, the company laid off around 450 of its staff.
EGR reached out to SportPesa for comment but has yet to receive any response.
Everton said it would appoint a new main partner ahead of the 2020/21 football season.