Yet another Asian-facing online gambling operator has secured a shirt deal with one of the UK’s biggest football clubs.
On Thursday, English Premier League club West Bromwich Albion announced it had inked a shirt sponsorship with the K8 Group, which soft-launched its UK Gambling Commission-licensed UK-K8.com online betting and casino brand in November and plans to roll out a more complete offering in the coming months.
The deal is for an initial two-year period that will commence with the start of the 2016-17 EPL season. Specific terms weren’t disclosed, but the Baggies’ official announcement called it a “record commercial deal for the Club.”
K8 Group COO Vincent Huang said his firm had “a long standing interest” in partnering with a top-flight football club and was doubly chuffed to have teamed with “one of the most respected clubs in the Premier League.”
West Brom’s marketing director Adrian Wright said the deal followed the club’s pattern of working alongside “a challenger brand that will align with the club’s ongoing aspirations for global brand recognition.”
Huang said the partners would focus on “several key projects to create a platform for the club to grow awareness and engagement” in Asia, including “coaching exchanges and other football-related initiatives.” UK-K8.com will also work with the team to produce custom video content for the Baggies’ revamped official website.
K8 replaces rival Asian-facing operator TLCBET, which signed a one-year shirt deal with West Brom last July. West Brom also has betting partnerships with Malta-licensed NetBet and UK-licensed online betting giant Bet365, as well as a fantasy sports partnership with Ireland’s Sportego.
The deal is the second major UK football shirt sponsorship inked by an Asian-facing operator this week, following Dafabet securing a four-year shirt deal with Scottish Premiership stars Celtic FC, a pact that was described as “the biggest ever shirt sponsorship deal in Scottish football history.”
