Betway, a leading online betting and gaming operator has entered into its third Spanish football sponsorship deal in the past fortnight, despite the prospect of a ban on shirt branding.
In terms of the new deal with RC Celta deVigo, the operator will become the club’s official bookmaker for the following two years and will have its branding appear in the team’s Estadio Municcpal da Balaidos ground and cooperate with the club on a series of fan engagement activities.
Ricardo Barros, Vice President at Celta, commented that the club was very satisfied with the agreement and that Betway is a brand with ‘international prestige’.
Barros went on to say that it is not easy to obtain this type of support in the current circumstances, with so much social and economic uncertainty and for that reason in the club they value very positively this agreement, which allows them to continue growing as an entity and brand and to continue advancing in their international expansion.
The operator recently signed a similar partnership with another LaLiga team, Real Betis and also renewed a sponsorshi9p agreement with Segunda Division team CD Leganes for the 2020-21 season.
However, legislation notified to the European Commission by the Spanish government in July is endeavoring to ban gambling businesses from having branding on sports teams’ shirts. The new regulations also ban gambling companies from purchasing naming rights to stadia, competitions and event spaces. Although in-stadium gambling advertising will be permitted, it will be subject to the same restrictions as TV and radio ads and can, therefore, only be displayed between 1 am and 5 am.