Manchester City adds Leo Vegas to Sponsorship Roster

In what can only be described as a flagship move for the online gambling company, Leo Vegas will appear on the training sleeve of one of the most elite football clubs in the world after the two entities agreed to a sponsorship deal.

Given the title, ‘the club’s official betting partner’, it means that Leo Vegas will receive all of the associated benefits such as branding visibility around the stadium and academy stadium. 

While the figures of the deal are yet to be revealed, there is definitely the general consensus that this is going to benefit the gambling company more than the football club - especially in terms of publicity. 

A coup for Leo Vegas

Despite this being a sponsorship deal, for Leo Vegas to land this speaks volumes about their commercial team and their ability to close a deal with one of the premier organisations in world football.

Currently, the brand’s standing in the UK market sees them competing with the majors - Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill, Bet 365 - though this can certainly increase the reputation of Leo Vegas. 

There will be an automatic recognition among potential customers that Manchester City are a winning football club and by association wants to be affiliated with winners. They are afforded with the luxury to choose who their sponsors as opposed to the other way around, due to the vast wealth that is at their disposal. 

As a result, having onboarded Leo Vegas speaks volumes for the brand and could well help to sky-rocket its reputation over the next few years. Obviously, it is likely that the football club would have been well compensated for the deal, though in the grand scheme of things, Leo Vegas will probably get the better end of the agreement. 

Gambling sponsorships and football on the rise

Over the last few years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of gambling companies landing sponsorship agreements with football clubs, both across Europe and the rest of the world.

While this has been frowned upon in many circles, due to the fact that it exposes children to gambling advertisements in football stadiums and also football kits, for most clubs, it is a large source of revenue. 

The gambling industry is one of the most competitive in the world, with more and more new firms appearing all of the time in new markets. Football sponsorship is seen as a major customer acquisition channel and as a result, this is one of the most popular.

While Europe and even South America have proven to be effective arenas, it is the EPL (English Premier League) that leads the way in terms of the number of gambling operators who sponsor football clubs. Meanwhile, the second tier of English football also has several clubs which are linked with gambling companies.

For City, there is hope that this new partnership will help to engender further brand growth around the world in markets where Leo Vegas are particularly active, such as Canada and lesser-known European countries.