Ball on a football ground

Swansea City drops gambling sponsor

Swansea City has become the latest football team to drop a gambling company as its main sponsor.

Swansea City has become the latest team to drop a gambling company as its main sponsor and has confirmed that Swansea University will become the team’s new front-of-shirt sponsor.

Swansea University will be featured on the first team’s new home and away shirts for the upcoming Championship season. The university’s logo will also be featured on the home and away shirts of the club’s under-23 and women’s teams.

Swansea City’s head of commercial, Rebecca Edwards-Symmons, said: “I am thrilled to have Swansea University as our main sponsor for the 2020-21 season. This is the perfect partnership that encapsulates our club and our city.

“This is the first year of not having a betting brand on our front of shirt in four years, which enables our Junior Jacks to wear the same shirt as their Swans heroes.

“There is nothing better than having local, prestigious brands involved with us as a club and we look forward to a very successful forthcoming season.”

Teams under pressure to drop gambling sponsors

This news comes after Swansea City came under pressure from gambling campaigners to drop its gambling sponsor. Last year, 27 out of the 44 clubs in the Premier League and Championship divisions had sports betting brands as their main shirt sponsors.

In a tweet, Carolyn Harris, MP for Swansea East, and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for gambling said: “I’m over the moon that Swansea University will be Swansea City’s new front of shirt partner for 2020/21.

“The club’s move away from gambling sponsorship is a really positive step — and is great news for their fans across our city and further afield.”

In June, the all-party parliamentary group for gambling published a report on the harms of online gambling and proposed a range of new measures and controls that should be introduced.

One of these recommendations included a blanket ban on gambling advertising which would also apply to video games such as the FIFA football series, where gambling sponsors appear on team shirts in the game.

Teams still inking sponsorship agreements with gambling companies

While Swansea City dropped its gambling sponsor, several clubs have inked new sponsorship agreements with gambling entities.

Yesterday, Bristol City FC announced that the online gambling operator MansionBet would become the team’s new principal sponsor. Under the agreement, MansionBet branding will appear on the front of City payers’ shirts and the operator will serve as the team’s betting partner.

In line with the club’s responsible gambling strategy, the operator’s logo will not appear on youth team kits.

Prior to this, MansionBet sponsored several Premier League clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace and the recently relegated AFC Bournemouth.

Queens Park Rangers (QPR), also struck a new partnership with Football Index, the online platform that allows users to use real money to buy and sell shares in players.

The deal with Football Index will cover the 2020-21 campaign and will see the operator’s branding featured on the front of QPR players’ shirts.

Yesterday also saw Coventry City FC name the sportsbook operator BoyleSports as the club’s principal partner.

The agreement with BoyleSports will span the 2020-21 season and see the BoyleSports logo featured on the front of the team’s playing kit and replica shirts. This deal marks Coventry’s highest value front of shirt sponsorship deal since the 2011-12 season.

Outside of the UK, the Betconstruct-owned online casino and sportsbook operator Vbet entered a partnership with French Ligue 1 football club AS Monaco. This deal will run through the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons and will see Vbet become the team’s official betting partner. The Vbet brand will also be featured on players’ shorts.

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