Everton FC strikes record shirt sponsorship deal with betting group

Everton FC has confirmed a club-record main partner agreement with casino and betting platform Stake.com.

The multi-year partnership will start on July 1, following the club’s decision to end its £10m a season partnership with online car dealership Cazoo a year early. The Stake.com partnership is the highest value front-of-shirt deal in the club’s 144-year history.

However, the deal will cause consternation among an element of the club’s supporters who are opposed to any links with betting companies. In 2020 Everton announced it was ending its shirt sponsorship deal with Kenya-based betting group SportPesa, worth £7m a year, two years early.

As Everton’s main partner, the Stake.com brand will feature on the front of the men’s and women’s playing shirts as well as appearing on screens and media backdrops at Goodison Park and training ground Finch Farm and across the club’s digital platforms.

Established in 2017, Stake.com is one of the industry’s largest online casinos with millions of users worldwide. Stake.UK.com is fully licensed by the Gambling Commission.

The partnership with Everton represents further expansion of Stake’s sports partnership portfolio, building on the brand’s recent unveiling as the UFC’s official betting partner in Latin America, Asia and Brazil, which is reaching a global TV audience of nearly one billion households.

The organisation also has a huge portfolio of recognisable global ambassadors, with rapper and actor Drake and UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Jose Aldo, alongside Argentina striker Sergio Aguero, collectively forming a diverse portfolio of partners.

Prof Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Everton CEO, said: “Stake.com is an ambitious organisation with impressive growth plans and we’re all very excited to enter into a partnership with them at this stage in their journey.

“My talented colleagues in our new revenue team have made excellent progress in recent months and worked tirelessly to secure what is the biggest main partnership deal in the club’s history – I’d like to congratulate them on this achievement and, on behalf of everyone at the club, express my gratitude to Stake.com for choosing Everton as a long term partner.

“Finally, I am pleased to say that we have already been working together with Stake.com on some exciting activities and content for our local and international supporters and we look forward to sharing more detail on these plans soon.”

The new club record agreement comes following an expansion of Everton’s commercial team and a focus on delivering an uplift in revenue across all of the club’s commercial assets. By taking up the option to end Everton’s previous main partnership with Cazoo early, the club said its commercial team was able to beat competition from within football and other sports to secure the lucrative deal with Stake.com.

Akhil Sarin, head of acquisition for Stake.com, said: “We are incredibly proud to be partnering with Everton, a club steeped in tradition and with a passionate and loyal fanbase respected the world over.

“Everton is a club that perfectly complements our own growth ambitions as we seek to expand our presence globally and strengthen our top-tier sports sponsorship portfolio. It’s a huge honour for everyone at Stake.com to be joining the Everton family and playing our part in supporting the club in the transition to the new stadium. We look forward to celebrating this most exciting chapter in the club’s history with Evertonians everywhere.”

With new bases and staff now based in London and the US, supporting the club’s commercial team at the Royal Liver Building headquarters in the centre of Liverpool, this deal is the latest development in the club’s post-COVID commercial strategy. Everton said more partnership agreements will be announced soon as the club lays the foundations for future growth ahead of a move to a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Isle of Man-based Stake.com is also the main shirt sponsor for Watford FC, which was relegated from the Premier League last season to the Championship.