EFL renews Sky Bet sponsorship deal

The English Football League has extended Sky Bet’s title sponsorship for another five years.

UK.- The English Football League (EFL) has renewed its title sponsorship agreement with Sky Bet for another ten years. The deal continues the Flutter brand’s naming rights for the league’s three divisions: the Championship, League One and League Two from the 2023/24 to the 2028/29 season.

Amid calls for restrictions of gambling sponsorship in football, there had been pressure for the EFL to end Sky Bet’s sponsorship, which has already lasted ten years. The partnership extension has introduced some measures to reflect this, including the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on social responsibility.

Sky Bet has committed not to market its brand or products in family areas at stadiums or advertise to young football fans. This follows the terms of the Code of Conduct on sports sponsorships proposed in the UK government’s Gambling White Paper.

It will also contribute to a player education programme for the 72 football clubs in the EFL. This will provide advice on the dangers of gambling. Sky Bet will also invest £1m per season to a community fund for activities delivered by the EFL Trust and Club Community Organisations (CCOs) network.

Meanwhile, the EFL will dedicate a “proportion of its central inventory” to the promotion of safer gambling messaging and to partners’ responsible gambling campaigns.

Sky Bet’s chief commercial officer Steve Birch said: “I’m extremely proud of Sky Bet’s ongoing partnership with the EFL and delighted to have reached today’s agreement. Football is central to who we are and it’s great to be able to support the game and provide investment for Clubs across the Pyramid.

“I’m particularly delighted that we can go one step further today with the announcement of our Sky Bet EFL Community Fund, seeking to make a real difference for people across England and Wales. As the recent Sky Bet Play-Off Finals demonstrated, the EFL is going from strength to strength with packed grounds and millions watching games here in the UK and around the world.”

EFL chief executive Trevor Birch said: “For over a decade, Sky Bet has been a valuable partner for EFL Clubs, offering sustained investment to help Clubs navigate a volatile financial landscape and ensure fans can enjoy fantastic footballing entertainment in every corner of the country.

“We have consistently seen our partnership evolve to move with the times and with community at the heart of the EFL, a new community investment fund is perfectly aligned and will help strengthen the partnership’s commitment to social responsibility. 

“The Government’s recent Gambling White Paper highlighted the social responsibility measures that have accompanied our partnership with Sky Bet as being an example of good practice for the wider sports sector to learn from and we will look to deepen our commitment to the promotion of safer gambling as part of this extension.

“On behalf of our Clubs we thank Sky Bet for its ongoing support to English football and we look forward to seeing our much-loved competition develop yet further with the additional certainty this investment provides.”