By David Owen
February 7 – West Ham United, the Premier League football club preparing to move into London’s Olympic Stadium, has agreed a new long-term sponsorship deal with Betway, an online gaming brand. The deal installs Betway as the Hammers’ principal sponsor, with the company logo to appear on the front of the well-known claret and blue team shirts, starting with Sunday’s clash with Manchester United. Betway has also secured naming rights to the Boleyn Ground’s West Stand.
Bob Dutnall, Betway executive director, said the company was “thrilled” to have secured the sponsorship at a time when the team – currently eighth in the Premier League – are “performing so well”.
West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady said the club’s new partner, “like us”, was an “ambitious, forward-thinking company”. The size of the agreement, which she described as the club’s “biggest-ever commercial deal”, reflected West Ham’s status as “one of the fastest-growing brands in world football”.
Terms of the deal were not announced, but a figure of £20 million over three-and-a-half years has been reported.
West Ham are set to move to the extensively remodelled stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016, after the venue has staged five 2015 Rugby World Cup matches.
The club’s previous shirt sponsor Alpari, a currency broker, last month shut its UK arm following the sudden surge in the value of the Swiss franc after the Swiss central bank unexpectedly abandoned a cap on the currency’s value against the euro.
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