June 9 – Premier League Everton have announced a replacement for front of shirt sponsor betting brand SportPesa. On-line car sales site Cazoo will take the premium position in a three-year deal reportedly worth £27 million.
The unveiling of Cazoo comes hard on the heels of Everton have swapped kit supplier Umbro for Hummel for the start of next season. Everton will also likely have a new sleeve sponsor after renewal talks with Rovio, owner of the Angry Birds video game, ended.
The opportunity for Cazoo opened up once Everton ended their deal with Kenyan online gaming giant SportPesa in February. Signed in May 2017, the deal was in the second season of a five-season term. Heralded at the signing as a record deal for Everton, it was reckoned to have been worth £7 million a year.
Everton had decided to part company with SportPesa “following a comprehensive review by the Club of its commercial strategy in line with its vision and future growth plans,” said a club press release. Polite speak that the club was no longer comfortable with betting company money, a position made clear at the club’s AGM when chief executive, Denise Barrett-Baxendale said that “in an ideal world” they would prefer a “different type of sponsor”.
So now the club have upgraded their sponsorship portfolio to a digital car dealer that was launched in 2019. “We are in no doubt that the values of Cazoo and the company’s focus on innovation and future development complement perfectly our own ambitions as we embark on an exciting new chapter for the club,” said Barrett-Baxendale.
While sponsors for the club’s premium shirt positions, Everton has also tapped into the sponsorship opportunities provided by the companies associated with its ownership group.
Most notable is an expected increase in financial commitment to the club from Uzbek-born Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov has said he is interested in getting more involved in the club majority owned by his business partner Farad Moshiri and is already sponsoring the Finch Farm training ground, has stadium branding on matchdays, and reportedly the naming rights for Everton’s to-be-built stadium at Bramley-Moore dock.
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