Online betting company Bet365 will take on naming rights to Stoke City’s home stadium from next season as part of an enhanced partnership with the English Premier League football club.
From the 2016-17 campaign, Stoke’s home ground will be known as the Bet365 Stadium, bringing to an end the club’s existing naming rights partnership with financial services company Britannia. The initial six-year naming rights deal with Bet365, which is headquartered in Stoke-on-Trent, will run until the end of the 2021-22 season.
Bet365 has also extended its shirt sponsorship deal with the club by a further three years. Its branding will continue to appear on the front of the club’s playing jerseys as part of the agreement.
“There's no doubt Bet365 has benefitted enormously from the global exposure our shirt sponsorship agreement with the club has given us,” John Coates, joint chief executive of Bet365 and vice-chairman of Stoke, said.
“We have been looking to extend our portfolio of sports sponsorship and entering into a stadium naming rights agreement with Stoke City seemed a natural fit, especially as the city of Stoke-on-Trent is home to Bet365.”
Stoke also announced that an additional 1,800 seats would be added to the newly-named stadium in time for the start of the 2017-18 season, taking its overall capacity to more than 30,000.
Stoke chief executive Tony Scholes added: “The Premier League is constantly evolving and to ensure that Stoke City remain as competitive as possible it's important we explore as many ways as possible of generating revenue. As supporters are no doubt aware the Britannia brand no longer exists and it was important that we attracted a new stadium naming rights partner.
“Bet365 are taking over from Britannia and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Britannia and the Co-operative Bank for their tremendous support over the past 19 years.”