AUSTRIAN ONLINE gambling provider Interwetten AG has signed a deal that will see its Spanish-language brand Interapuestas.com as an official sponsor of La Liga club Sevilla for the remainder of the 2011/12 season.
The deal represents one of the few bright spots in Spanish football sponsorship, which is hoping that the country’s new gambling regulator will spark further interest from the online gaming sector in Spain.
As Mario Bayarri, director general of Umedia Sports Advertising, explained in this month’s Sport Business International magazine: “Everybody is waiting to get pole position in this new era – and sport and football, in particular, is a fantastic platform for these [online gaming] companies.”
The Sevilla deal includes presence on advertising boards and scoreboards, as well as the club’s official website and its other media outlets, but not on the club’s shirt which is without a sponsor this season.
Bayarri said that finding a shirt sponsor remains a challenge for a number of La Liga clubs in the country’s current economic climate.
“Last season, the main [shirt] sponsorships became too expensive as brands significantly reduced their sponsorship spend. Last season, there were four to six clubs without a main sponsor; this season Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Villarreal and Sevilla are among eight clubs without a main shirt sponsor.”
Interapuestas.com was formerly the main shirt sponsor of Espanyol in a two-year deal between 2009 and 2011, valued by the Frontiers Deals Database at around $2.5m per year.
The new deal with Sevilla is likely to be worth between one third and half of this amount.