SEPTEMBER | THE COMMENTATOR
Have a gamble
Martin Fullard
hedges his bets
S
porting events are a tricky
business. Organisers
have to fund their events
somehow, which is mostly
achieved through sponsorship.
Not only that, but the sponsor
must strike the right chord,
something that wasn’t done at
an event I attended recently.
I live in the southern plains of
Surrey, where everyone drives
Range Rovers, sips gin, and swap
their wives at the weekends. A
confusing agenda of sporting
events were taking place at the
local showground and, as I was
at a loose end, I took myself
along. The main event was some
sort of cross-country running
race, where it was clear some of
the contenders had taken far too
seriously, but no matter. They
were each wearing a number
on upon their breast – as is
standard – and above it the
name of the sponsor. I won’t
name the local company, but
it supplies bespoke machined-
engineered components for
industrial plant.
Fine. But among the children
face-painted children on the
bouncy castle and those sipping
gin with their neighbour’s wives
I couldn’t really tell who it was
targeting. Certainly, unless the
Bionic Man was entered in the
race, the runners too weren’t
even the right market. It seemed
like a mistake.
Football is a good at getting
this right. In the 90s, half of the
Premier League football teams
were sponsored by technology
companies, to coincide with the
dawn of the Internet Era. Today,
10 of the 20 Premier League
clubs are sponsored by betting
firms, so too are a whopping 17
of the 24 EFL Championship
Clubs. In fact, the Championship,
together with League 1 and
League 2 are sponsored by a
betting firm – and fans don’t
seem to mind.
“Today, 10 of the 20 Premier League clubs are sponsored by betting firms”
50
Having a cheeky flutter or an
accumulator is an innocent bit of
fun, and football fans love it.
The gambling industry is
worth £14bn to the UK annually,
but you only need to look at
the uproar caused by Wayne
Rooney’s move to Derby County
last month, where he will wear
the 32-shirt because the club
are sponsored by 32Red, to see
that the naysayers will soon
have squeezed betting firms out.
“Worrying,” was the word used
by Gambling Watch UK.
So, we can’t have the niche
machinist or Ladbrokes
sponsoring our sporting events,
and as no other business on
earth seems to have any money
these days we must think about
alternative ways.
How about Crowdfunding? I
support a League 1 football team
which is currently building a
new stadium. Long story short,
we left our home town in 1991
and, one franchising and re-
birth later, are on the cusp on
returning. The club is owned
by fans, so there is no sugar
daddy money man to fund a new
stadium. While the bulk of it is
being paid for via a joint venture,
the remaining funds are being
raised through Crowdfunding.
A number of us were cynical
about this at first, but in
the first 24 hours the club
raised £1m… and at the
time of press the club is
90% towards it £2m target.
It’s an investment, and the
perks increase in value the more
you put in. You would simply be
astounded at how much some
people, who have no connection
with the club at all, have put in.
Worth a go? I would.