Vasco debuted yesterday (12) Betfair, an online betting company, as its new sponsor and joined the vast list. Not only in absolute numbers, but also in percentage — 75% — Brazil's competition is the leader among the main leagues in the world, in this aspect.
A survey by the Bolavip Brasil website, however, shows that Brazil may even lead, but is not alone in this “trend”. The main sponsorships of 234 first division teams from 12 different countries were identified: Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, France, Holland, England, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey. The study reveals that 27% of them have betting companies as their most important partnership.
The CEO of one of the betting houses, Esportes da Sorte, Darwin Filho, explains why football clubs are being a "target". He states that, even before entering into a partnership, the two parties already have a strong connection.
"The possibility of strengthening ties with football clubs and their legion of fans is a great opportunity for any company, particularly for sports betting houses whose service offering synergy will be directly intertwined with football", said Darwin.
Three out of every ten main sponsors in world football are from online bookmakers. In total, the study indicates that 64 clubs among those surveyed print a brand from the segment in the most noble space on the shirt.
For Darwin, the tendency is for partnerships between the two parties to not just be limited to space on the teams' uniforms. The CEO states that "an efficient marketing strategy cannot depend on a single advertising channel."
In nine of the 12 countries analyzed in the survey there are partnerships between betting sites and football clubs. Only Spain, Italy and Türkiye do not have sponsorship from companies in the sector for their first division teams.
Despite being present in most of the world's main leagues, only six of them are betting houses predominant, that is, they are present in more than half of the elite teams: England, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Mexico. And it is not difficult to point out the reasons for Brazil's leadership in this world ranking.
"In fact, the predominance in the Brazilian market is more notable due to the lack of maturity of the market and the consequent lack of rationalization of prices. The betting market has increased sponsorship values to indecent numbers. In jurisdictions whose industry is already more mature, these values tend to be aligned with the advertising market in general, thus allowing greater diversification between industries and sectors," said the CEO of Esporte da Sorte, explaining something that is expected in Brazil in a few years.
The accelerated process of arrival of Brazilian football online betting houses demonstrates a relationship that, even recently, already creates bonds of financial dependence. Although clubs quickly joined this movement, it may have taken them a while to understand this market trend.
"Nobody paid attention to this when it started in Brazil. I mean, no club. Now, everyone wants to participate because we have reached a level of absurd dependence. It was a sponsorship market that had already been falling in 2018 and 2019, but in 2020 it started to turn around due to this betting segment alone," says Bruno Maia, specialist in new sports and entertainment technologies.
Source: O Globo
