New Sponsor Announced: FUN88
Newcastle United today confirmed their new main kit sponsors as FUN88, a gambling company based in the Far East.
Due to not allowing gambling or lending firms to be shown in children sized kits the logos from the gaming company will only be shown on adult replica kit and training wear NUFC confirmed.
The three year sponsorship deal with FUN88 breaks the clubs previous record kit sponsorship deal by some margin according to The Chronicle. They claim it is bigger than the Wonga deal that was said to be worth almost £5m a season to the club and puts Newcastle in the ‘top 10 sponsorship deals in the Premier League’.
The top 10 sponsorship deals in last years Premier League are estimated (per annum) as:
Manchester United; £53m (Chevrolet)
Chelsea; £40m (Yokohama)
Arsenal; £30m (Emirates)
Liverpool; £25m (Standard Chartered)
Manchester City; £20m (Etihad)
Spurs; £16m (AIA)
West Ham; £6m (Betway)
Southampton; £6m (Virgin Media)
Sunderland; £6m (DafaBet)
Everton; £5.3m (Chang)
FUN88 Director Nathan Walker stated; “It’s a hugely existing time to partner of the most famous clubs in English football.
The gaming company wasted no time in emblazoning some Newcastle players faces all over their website log in page as the news broke…
It remains to be confirmed if the sponsorship will be shown on both the front of shirt and arms, which is allowed for the first time next season, although this is very likely.
The club has also confirmed that there would be no renaming of the stadium again, something that Wonga seemed to deliver as part of the PR stunt that saw them move onto the front of the shirts last time around. That will be a relief to every fan for sure.
Club Chairman Lee Charnley stated the deal went ‘beyond what was written down’ in looking for a new partner, confirming that talks with Newcastle Brown Ale and another UK firm had not matched what could be offered by the China based firm.
The new kit will be available on June 15 the club also confirmed.