Vasco debuted online betting company Betfair as their new sponsor yesterday and joined a long list of clubs in the Brazilian Championship's Serie A: 15 of the competition's 20 teams have a betting company as their main shirt advertiser. Not only in absolute numbers, but also in percentage - 75 per cent - Brazil's competition is the leader among the world's top leagues in this respect.

Research by the Bolavip Brasil website, however, shows that Brazil may lead the way, but it's not alone in this ‘trend’. The main sponsorships of 234 first division teams from 12 different countries were analysed: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Holland, England, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Turkey and Spain. The study reveals that 27 per cent of them have betting companies as their most important partnership.

The CEO of one of the bookmakers, Esportes da Sorte, Darwin Filho, explains why football clubs are being ‘targeted’. He says that even before a partnership is struck, the two parties already have a strong bond.

- The possibility of strengthening ties with football clubs and their legion of fans is a great opportunity for any company, particularly for sports bookmakers whose synergies in offering services will be directly intertwined with football - said Darwin.

Three out of ten main sponsors in world football are online bookmakers. In total, the study indicates that 64 of the clubs surveyed have a sportsbook brand on their shirt.

- 90% of the bookmakers' public attention is focused on football and being present in this environment reinforces the brand's presence in this segment, despite the fact that at the moment the market is still unregulated, this is happening in a disorganised and predatory way - analyses Marcos Sabiá, CEO of galera.bet.

For Darwin, the trend is for partnerships between the two parties not to be limited to space on the teams' uniforms. The CEO says that ‘an efficient marketing strategy cannot depend on a single advertising channel’.

In nine of the 12 countries analysed in the survey there are partnerships between betting sites and football clubs. Only Spain, Italy and Turkey do not have sponsorship from betting companies in their top flight teams.

Despite being present in most of the world's top leagues, bookmakers are predominant in only six of them, i.e. more than half of the elite teams: England, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Brazil and Mexico. And it's not hard to see why Brazil leads this world ranking.

“In reality, the predominance of the Brazilian market is most notable for the market's lack of maturity and consequent lack of price rationalisation. The betting market has pushed sponsorship prices to indecent levels. In jurisdictions where the industry is already more mature, these values tend to be in line with the advertising market in general, thus allowing for greater diversification between industries and sectors - said the CEO of Esporte da Sorte, explaining something that is expected in Brazil in a few years' time.”

The rapid arrival of online bookmakers in Brazilian football demonstrates a relationship that, although recent, already creates bonds of financial dependence. Although clubs were quick to join this movement, they may have been slow to understand this market trend.

“No-one paid any attention to this when this phenomenon began in Brazil. I mean, no club. Now, everyone wants to participate because we've reached a level of absurd dependence. It was a sponsorship market that was already falling in 2018 and 2019, but in 2020 it started to turn around because of this betting segment alone”, says Bruno Maia, a specialist in new sports and entertainment technologies.

"With regulation, the number of bettors is growing every day and this movement has boosted the market, expanding partnerships into entertainment. We also understand that this development includes incentives for sport with health and education actions and campaigns not only for marketing, but also for social integrity, guiding the sector with clear business rules, and also bringing knowledge of international market practices to be implemented in Brazil to promote responsible gambling. On the economic and business side, the platforms can move the market so that we have a healthy and robust industry, generating jobs, income and compatible taxation for the country", adds Talita Lacerda, CEO of Bet7k.

Por André Zajdenweber