Premier League football club Crystal Palace has announced Asia-facing operator W88 as its main shirt sponsor for the 2020-21 season.<\/p>\n
W88 previously sponsored\u00a0Wolverhampton Wanderers\u00a0during the 2018-19 season and\u00a0Aston Villa\u00a0for the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n
The Villa deal was described as a \u201crecord-breaking\u201d deal for the club, though it announced in June that the deal had come to its\u00a0\u201cnatural end\u201d. The operator is also a betting partner of\u00a0Leicester City.<\/p>\n
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish said the deal would allow both the club and W88 to grow their international footprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to welcome W88 as a new principal partner and shirt sponsor for the 2020\/21 season,\u201d Parish said. \u201cAs the club begins a record eighth successive season in the Premier League, the most-watched league in the world, our international fanbase continues to grow. We share a common ambition to further extend our international footprint and we look forward to working in partnership with W88.\u201d<\/p>\n
W88 business development manager\u00a0Hilly Ehrlich said the operator was excited to work with the club and its supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to be working with Crystal Palace, a club with a rich history in South London spanning more than a century,\u201d Ehrlich said. \u201cApart from working closely with the club\u2019s management and players, we are also excited and looking forward to engaging with Palace fans, both in England and around the world, for a successful partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cW88 has a global footprint and is a brand which represents integrity, trust and excellence\u201d.<\/p>\n
W88 currently operates in Great Britain under a white label agreement with Midnight Gaming Limited, which holds remote betting, casino and bingo licenses. However, its main target markets are considered to be in Asia, with Aston Villa noting its \u201cstrong presence\u201d on the continent when it announced its sponsorship deal with the operator.<\/p>\n
Last month, integrity body the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS)\u00a0warned sports clubs\u00a0of the \u201cdamage to sports integrity\u201d that may result from sponsorship deals with Asian-facing betting companies who operate primarily in unregulated jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
The warning came following the publication of a study on gambling sponsorship in sport, which found that 70% of teams across Europe\u2019s top leagues have betting sponsors and one-quarter of teams display the logos of betting companies on their shirts. In addition, of the 188 clubs examined, 30% had sponsorship deals with companies operating in black or grey markets, with W88 mentioned as one such sponsor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe huge Asian betting markets facilitate illegal betting, match-fixing and corrupting sport \u2013 this clearly leaves sports and teams who profess to cherish sports integrity open to accusations of hypocrisy,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Also last month, a report from the UK\u2019s House of Lords has set out a\u00a0wide-ranging series of proposals\u00a0to strengthen the gambling regulatory framework in Great Britain, a ban on gambling sports sponsorship, which it said would be \u201cvery beneficial\u201d and \u201cwould not unduly harm Premier League clubs\u201d.<\/p>\n
London club Crystal Palace\u2019s previous sponsor was another Asia-facing operator, ManBetX, after signing a\u00a0\u201crecord-breaking\u201d deal in 2017.<\/p>\n