Everton had to take ‘too good to refuse’ Stake.com offer due to finance worries, ban unlikely
Everton had no choice but to accept the highest offer for a new sponsor because of the state of the club’s finances, according to The Athletic.
The Toffees announced on 9 June a new deal with betting company Stake.com as their new main partner, in what is billed as a “the highest value front-of-shirt deal in the Club’s 144-year history”.
But there has been criticism of the decision to get back into bed with the gambling industry, especially at a time when the ubiquity of its presence within football is coming under increased scrutiny.
BBC Sport reported on 20 May that a ban on such companies being club shirt sponsors was under consideration as the government looks at changing gambling laws.
But according to The Athletic such a ban is unlikely, and in the context of losing their USM sponsorship when cutting ties with Alisher Usmanov over his links to Vladimir Putin, and having racked up major financial losses overall, the club couldn’t afford to turn down the offer.
Gregg O’Keeffe writes: “Their ties to USM and affiliate companies were worth an estimated £20 million a year, leaving a sizable hole in the finances of a club who had already posted three consecutive annual losses of more than £100 million.
“Finding a solution — even an imperfect one — was imperative.
“It’s why Stake.com’s willingness to pay so much — a club who finished 16th last season are now seventh in terms of shirt-front earning — was an offer too good to refuse. Everton were not deluged with comparable offers from more ethically-agreeable firms.
“The publication of a Government White Paper following a review of the Gambling Act is imminent, but is likely to stop short of banning football clubs from having betting firms as sponsors.
“Even so, with that white paper unpublished and due diligence having been undertaken, Everton were compelled to go with the best offer.”
Uncomfortable circumstances
It’s a sign of a combination of negative factors, some the club’s fault and some outside their control, that they have been forced to go back on their own ethical stance.
Chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale had said two years ago shortly before terminating the previous deal with SportPesa [via The Athletic]: “In an ideal world, moving forward, we would look to have a different type of sponsor on the front of our shirts, like all football clubs would.”
It’s fairly likely that some clubs actually wouldn’t care one way or another so it is arguably a positive to see that Everton even acknowledge that promoting gambling is potentially risky.
But as with so many things, when it comes to profit, or in the Toffees’ case reducing losses, ethics often go out of the window.
The club are far from alone in this, and the attitude permeates society at every level, but it isn’t a strong look to be signing up to a major deal like this one just as the tide appears to be turning.
They could not have foreseen Russia invading Ukraine and the subsequent fallout meaning the relationship with Usmanov was untenable, although some might say such a situation was asking for trouble.
They also could not have foreseen the Covid-19 pandemic which a huge amount of the losses over the past couple of seasons have been attributed.
But the wasted money under Farhad Moshiri, whose close but unclear links to Usmanov underpinned the previous sponsorship set up, is the fault of the owner and the board.
Moshiri himself cited “significant amounts of money” being spent badly as a “mistake” in the apology he released to fans on the club’s website on Wednesday [8 June].
There may be some mitigating circumstances but even if the club escape the issue of their new deal being banned by law, it is a move that encapsulates the reduced standing that the general chaos of recent years at the club has put them in.
In other Everton news, the club are working to keep hold of a young talent whose contract is set to expire imminently.
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