Sky Bet Marks Long-term EFL Deal With New Campaign

Sky Bet has agreed a new five-year headline sponsorship with EFL, taking the partnership through until at least the 2023/24 football season, and marking the deal with a new responsible gambling marketing campaign.

The extension, kicking off from 2019/20, represents a 20% year-on-year increase on the current deal and will see the working relationship extended to 11 years.

The marketing campaign – debuting during this weekend’s Sky Sports’ Premier League and EFL Championship coverage – is designed to make sure its customers gamble safely, arguing that “nothing should get in the way or our enjoyment of sport, definitely not betting”.

The campaign, which features Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, focuses entirely on the well-known message, ‘When the fun stops, stop’.

The TV ad will be supported by a digital and social media campaign introducing Sky Bet customers to ‘Three Simple Tools’ to help them stay in control of their gambling.

This content, also featuring Sky Sports talent Matt Le Tissier, Phil Thompson and Charlie Nicholas, is designed to raise awareness of the deposit limit, cool off and self-exclusion responsible gambling tools available to all Sky Bet customers.

Campaign content will also feature across national print, radio, Facebook, Twitter, the Sky Bet website, in the Sky Bet App, and in emails to Sky Bet customers. Sky Bet will also highlight the same messages in all EFL match day programmes across every fixture this weekend and on LED boards across grounds throughout the country.

Overall, more than a million people are expected to have seen some aspect of this campaign over a football weekend.

Richard Flint, CEO of Sky Betting & Gaming said: “We’re delighted to sign this new deal with the EFL and believe the additional focus we and the League are both placing on responsible gambling will show that well run betting operators can play an active part in raising awareness of problem gambling.

“By using our sponsorship and marketing capabilities to highlight how customers can gamble safely we hope to ensure that nothing gets in the way of people’s enjoyment of sport, definitely not betting.”

Rob Painter, brand and people director, Sky Betting & Gaming added: “Obviously tackling gambling related harm goes beyond raising awareness of responsible gambling tools but we felt it was important that we put our marketing and sponsorship expertise behind our efforts to help our customers gamble safely. I’m proud that we’ve put responsible gambling at the heart of all aspects of our marketing strategy.”