A land grab of advertising rights by betting companies has been taken firmly over by the Asian betting companies which for regulatory reasons can not advertise within their own territory. With the increasing televised power of the Premier League’s overseas TV rights into Asia from the UK then this represents an ideal opportunity for these Asian facing betting sites. The latest trend is for clubs to have a UK or European facing partner and then sell a separate set of rights to an Asian facing betting firm. The current situation is as follows where Asian companies are present which may not be heard of by UK viewers:

Man City & Liverpool / 188Bet
Arsenal / Bodog
Aston Villa / Dafabet
Newcastle / 138.com
Spurs / Fun88
Sunderland / TLC88
and SBOBet who appear at numerous clubs

No other sport can provide the exposure and relevant demograph these clients are gunning for, its low hanging revenue fruit for Premier League clubs and its set to continue.

The most unusual of the deals announced is 12Bet’s stadium naming agreement for a single year with Crystal Palace. It will be interesting to see which media channels actually refer to it as such over the coming season. Having signed up Wigan well before the end of last season to a shirt sponsorship, 12Bet were obviously stuck with no presence in the Premier League and this is probably more of a “face saving” deal for 12Bet than marketing led rationale, albeit the flurry of initial PR.