SportPesa nets Hull City sponsorship deal
African online sports betting operator SportPesa has agreed a shirt sponsorship deal with English Premier League football club Hull City.
The three-year agreement will cover the 2016-17 to 2018-19 seasons, with local media reports suggesting that the deal is worth a record £10 million (€11.9 million/$13.1 million).
SportPesa branding will now appear on the front of Hull’s playing jerseys.
As part of the agreement, Hull will play a friendly match against a select Kenyan side, although details of this game were not disclosed.
“The deal is by far the largest in our history and a sign of our ambition to grow our club and become a household name in our sport globally,” Hull commercial director Simon King said.
Ronald Karauri, chief executive of SportPesa, added: “This is a big milestone for SportPesa as it marks the scaling of a Kenyan brand into the global market.
“The SportPesa platform will now be available in the United Kingdom and later in the year present in several African countries. One year from now we will have presence in at least four continents.”
Meanwhile, SportPesa has also entered into a partnership with the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU), the sport’s national governing body.
The five-year deal will run through to 2021.
Karauri said the agreement is worth a total of KES607 million (€5.4 million/$5.9 million) and will focus on the development of rugby union in Kenya.
The operator will support Kenya’s 15-a-side, U19 and women’s teams, and the KRU's ‘Get Into Rugby’ youth set-up, as well as a performance-based incentive programme that is to be introduced as part of the deal.
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