- Betting platform agrees series of sponsorship deals in Europe
- Past mistakes acknowledged, BK8 seeks to rehabilitate its brand
- Brand seeks charity deals and women’s football partnerships
When sports betting platform BK8 recently announced a series of sponsorship deals with Spanish LaLiga football clubs and English women’s football legend Kelly Smith, it marked a significant turnaround for the brand after a challenging PR failure earlier this year.
BK8 offers sports betting and other online gambling services to customers around the world, with markets in Asia and Europe being the company’s main focus. In June, it announced a landmark shirt sponsorship deal with English Premier League club Norwich City. The deal was aimed at increasing awareness for the brand in Europe, a relatively new market for the company. It recently established a new headquarters in Malta.
But days later Norwich requested to terminate the deal after a backlash from fans. Supporters were unhappy at the discovery of inappropriate marketing material used by a BK8 affiliate and at the fact the club had opted for a betting company as its main sponsor. Betting industry sponsorships have become a sensitive issue in UK football, with concern in some quarters about their prevalence and the risks of encouraging problematic gambling habits. BK8 and Norwich ultimately came to a mutual agreement to terminate the deal.
It was a hard lesson for BK8. The company’s European managing director Michael Gatt told SportBusiness in a recent interview that the “unacceptable” marketing materials were produced by a third-party affiliate that BK8 no longer works with. The betting company has introduced new protocols to ensure the mistake is not repeated.
“Stricter compliance measures are now in place company-wide, meaning several levels of approval need to be obtained if anyone wants to become an affiliate of BK8,” he said.
He said the offending marketing materials did “not reflect the brand’s beliefs and values in any sense”. However, he admitted, “We should have been much more sensitive and, with hindsight, there is no doubt we could have handled the situation so much better by communicating more effectively with the club and seeking advice from communication and marketing specialists.”
“New direction”
BK8 is keen to rehabilitate its brand name and continue developing its business in Europe. It is working with UK based PR consultants to help it with its marketing and communications strategy and “to ensure we are able to learn from our mistakes”, Gatt said.
In a significant statement of its intentions, BK8 this month announced an ambassador deal with Kelly Smith, the former England and Arsenal women’s player.
Announcing the new deal, Gatt said: “As a brand we have reflected heavily over the last few months and have taken stock of our core values… this partnership represents a new direction for BK8, one which we are committed to long-term.”
Gatt said BK8 wants to “make a difference across not just (in) elite football but across the women’s game and grassroots game in the UK and elsewhere.”
As part of the deal, it has donated to a charity Smith is a patron for, ‘We Mind & Kelly Matters’, which works on mental health awareness and suicide prevention.
Smith said: “After long discussions with them about their brand values and ambitions, I was really impressed by how they wanted to help focus on the women’s game now and in the future. To then make a substantial donation to a charity that is close to my heart, blew me away.”
In August, the company announced regional sponsorship deals with Spanish clubs Athletic Club Bilbao, Elche, RCD Mallorca, Valencia and Villarreal.
The deals are primarily aimed at developing BK8’s business in Asian markets. Branding will be visible on the clubs’ digital and social media channels in Asia, and on LaLiga broadcasts via virtual perimeter advertising boards. BK8 has also got rights to use players from the clubs in its marketing activity.
BK8 is ready for further investment in sponsorship and charities in the Europe. Gatt says the company does not want to be seen as exploitative and to be purely associating with football for the branding benefits – it wants to give something back to the sport.
“We don’t want to be a brand that is just making money for the sake of it and enjoying the exposure,” he says. “We are dedicated to ensuring that any future sponsorship we have in sport – in the UK or elsewhere – puts the clubs’ communities and fanbases at their heart. Bringing the stories of fans to the forefront of what we do with clubs and giving them a voice are among our key objectives.”
BK8 says it is having discussions with several clubs about sponsorship deals. Gatt said: “We hope to be on a shirt of a Premier League club in the future. But, that said, we realise this is a process and we have to learn from the mistakes we made in the past. We are working as hard as we possibly can to address that.”
Support for charities is part of the brand’s rehabilitation efforts. The brand says it is in talks with several parties about making contributions.
“We want to give back to communities and charities, and are working hard to figure out where to place an investment with a UK or Europe-based charity,” Gatt said. Additionally, we are having conversations to explore appropriate ambassadors who will support relevant goodwill causes.”
Addressing another of the concerns that may be aimed at BK8, the brand has made several tools available to its users, to address addictive betting behaviours. These include spending limits and time-out functions that allow users to set limits on the amount of money and time they spend on the platform.
Gatt said: “We work closely with authorities and regulators to ensure people are aware of the dangers of addiction.”
Business goals
The business outcomes BK8 seeks from this sponsorship and goodwill investment are in grabbing a bigger share of booming sports betting markets across Europe, developing the business beyond its original markets in Southeast Asia.
“We feel we have grown up and are ready to take on the world beyond SEA and Asia,” Gatt said. “We want to grow in all across Europe, following in the footsteps of bigger brands.”
The Norwich City episode left BK8 with a mountain to climb in terms of re-establishing its credibility in Europe. But with the company immediately addressing the problem and setting out a strong vision of where it wants to go, its odds for success look to have shortened.