Re: Betting companies as sponsors during Hearn's era
Wildey wrote:Yea too many eggs in one basket and Hearn being so pally with betting firms are definitely putting other companies off from sponsoring and the same could be said about tobacco in the past.
Snookers World Championship has got a long term contract with Betfred so realistically would other product want to get in on the act sponsoring the English Open while a Betting firm has a strangle hold of the Big one
I don’t think that’s so much the issue. Remember, assuming each sponsor puts the same proportion into the prize fund, Betfred put 7x as much money into the WC as 19.com put into the English Open last year. So a betting company only has to be 1/7 the size of Betfred as a minimum to see the English Open as a viable sponsorship opportunity.
The problem is that because gambling companies rely heavily on sports their revenue has been ravaged by the lack of events, and also because there are fewer sporting events going on sponsorships are less lucrative than they would ordinarily be, so it’s a double hit.
It’s definitely true though that snooker has relied too heavily on betting companies. The good news according to Hendon is that because of increased ticket revenue and TV coverage money, snooker’s in a good place compared to a lot of sports. Hearn is apparently envisaging getting through this season relatively unscathed without sponsors and is concerned with bringing them onboard for next season.
And if it means less reliance on betting companies, all the better.
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Iranu - Posts: 41481
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