Huddersfield Town and SportsBroker have announced an extension of their partnership, with the agreement set to continue until the end of the 2024/25 season.
Described by Huddersfield as a ‘digital gaming platform’ and on the firm’s website as a ‘peer-to-peer gaming platform’ – SportsBroker allows players to buy ‘virtual shares’ in football teams which rise and fall depending on on-pitch performance.
Customers win money from “players who have backed the opposite team”, with SportsBroker earning commission from each win. The start-up states that its goal is to provide ‘an interactive experience with live football’.
“It’s a privilege to extend our partnership with Huddersfield Town,” said SportsBroker CEO and Founder James du Lieu.
“We have already had two wonderful years supporting the club and as we are both organisations driven to entertain it is a perfect synergy for our respective brands to extend the partnership for another three years.
“This is a huge part of our growth plans and we will be planning more fan engagement projects with the club and look forward to developing our partnership further.”
Under the terms of the three-year renewal, the SportsBroker logo will continue to be displayed across the back of the Championship club players’ shirts – situated at the top of the jerseys as opposed to the rear, where it was located since the commencement of the partnership in February 2021.
As well as the on-shirt logos, SportsBorker will also sponsor the HTTV Preview Show and Extra Time – which will be extended to include sponsorship of all match highlights. The firm will also gain ‘a regular presence’ across LED boards at the John Smith’s stadium.
Huddersfield Town Commercial Director, Ian Birtley, added: “I’d like to personally place on record my thanks to SportsBroker for not only extending their partnership with us for three more seasons but the tremendous support they have given to the club thus far.
“We are building a really strong understanding of the SportsBroker business and when James explained to me the plans for the business we were very keen to align with them on their journey and feel we can play a key part in their growth strategy.”
Though, SportsBroker enables players to win money by participating in its trading platform – the business is not licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). However, its website makes references to ‘responsible gaming’ as opposed to ‘responsible gambling’.
This is in contrast to Football Index – the operating arm of BetIndex – which functioned as a platform where players could trade ‘shares’, although in this case players invested in footballers instead of teams.
BetIndex was licensed by the UKGC until March 2021 when it was forced to enter administration following a mass withdrawal of customers after dividends on footballers were slashed.
The Gambling Commission was heavily criticised by MPs for licensing Football Index, as its fall-out led to customers being left £90 million out-of-pocket, reclaiming losses with administrators.