Unlike other up-and-coming bookmakers at the time, 21Bet did not focus their sponsorship efforts just on football, instead preferring to opt for a wider spread of sports. In addition to the two deals we will focus on, they also sponsored boxer, Charlie Edwards, and became the official betting partner of Gloucester Rugby.
Perhaps they would have cast the net even wider too had their life as an online bookmaker continued for longer. As it was though, 21Bet’s appearance in the online market was a relatively short-lived one as the brand disappeared completely in 2019.
Who Were They?
A company named Aureate Gaming Solutions created 21Bet and they were in a position to launch the brand in 2017. Things began well enough too and it seemed that their selective and wider approach to sponsorship had given them a healthy amount of exposure without truly breaking the bank. The issue, however, was that despite their best efforts, the brand was losing money and Aureate was a new company lacking in experience.
Given the choice between risking more money in the hope of turning things around and calling it quits, those in charge opted for the latter. With debts growing, Aureate sought to sell off the 21Bet brand, which at this point had a comfortable five-figure customer base. They found a buyer in the form of the Incentive Group, an already active company that had enjoyed a good amount of success with their Premier Punt website.
This deal helped keep 21Bet online but not for much longer. Even though the Incentive Group completed the takeover in April 2019, by the end of the year they announced the website was shutting down and players should withdraw all funds. Buying 21Bet proved to be such an unwise purchase that it was attributed to the demise of the Incentive Group itself as they went bust a few months after the website’s closure. Although it is easy to think of bookmakers being cash cows, examples like this remind us that many do fail and debts can be large if sponsorship deals have been signed.
Football Sponsorship Deals
During their three years of existence, 21Bet signed four sponsorship deals (two football related) and all came shortly following their initial launch in the spring of 2017. Whether it was a lack of funds or a simple change in approach, 21Bet did not pen any new deals after the initially small flurry. As our focus is on football here, we will only cover their agreements with Waterford FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers in more detail.
Waterford FC (June 2017)
Waterford FC ended the 2016 season by finishing fifth in the League of Irish First Division and not close to challenging for promotion. They began the following campaign without a shirt sponsor but a few months later, they struck a deal with 21Bet. Not only did 21Bet pay to sponsor the Irish side for the remainder of the current season, but for the following full season too, making it a one-and-a-half-year agreement.
Where previously there had been just an empty space, now both the home and away strips of Waterford included the red 21 logo plus the word ‘Bet’ in white (home shirt) and black (away shirt) text. It is possible 21Bet saw this as a shrewd way of securing future sponsorship of an Irish Premier Division side, given how likely promotion was. When the deal was announced on 16th June, the Blues were perched at the top of the table and favourites to secure automatic promotion.
The very strong possibility of promotion did mean that 21Bet still had to cough up a fair chunk of money to form a relationship with Waterford though. At the time, the deal was the most lucrative the southeast side had ever penned. Mind you, this was always likely to be the case given that this was arguably the closest the Blues had been to the top flight following their relegation in 2007.
Both parties rolled out the standard overly enthusiastic PR talk when announcing the deal. According to Waterford’s chairman Lee Power, “To attract an official sponsor with the reputation and reach of 21Bet underlines not just the significant growth of Waterford FC in a short space of time, but the marketing and growth potential of League of Ireland football as a whole.”
In response, 21Bet CEO Richard Hogg said, “We are delighted to be associated with such a well run club like Waterford FC who share the same appetite and drive for success and growth as we do. We see many parallels in terms of ambition and are looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership.” To be fair to Hogg, he did well to identify a team that was very much on the up, after years of disappointment, not only did the Waterford secure promotion in 2017 but they finished fourth the following year.
Wolverhampton Wanderers (August 2017)
Ahead of the 2017/18 season, the Wolves had new owners, a new Head Coach and a new exclusive betting partner, this being in the form of 21Bet. At the time of the deal, the brand had 20,000 new customers and they hoped to increase this number further by having their branding dotted across Molineux. Seeing a lot of potential in the Midlands club, after a summer of major investment, 21Bet made this a three-year deal, so it was a major commitment. It proved to be a smart move on their part too as Wolves won the league during the season 21Bet joined and followed it up a year later with a seventh-place finish in the Premier League.