I forget about how long is the sponsorship contract of Sportbet and Watford. Since Watford will be on Championship Division next season, will we still see the Sportsbet and Bitcoin logo on Watford's Jersey?
Yes
Well, unless they've got a clause in the contract that says they can terminate the deal upon relegation, or significantly reduce payments. A lot of sponsorship deals and even players contracts have clauses like this. There's a huge drop off in terms of viewership between the PL and the Championship so that is often reflected in the various deals and deals can be lost upon relegation or payments significantly reduced. It would kinda be silly on the sponsors part not to have them really. The PL is the most watched league in the world, whereas the Championship probably doesn't get much attention in the grand scheme of things, so that's a lot of eyeballs missing and less eyeballs means less exposure for your brand.
@hilariousetc True, a clause like that ("
contract termination" or "
a % reduction from the annual payment" clause is triggererd in case the team fails to stay in the EPL) could exist. But, regarding termination of contract, we do have some cases where both parties (sponsor and football club) mantained the sponsorship deal even though the team was relegated to the Championship.
In 2018, Fulham was promoted to the PL and a gambling company immediately signed a 2 year contract with the club
[1]. But as we all know, Fulham had a pathetic run in the EPL (only 3 wins in the 18/19 season) and were relegated to Championship in 2019. But the sponsorship deal was not terminated as we can see on Fulham 19/20 kit
[2].
Another example was Sunderland. Back in 2016, a gambling company renewed their sponsorship with the club for 3 years
[3] while they were in the top flight, but unfortunately, the team was relegated to Championship in the 16/17 season, but, the deal was not terminated the following season
[4]. Obviously, things changed when Sunderland was relagated to 3rd division and the deal was terminated.
If there is a termination clause here, I suppose the club also has a clause where they'll ask for remuneration (big sum) upon early termination of contract, no? idk, I think we'll get to see the BTC logo in the Championship next season. Anyways, would like to hear from Steve about this whole sponsorship deal. Oh, and to everyone here, sorry if this is too off-topic
1. https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/fulham-shirt-sponsor-dafabet-record
2. https://shop.fulhamfc.com/kit/1920kit/1920kit/2622_1920-fulham-football-club-home-shirt-adult.html
3. https://sponsorship.sportbusiness.com/news/sunderland-retains-dafabet-as-main-sponsor/
4. https://www.classicfootballshirts.co.uk/2017-18-sunderland-away-shirt-bnib.html
I have tried searching online for this answer whether there is a relegation clause inserted in this deal or no, but so far I can’t find anything about this clause, hence we will have to wait for sportsbet reply to find out whether they had actually inserted such a clause or no.
Furthermore Watford has lost $60 million immediately according to Dr. Dan Plumley, and he’s explained that Watford could incur more losses in the long run unless they can win their promotion back to the league, hence I’m hoping that there was no relegation clause inserted in this deal.