Winamax Loses Football Club Partnership Due To Tweets

Summary

• Winamax gets dropped by Football club
• Club says advertising campaigns equivalent to bullying
• English club also drops gambling sponsor over sexualised content

Winamax is one of the biggest and most popular gaming operators in France. The operator runs the number one online poker site in France and also has a very popular sportsbook.

Winamax has formed partnerships with a number of big names to promote their betting and gaming offerings.

Winamax was in a sponsorship agreement with Girondins de Bordeaux, a club that players in the Ligue 1. The two sides entered into a sponsorship agreement in 2021 and the club was reported to be getting around €1.3 million each season. Girondins de Bordeaux recently announced that it decided to end its partnership with Winamax as they were not happy with the operator’s behaviour.

One of the main reasons a gambling and betting operator agrees to sponsor a sporting club is because they want to get their brand before fans and get them to try out their gaming and betting products. They tend to use aggressive marketing tactics to get the most out of their sponsorship.

Winamax adopted a social media campaign which included criticizing the performance of players from Girondins de Bordeaux. The operator put out over 20 tweets that were considered mocking and degrading during the last 90 days and that did not sit well with the owners of Girondins de Bordeaux.

Thomas Jacquemier, COO of Girondins de Bordeaux said that they were all for humour but the videos and tweets released by Winamax were not done in a spirit of partnership and hence they decided to terminate the partnership. Winamax was rather unapologetic and sent out another mocking tweet to say that they were looking for a good defence for being terminated but could not find one which was just like the Girondins.

Jacquemier admitted that walking away from €1.3 million each season was a big decision for them but they decided to do that as they did not want a sponsor mocking their players and performance. Girondins de Bordeaux has already found a replacement sponsor as they have now signed with Coeur Marine & Blanc.

Last year, Norwich City which plays in the Premier League dropped their sponsor BK8 as they were using sexually proactive content to promote their offerings on social media.