Aston Villa refuse U-turn on shirt sponsor who produced ‘sexualised adverts’
Aston Villa have refused to make a U-turn on their sponsorship deal with controversial online casino BK8.
Villa are set to announce BK8 as their shirt sponsors in the coming months, once their agreement with Cazoo expires in the summer. It will see the Villans pen a deal with the Asian betting firm for three years, despite a campaign being launched by their own fans to scrap the arrangement.
It comes after BK8 sparked outrage in the summer of 2021 with a scandal that saw the brand axed by Norwich City.
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Within days of announcing a sponsorship agreement, Norwich fans complained about BK8’S adverts featuring simulated sex acts with a sausage. It saw the Canaries immediately tear up their deal with BK8.
But according to The Telegraph, Villa have refused to back down from their new deal despite meeting with concerned fan groups, who have been vocal in protesting the arrangement.
The Aston Villa Fans Consultation Group confirmed after the meeting that BK8 will remain "the new front-of-shirt sponsor for the next three seasons".
The supporter group added: "While some fans will be disappointed after Villa’s current front-of-shirt sponsor moved away from gambling companies, the commercial reality is that to teams outside the top six, such sponsors offer clubs twice as much financially as non-gambling companies."
Reports previously suggested that an account belonging to a BK8 ambassador was found to be linked to hardcore pornography. The company has since gotten rid of the adverts and apologised, while undergoing a rebrand.
The Big Step campaign group against gambling advertising in football said in a statement that the situation showed how clubs were failing to put "people before profit".
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"Time and again so many clubs say one thing about gambling before doing another. The commendable clubs who put people before profit are sadly in the minority," they said. “As a community of people harmed by gambling, largely made up of huge football fans, we would love for our teams to voluntarily move away from gambling sponsorship, and we will continue to persuade them to do so.
“But it is now clear that most clubs cannot be trusted on gambling – they are not listening to their own supporters who are consistently and increasingly opposed to these harmful deals."
Aston Villa have repeatedly declined to comment on the sponsorship arrangements.
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