Something more than the shadow of doubt has been looming over one of FC Barcelona’s global sponsors for years, the Russian capital online betting house 1xBET, but not even the war in Ukraine has managed to break the agreement signed in the summer of 2019 to the next five seasons, at least for now. The reason is the millionaire compensation that the Barça club should pay to the company in case the contract ends before June 30, 2024, something that cannot be allowed in the current financial situation.
According to sources consulted by the Economist, the penalty would be an annuity, which is usual in this type of sponsorship. It must be taken into account that the current alliance supposes an annual income of between 9 and 12 million euros, depending on the sporting successes of the Barça.
Thus, breaking it when there are still more than two years left on the contract would entail a gap of between 27 and 36 million euros between what would not be received and what would have to be paid. We must not forget that, when the Catalan team was chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu, it changed its sponsor in the sports betting segment, until then the British Betfair (which is listed on the London Stock Exchange although it has its headquarters on the island of Malta). , because 1xBET paid him more money.
To move forward, now with Joan Laporta at the helm, FC Barcelona hides behind the fact that 1xBET has its official headquarters in Cyprus and an independent company to operate in Spain that meets all legal requirements, but the history of 1xBET has all the ingredients for a plot of a noir novel or criminal intrigue movie, including that its founders and reference shareholders – Serguei Karshkov, Roman Semiojin and Dmitri Kazorin – have search and arrest warrant issued by Interpol. And it is that this bookmaker is banned in Russia and the United Kingdom for alleged illegal activities and questionable ethics, such as offering bets on children’s competitions and cockfights, as well as for promoting a virtual casino with pornographic overtones as croupiers in top lessin addition to broadcasting matches skipping audiovisual rights.
In any case, FC Barcelona is not the only relevant partner of 1xBET, which is also the official bookmaker for the Italian Serie A and for clubs and competitions in Latin America. Likewise, it was an official sponsor of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations and also has agreements with companies from e-sports such as the German ESL, which organizes video game competitions around the world, as stated on its website.
Contract under review
And it is that the 1xBet bookmaker is a giant that includes more than 1,000 daily events of all kinds of sports with the possibility of betting on the smallest detail. However, its international problems have caused it to diversify licenses with which to avoid a global blockade.
In Spain, the company that has the license to use the 1xBET brand is Wagerfair (formerly the Cross-Betting Platform), based in Valencia and which states that it has a General Betting License in Spain and authorization to carry out commercial communications ( DGOJ). It also ensures that more than 400,000 users bet online with 1xBET.
Although Wagerfair sources consulted by the Economist are disassociated from the contract with FC Barcelona as it is a global brand agreement, from the Barça club they are analyzing their national permits, to the time with no detected irregularities, to continue with the alliance, although there has not been a final decision, close sources have indicated to this newspaper. From the management of FC Barcelona they have declined to make statements regarding this thorny sponsor, held back by the necessary source of income for him.
The most recent example of the economic difficulties of FC Barcelona was known on Monday, when La Liga published the salary limits of Spanish clubs to undertake transfers this year, and Barça was the only negative, with -144.35 million euros .
On the other hand, this Tuesday another long-awaited sponsorship agreement was signed, that of Spotify, which could facilitate the decision of break ties with 1xBETalthough it is most likely that the club will end up looking for a new sponsor for the bets that will take over from the house of Russian origin without having to take a penalty, since in the coffers of the team there is not a penny left, given the debt of 1,350 million that it must face, to which is added the search for investors to undertake the Espai Barça project for up to 1,500 million.
Within these plans, which include the remodeling of the Camp Nou, the agreement with Spotify as the main sponsor is framed, which in addition to taking over from the sponsors who finished the contract for the men’s and women’s first team shirts, will name the stadium after from July. This agreement will report to FC Barcelona some 280 million euros in four years, although the pact for the name will last more than a decade.
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