Probably the biggest single category investor into sports sponsorship over the last few years has been betting and gaming. The vast majority of this investment has gone into football through shirt sponsorship and LED perimeter advertising.  In today’s market the Premier League is dominated by brands that also have no interest in the UK market, purely sponsoring and advertising at the the clubs for exposure back into Asia where the laws on betting restrict advertising within the territory. Sites like Dafabet, TLC88 and Fun88 are not even currently accessible to UK punters.

Household name brands like Ladbrokes and William Hill have shifted more of their activity to “above the line” advertising and the focus for them is for mobile and in-play betting . “Second Screen” is becoming an important part of how viewers consume sport at home and betting is an integral part of this development. Stadia are also becoming wi-fi enabled which increases the potential for ROI from in stadia betting on mobile.

Category exclusivity is an ever growing concern. Watch any live football match on TV these days and there will be up to six or seven brands advertising on the LED perimeter; William Hill are the exclusive betting sponsor of the Football Association but even they cannot guarantee exclusivity at  Cup games or national team matches. Bet Butler seemingly have the official and exclusive rights to the Football League, but dissect the deal further and its only exclusivity concerning the digital rights to the clubs in the Football League. It means a potential punter who attends a match can be exposed to one betting company on the concourse taking live bets, several more on the LED during the match and only find BetButler by going to the club’s website.

Effectiveness has to be measured by ROI and the different stage of the product lifecycle the brands are on. New brands tend to go for the mass awareness the Premier League can offer through high profile shirt sponsorship but betting brands are very protective of their data and rarely give access to actual “sign ups” of new accounts as a result of their sponsorships in sport.

One sign may be the shift where only a few years ago almost 50% of the Premier League clubs sported a gambling sponsor on the shirts. Coming into the 2013/14 season it is likely to be less than 20%.

Whilst in the early days of betting there was a huge land grab for the rights where share of voice was hugely important, these days the betting companies are employing media savvy individuals whose focus on ROI is under more scrutiny means that clubs are not seeing the same “windfalls” they did historically.  Allied to that is the influx of new money into football from the Middle East which is “gazumping” the big betting shirt sponsorships, for example where Emirates has taken over the profile shirt deals once enjoyed by BWIN at clubs like Real Madrid and AC Milan.

The ever changing regulatory situation in different countries means betting brands have to find ways of creating standout and ROI at the same time in markets where they can advertise. It is not easy in an increasingly cluttered market place but the synergy between betting and sport, especially football will always be there, which is why brands to some degree cannot afford not to be present and why the Premier League, which offers a “one stop shop” to global exposure will always attract brands in this sector.

Aston Villa have signed Dafabet as the  Official Main Club Sponsor in a  a two-year agreement brokered by Sports Media Gaming who assisted in bringing the Asian betting company to the club.

"In 2012 Dafabet was ranked 21st in the prestigious eGaming Review Power 50 list of online gaming operators.

As part of the agreement, the Dafabet logo will feature on the home and away Villa shirts and the company will enjoy a host of sponsorship benefits.

"We're pleased to announce our partnership with Dafabet," said Villa Chief Executive Paul Faulkner.

"There is a real sense of excitement, anticipation and optimism as we look forward to the new season, building on the solid foundations we have in place.

"This will be a good and positive partnership for the Club and we are looking forward to working together with Dafabet as we continue to build and move the Club forward.

"Crucially for us, during negotiations Dafabet displayed a strong willingness to work with us in our continued support for Acorns and we look forward to progressing some ideas around that in the near future."

Dimitris Karatzas, Managing Director of Online Betting and Gaming at AsianBGE, said: "After entering the Premier League last season as international betting partners to two clubs, we saw the increased potential of becoming an official club sponsor.

"All of the team here are football mad, supporting sides from all around the world. It's no cliché to say we love, live and breathe the game with extreme passion.

"It's a very significant and proud moment for us to form such a partnership with Aston Villa, a side steeped in tradition.

"We are delighted to see Dafabet on the front of such a well-recognised shirt and to be associated with a club respected throughout the footballing world. I am sure all the fans will agree the kit looks great.

"We look forward to the new season and hope this partnership continues well into the future."

John Cruces, Head of Sponsorships at Dafabet added: "The Premier League is second to none in the world of football, simply speaking it's the most exciting and recognised league in the world.

"To be associated with one of the oldest and most successful clubs in England will help us achieve our aim of making Dafabet a household name - not just in Asia, where the majority of our players are currently from, but worldwide."

Acorns Chief Executive David Strudley said: "The ongoing support shown by the Club and fans for Acorns is immeasurable and clearly demonstrated by their efforts to include us in their discussions with Dafabet.

"We are extremely grateful to both AVFC and Dafabet in what is a crucial year as we celebrate 25 years of caring and look to a future where we can help to provide care and support to each of the 2,000 plus life-limited and life-threatened children in the region."

Interesting row going on between Sky Sports and BT Sports at present.

Sky Sports are arguing against BT Sports being allowed to buy advertising on the Sky Sports channels to promote the new channels they are launching next season.

Sky have compared the situation as like Tesco being allowed to advertise inside Sainsburys. It is an interesting situation and i recall a similar situation going back to 1998 when the now defunct On Digital Channel was in existence.

As that time I was Commercial Director of the Premier League, meeting with Sky Sports who had just invested some £600mill to acquire the rights to the Premier League, i advised that OnDigital were about to acquire perimeter advertising around the grounds during Premier League fixtures. Rather promptly Sky came up with £1mill to take over the deal. Looking back at that situation it really shocked me that Sky had not secured the exclusive rights at the grounds, but in those days there was so much focus on TV revenue and not commercial rights that it was somewhat overlooked.

Looking at the situation today with BT and Sky Sports, a similar situation presents itself. The Premier League teams have in the main outsourced their LED inventory to 3rd party companies and BT Sports could easily step in and secure advertising on LED during the matches. If they wished to go a step further BT Sport could...and maybe are considering acquiring high profile event or team sponsorship. One could well imagine the problem created if BT Sports was emblazed across the shirts of Premier League teams , being broadcast on Sky Sports.

Both sides have fair points to argue, although Sky would probably have the argument more in their favour to protect their rights, having been involved and supported the Premier League from Day1. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds over the coming weeks.