Some sponsors are synonymous with Aston Villa. The company adorning the front of a team’s kit can become a crucial part of what makes a team’s strip so eye-catching and, eventually, collectable.
Muller, AST Computers and Mita all spring to mind, whilst the LDV Vans Reebok numbers are also quite the collectable.
But in recent years Aston Villa’s main kit sponsors, as have most of English football’s, have been betting companies.
This season it is W88, but it seems that Villa fans might be set for something new on the front of their, what have recently been, excellently designed kits.
Everton recently cancelled their deal with Kenyan gaming company SportPesa early, as they seek a new lucrative partnership. Now, reports in Kenya suggest Aston Villa could pick them up.
SonkoNews reports that SportPesa will become the ‘principal partner’ of Aston Villa from next season. The news will likely be made official toward the end of the current campaign, according to the report.
It is unclear if that would mean Aston Villa are terminating a deal with W88. However, when the sponsorship agreement was announced on the club’s website in the summer, it only mentioned a ‘record-breaking commercial agreement’ for the 2019-20 season.
Nairobi News corroborates the story, even showing a screenshot of the company’s CEO Ronald Karauri’s Instagram which suggests so.
They also suggest that the companies recent success in Tanzania could be crucial to the deal. Aston Villa snapped up the East African nation’s best-known player, Mbwana Samatta, in January in a reported (BBC) £8.5 million deal
As reported by Nairobi News recently, SportPesa’s license in Kenya has recently been suspended but they are still thriving in Samatta’s homeland.
So it could be a match made in heaven considering Samatta’s impressive start to life at Villa Park and the commercial opportunities his presence could bring to this partnership.