Michael Nicholson was delighted to announce a three year extension of Celtic’s front of shirt sponsorship with Dafabet.
From the start of the 26/27 season English clubs will be banned from having gambling firms as front of shirt sponsors.
The Dafabet logo is banned from use in almost all UEFA countries.
Today’s announcement was very low key, a picture of Michael NIcholson with some suit from the firm in the tunnel at Celtic Park explaining why both sides are so delighted with the new contract.
No players or coaches were there to extol how brilliant the new sponsorship deal is, maybe because if they ever placed a bet on football they’d be on the end of disciplinary action from the SFA.
Today’s announcement never even came with the token warning about wanting to people gamble responsibly.
No gambling firm wants people to gamble responsibly, they want them to pile whatever money they have into placing bets.
#CelticFC is pleased to announce a three year contract extension with front of shirt partner Dafabet.
This will become the longest shirt partnership in the Club’s history!
Read more ?
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) December 13, 2024
When CR Smith were Celtic’s first short sponsor gambling was very different. Bookmakers were low-key and heavily controlled in the eighties, there was barely a sign for the company outside the building, inside it was bleak and smoky with no chairs, tables or vending machines with just pages from The Sporting Life or Racing Post pinned to the walls.
If you wanted to bet on a home win you had to have at least five teams involved, aways and draws were restricted to trebles.
Only cup ties and international matches attracted single bets, if you asked for odds on corners, yellow and red cards or when Tavepen would appear you’d have got some funny looks, at best.
Gambling is now a huge mainstream business with thousands of suffering addicts struggling to escape. Advertising is everywhere, it is trackside at matches, on half-time television adverts and everywhere online.
Other than the Celtic shirt Dafabet barely have any presence. Online they barely tweet to their 36,000 followers
Dafabet has no physical presence in the UK, there are no betting shops, not even inside Celtic Park where Ladbrokes are the gambling partners for William Hill SPFL matches with the same firm on the sleeve of the Celtic shirt wound in with the SPFL logo.
The reaction to the Celtic announcement on X/Twitter was almost exclusively hostile, fans are aware that many people have real struggles with the issue, lives have been ruined, families broken by the issue.
Last month Celtic also launched a fund raiser where fans could pay £29 or £49 to an outside company for a certificate saying that they were renting a piece of the pitch as Celtic Park.
Both deals involve the firms making payments to the Celtic Foundation, with the pitch certificate £1 goes to the Foundation for every plot purchased.
At the recent Celtic AGM Nicholson was unable to name the last player to come through the Celtic Academy to start a first team match. The answer is Owen Moffat. away to St Mirren in December 2021, the winger was substituted after 62 minutes and never played again for the hoops.
Bitterly disappointed! About time we stop with gambling sponsors and drink sponsors. That amount of fans struggling with alcohol or gambling problems which has been raised a lot by fans. Doesn’t help them with signs all over the stadium
— Mick scott (@Mick_Scott_7) December 13, 2024
Not entirely sure why you’d be pleased? Neither gambling or alcohol sponsorship should be anywhere near the Celtic shirt.
— Jester ???????? (@jordanbanks67) December 13, 2024
By far the worst sponsor we’ve ever had.
— Rossco (@R055C089) December 13, 2024
Terrible news.
Genuinely, terrible.
Never used them, never will.
Betting companies shouldn’t be on the shirts. Leagues are banning betting companies, yet we extend it.Plus it’s a horrible logo!
— Anthony (@AnthonyMcGinty_) December 13, 2024
Great news. Sponsorship by an industry that footballers and fans have well known problems with.
Gambling addiction son? Don’t worry. Stick that Dafabet top on and we’ll support your recovery— Colin (@cordicol) December 13, 2024
Not a big fan of betting companies plastered on the shirt. We’ve had one player that I know of and probably many fans who has destroyed their lives because of betting addiction.
— T (@torroo) December 13, 2024
Football clubs shouldn’t promote gambling.
— One Star Means More ?? ?? ?? (@theceltsarehere) December 13, 2024
The celtic PR department should get a kicking, a WORLDWIDE brand should be on the shirt if they want to cash in
— Michael (@Michael01310692) December 13, 2024
I have never known anyone ever to have used dafabet ? never seen their shop, even in celtic park it’s Ladbrooks ?
Is dafabet actually a real company or just something we put on our shirts for a laugh
— Sean Kavanagh (@Seanlisbon67) December 13, 2024
Genuinely one of the worst decisions this clubs made since Covid
— Champions again ? ? (@Sacktheboard2) December 13, 2024
Business is business do you honestly think they give a flying F**K about the fans.
When money comes in the door all that shite about caring for people or fans with addictions goes out the window.
KERCHING that’s all that matters,Nicholson is like a tailors dummy from Slaters window,dull boring and scary looking.
Unbelievable, Nicholson and Daddy Lawwell are a disgrace with this move.
Off subject Joe enjoying the Podcasts.
Editor: Cheers, they have started well and will improve, none of us auditioning for a gig on Celtic TV!
There was also one very famous Celtic manager who had a well documented gambling issue.
Unethical Board devaluing the club / brand values.
If the brand is not protected, then the club is just like any another football club.
Yet another insular, parochial and short-sighted decision.
Another example of greed and exploitation…Gambling is an horrendous blight on our society…and our Club should have nothing to do with it……..Sorry….what was that sound…??….Oh aye…its KERCHING….Silly me.
Well done Mini Peter! ?When you have £77,000,000.00 in the bank you need to take in as much footy lucre as possible ???
Absolutely agree with the sentiments on anti-alcohol and anti-gambling on here, they’re both very serious, long term issues and I know that from personal experience. I’ve mastered one but not the other. Sponsors on our Hoops should promote general well-being, a good bit of humour, early football development et cetera. But what about the BIG one missing here, obesity. It’s another disaster for individuals and families alike. WTF is “Just Eat” and the likes doing on football pitch advertising?
As his grubby paws are involved in everything at CP, I reckon Lawwell should front an anti-obesity campaign along the (true) lines of: “FFS Bhoys, you don’t want to end up looking like me, do you?” (or worse, BEING a greedy sod like me!)
It’s potentially the 1st decent thing the fat bastard would’ve done here, despite his nauseating, hugely incompetent and preposterously long and over-paid tenure.
Get him tae fukk!
It’s cash for Celtic – As long as it’s more than Sevco’s shirt sponsors fling at them then that’ll do for me…
Beat these bar stewards at ANYTHING –
From higher shirt sponsorship to tiddlywinks – Just beat them my Celtic !
Nicholson is a despicable, immoral, little man.
He paid for his education? So he could make a fortune!
I think it is fair to say that he didn’t study Law to make the world a better place or rid it of injustice!
Believes one thing and does the exact opposite in practise!
Drags our Club name down into the gutter to fulfil his own ambitions!
No doubt the Foundation will get a slice of the pie. Pure hypocrisy!
Gutless Creeps!
Penny Dinners?
That is our
“Engine Room Subsiduary”.
The unacceptable face of capitalism in sport!
Maister, that is one terrific comment. Well said!
Thanks very much!