Everton are to end their sponsorship by the Kenyan gambling giant SportPesa at the end of this season, two years early, the club has announced.
The lucrative five-year deal with SportPesa, agreed in 2017, was one of the most high-profile and increasingly controversial of Premier League club sponsorships by gambling companies, which has prompted campaigners to warn of the social costs and “dire consequences” being caused by the increasing “gamblification” of football.
The early termination of the deal, which was understood to be for £7m a season, an Everton record, follows a strategic review of the club’s commercial operations led by the chief executive, Denise Barrett-Baxendale.
