Stoke City have announced that the Britannia Stadium will become the bet365 Stadium from the start of the 2016/17 Premier League season after reaching a new deal with their sponsors.
The Stoke-based gambling company headed by the Coates family, who are also owners of the football club, have agreed to an initial six-year stadium naming rights deal while also extending their shirt sponsorship agreement for a further three years.
Furthermore, the club have revealed plans to redevelop the stadium, which will increase its capacity by 1,800 which in turn will raise the total capacity over 30,000.
In a move that makes sense for all concerned, CEO of bet365, John Coates, believes that the new agreement will be beneficial to both parties moving forward.
“There’s no doubt bet365 has benefitted enormously from the global exposure our shirt sponsorship agreement with the Club has given us,” he told the club’s official website.
“We have been looking to extend our portfolio of sports sponsorship and entering into a stadium naming rights agreement with Stoke City seemed a natural fit, especially as the city of Stoke-on-Trent is home to bet365.
“We are looking forward to what we hope will be a successful future for both the Club and bet365 with both organisations working closely together.”
Stoke chief-executive, Tony Scholes, echoed those sentiments, and believes that the move will allow the club to remain competitive in terms of increasing the amount of revenue generated in a league that continues to evolve every year.
The Britannia has been the home of the club since 1997 and will naturally now undergo a complete rebrand over the summer as Mark Hughes will prepare his side for next season with a view of building on the positive work that he has done since arriving in 2013.