Finance guru: Newcastle United ‘pulling all the strings’ as new ‘£20m target’ lined up
Newcastle United have likely set a “£20million target” as they look to move away from front-of-shirt gambling sponsorship
That is the opinion of finance expert Doctor Dan Plumley, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the sponsorship possibilities now available to the Tyneside club following their Saudi Arabia-backed takeover.
As reported by The Times earlier this month (16 December), Premier League clubs are facing pressure from the government to mutually agree to a ban on front-of-shirt gambling sponsors.
Newcastle are one of a handful of top-flight clubs that have gambling sponsors on their shirts, with their Fun88 deal set to expire at the end of the season.
Plumley believes the government pressure comes at a comfortable time for the Magpies, who were likely going to look for a new sponsorship deal anyway.
“The timing of this is absolutely right,” he told Football Insider.
“If this is going to happen in the industry, then the timing is pretty good for Newcastle in that regard because you get the sense that they would have shifted onto a different front-of-shirt sponsor anyway given the change in ownership over the last year.
“Eighteen months ago this would have been more of a concern for them, but I think now they’ll be looking to extract more value out of that deal anyway than they could get from Fun88.
“And it will be in a completely different market so not bad timing in that regard.
“They’re not going to need it either. The top end is West Ham’s at £10million-a-season. The rest are slightly lower than that, so Newcastle will be targeting a front-of-shirt sponsor that will get them £15-20million if they can.
“That’ll be linked to pulling some commercial strings they didn’t have 18 months ago. It’s been a good deal for them but they’ll be looking to improve on that deal in the future.”
In other news, pundit backs Newcastle United to hit “another level” after source’s Mykhaylo Mudryk update.