Online casino 32Red has signed up as the official casino partner of Italian top-tier football club Bologna FC.
The deal will support 32Red’s incursion into the Italian regulated online gambling market, where the operator went live last November, launching slots the following month.
The deal will include affiliate marketing for 32Red.it via the club’s official website, as well as on- and offline co-branding activities and advertising around the Bologna stadium.
32Red CEO Ed Ware said the brand was “proud” to be partnering with Bologna, highlighting the success of previous UK ties with Aston Villa (2006-8) and Swansea City (2009-13) in helping establish and consolidate 32Red “as a trusted and leading casino brand” in that market.
Bologna’s commercial director Daniele Montagnani said his club was “delighted” to be entering into a new partnership with 32Red, and added he was looking forward “to an ongoing and mutually beneficial relationship.”
The London-listed online casino admitted last month that it was finding progress in the Italian market to be “slower than expected”. It appointed a new global ad agency, Hometown, in January, ahead of a full brand launch in Europe’s most established dot.country market.
Boss Ware however remained bullish on the company’s longer-term prospects in a market that is still led by local incumbents - PokerStars proving the notable exception - expressing confidence Italy would become “an important and lucrative territory for 32Red.” Revenues from the territory were growing month-over-month, the Gibraltar-based company emphasised, a mobile casino launch set to deliver further inroads.
Bologna, which finished 13th in Italy’s Serie A last season, has lifted the Italian title on seven occasions, making it the sixth most successful club in Italy. However, its last title triumph came way back in 1963-4.
32Red recently inked two new shirt deals in the English Football League, with Crawley Town and Newport County, following an early and amicable end to its successful association with Premier League Swansea City, for which it received £950,000 in compensation in March .
Article written by Peter Holmes
