The beginnings of the new sponsor for Aston Villa. Aston Villa has announced a primary sponsorship with W88, an Asian Sport Management company that, according to Villa, has made a record-breaking deal to sponsor the team for the upcoming 19/20 Premier League season.
Who are W88, though? All that is known about them is that they supported Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City last season, were based in the Philippines.
The UK Gaming Commission defines a Whitelabel agreement as one in which a service provider (operator) uses another business’s brand and maintains a website on that business’s behalf. Midnight Gaming Limited is now managing operations in the UK on behalf of W88.
The logos of Aston Villa (and Leicester City) are prominently displayed on these web pages. Was W88’s decision to use a Whitelabel arrangement a result of its failure to enter the UK gaming market?
Aston Villa announced their sleeve sponsorship in a press release that read, “W88 are operated under the same Whitelabel arrangement noted above.
Hilly Ehrlich was mentioned in the press release announcing W88 as Aston Villa’s primary partner.
Ehrlich claims that the W88 brand stands for “trust and honesty”. Villa fans handing over their money when they place a join with W88?
The official line at first claimed that W88 would raise Aston Villa’s profile in Asia, but it now appears that Midnight Gaming Limited will exploit the brand and the Villa crest to market gaming services to UK residents.
