The Dons Trust has signed up to become an official ‘fan partner’ of FansBet. This is separate from the sponsorship deal between the club and FansBet that was officially launched today.
FansBet are committed to giving back to causes that matter to fans. From now on, individual supporters who join FansBet’s platform and select AFC Wimbledon as their club or via a link from either the Trust or AFC Wimbledon will be tagged so that some funds generated from their activity comes to the Trust.
The money raised by the Trust from the partnership will be used to fund specific items of expenditure, for example equipment that might be needed for first-team training, or spending needed by the Trust on a specific item.
The club’s partnership with FansBet follows an indicative vote among the Trust’s membership earlier this year when two-thirds of respondents indicated they were open to sponsorship along these lines. (Trust members had already said they are against a betting company sponsoring the front of the shirt or having stadium naming rights and this is something FansBet have no interest in doing.)
Measures we’ve taken
Nevertheless, we are conscious that gambling sponsorship is a contentious issue.
Although the commercial deal involves rebranding the man-of-the-match award as the FansBet Man of the Match award, we will avoid calling it this on the commercial page of the matchday programme, which often includes photographs of the previous game’s mascots.
Similarly, we will not include the FansBet logo on the backdrop for the man-of-the-match presentation, so that mascots are not photographed in front of it. (The logo will, however, feature on the backdrop for player and management interviews.)
And we will ensure that FansBet’s advert in the programme is located away from pages that feature mascots or might appeal to children, e.g. Today’s mascots, Haydon’s page and the commercial page.
Responsible gambling
Jason Ryan from FansBet’s Responsible Gambling team explained: “FansBet takes pride in being a provider which is underpinned by responsible gambling and regulated by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. We value our players and go to great lengths to ensure those who choose to play with us do so responsibly.
“Through proactive measures, the Responsible Gambling team are able to identify changes in a player’s behaviour and carry out early intervention to protect those players who may be at risk. Daily player reports allow us to monitor activity and ensure we act appropriately at all times.
“We offer an incredibly wide range of tools to assist players in taking control, ranging from how much they can deposit to how much they can lose at one time. We will continually seek to enhance our systems and approaches to responsible gambling.”
Find out more about FansBet’s commitment to responsible gambling. As always, be gamble aware.