Mansion win battle to sponsor Manchester United, £15m ($26.2

[raiders72001]

Richard Wachman
Sunday March 5, 2006
The Observer

Mansion, a little-known internet gambling group based in Gibraltar will soon become a household name: the company has won the battle to become Manchester United's new shirt sponsor.

The deal, for £60m over four years, is expected to be unveiled within days by the Glazer family, which took control of the club in an £800m takeover last year.

The sponsorship arrangements will be viewed as a coup for the club, as it dwarfs the current deal with Vodafone, which concludes at the end of the current season. Mansion, headed by Indonesian billionaire Putera Sampoerna, will yield Man Utd £15m a year against £9m from Vodafone. Mansion is understood to have beaten off stiff competition from Qatar Airways.


Vodafone is ending its shirt sponsorship contract two years early. The transaction comes at a time when United could do with a fillip to its financial position, which is under pressure. The club's relative failure on the pitch in recent seasons has cost them tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue from both the Premiership and Champions League.

The club's profits fell by £12.3m to £46m in its 2004-05 financial year, mainly through a drop in television income. United were recently ousted as the world's richest club by Real Madrid.

The Glazers, who also own the US football club Tampa Bay Buccaneers, would be forbidden under NFL rules from any tie-up with a gambling firm, but Man Utd is regarded as a separate commercial entity, so there are no regulatory hurdles.

The Mansion transaction is thought to be the most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal so far, beating Chelsea's £50m contract with electronic giant Samsung.

[Duckstabber]

Great stuff - the liquidity @ Mansion will get a much needed push in the right direction.