Inter Milan, leaders of this year’s Italian soccer Serie A competition, have reportedly agreed to a major front-of-shirt sponsorship deal with Sweden-based online betting and gaming firm Betsson, to start next season.
Various media sources have now reported that Betsson will replace Paramount+, the US streaming service that has been the Milan heavyweight’s main shirt sponsor since the last stretch of 2022-23.
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That tie-up is set to end after the ongoing 2023-24 season – in which Inter sits at the top of the 20-team Serie A – and Italian media has now reported that Betsson will come in as a replacement.
It has also been reported that to secure these rights, competition from brands including Qatar Airways has been seen off, and that the name appearing on the Inter shirts will not be Betsson itself, due to Italian regulations preventing clubs from overtly displaying betting brand advertising. Instead, the name selected is likely to be that of the StarCasino Sports entertainment brand.
The rights initially became available near the conclusion of 2022-23 due to Inter’s shirt sponsorship deal with blockchain platform DigitalBits ending early because of alleged missed payments.
Inter’s training kit sponsorship deal with LeoVegas stems from 2022, meanwhile, and is currently set to conclude following 2024-25.
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By GlobalDataThe club also has a kit supply tie-up in place with US giant NIKE.
Across the city, meanwhile, rivals AC Milan are still determined to eventually move out of their iconic San Siro stadium (which they share with Inter), and into a new venue, the founder and managing partner of their owning group has said.
Gerry Cardinale, whose RedBird Capital Partners private equity group took control of AC Milan in mid-2022, said at a conference in London yesterday that a 70,000-capacity venue which could also be used for hosting music concerts, would be built.
This follows on from the club filing a preliminary proposal to this effect with the council of San Donato – to the south of Milan – last September.
He has now told an audience at the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit: “That should be not only good for Milan, that should be good for Italy and Serie A.
"I am going to create a company that is going to build this stadium and then frankly I want to take that company and have it go build stadiums for all the other teams in Serie A.”
The last new Serie A stadium was completed in 2011, when Juventus moved into their new home, the Allianz Arena, in Turin.
Cardinale added: “We’re going to try to bring an American stadium in a live event entertainment campus to Milan. Of all the cities in Europe, my premise of a merger partnership between sports and music and the live event for the fans, you would think that Milan would be the perfect place for that. And that’s what we’re going to endeavor to build.
“That should be not only good for Milan; that should be good for Italy and Serie A.”
Both AC Milan and Inter have been working on moving away from the San Siro for several years – however, last week, city authorities said they would still like to work with those heavyweight clubs on potentially renovating the San Siro.
