Midnite, the UK sports betting and online casino operator, has announced its first sports sponsorship, partnering with the elite World Snooker Tour (WST) to cover its annual World Snooker Championship.
Through this deal, Midnite gains prominent branding around the flagship event, taking up 25% of the overall LED sponsorship inventory at the iconic Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, where it is staged annually.
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In addition, the brand will engage in a range of promotional activations surrounding the event, including ticket giveaways and more.
Jonathan Shaw, vice president for growth at Midnite, spoke to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) about the sponsorship, revealing that Midnite sees this as a chance to get in on the ground floor of a series that is on an upward trajectory.
“Snooker is going through a bit of a revamp and a modernization, and looks a little bit like the opportunity darts was 12 years ago.
“Matchroom [WST promotors] see snooker as being a product that that has got a high ceiling in terms of growth, and they're modernizing it. From that perspective, it fits [with us] as being a challenger brand.”
IN terms of the commercial attraction to sponsoring the event, Shaw makes it obvious.
“[The tournament is] 17 days, you've got hours and hours of tournament play, and we will have 25% of the LEDs around the venue. So, on a tactical level, the reach and awareness that that tournament can give us over a sustained period of time, [and] the broadcast value that we get from this sponsorship is huge.
Still at an early stage in its brand development, brand awareness growth is a key target for Midnite says SShaw.
While snooker is far from the biggest betting market, Midnite targeted the event as its data showed that snooker viewers are more likely to be sports bettors, although not on snooker itself, Shaw adds, explaining: “ [Snooker has] the highest prevalence of all crossover from from any sport (soccer gets diluted because it's so big).
“It's not that people necessarily bet on snooker; there are some snooker gamblers out there, but it's more the fact that people who tend to watch are also bettors as well, 60% to 65% of the snooker audience.”
The World Championship, the most prominent of snooker’s “Triple Crown” top line events and will take place in 2025 from April 19 through May 5.
The tournament is broadcast free-to-air in the UK on public service broadcaster BBC and has a total global broadcast reach (including pay-TV distribution on the likes of TNT Sports and Eurosport) of over 500 million, a factor that helped attract Midnite to sponsor the event.
Shaw also revealed that the sports betting firm is looking to leverage this deal into future coverage of other WST events, as well as an expanded presence in other sports, including soccer shirt sponsorship.
The 2024-25 edition of the World Snooker Tour is boasting record prize money as part of the WST’s drive to globalize the game.
