Bankruptcy for Leicester City’s Sponsor – What’s Next?
In July 2024, Leicester City signed a sponsorship deal with BC.Game that was reported to be worth £30 million. Unfortunately, it appears that the operator has run into financial difficulties as of late, and has even been declared bankrupt. The Foxes remain positive about this, however.
Crypto gambling platform BC.Game is facing difficult time. © sergeitokmakov, Pixabay
Leicester City Remain Confident Despite Sponsor’s Financial Problems
When Leicester City moved up to the Premier League, the club signed a sponsorship deal with BC.Game for two years. At the time, the club described its new sponsor as a ‘community-based, online cryptocurrency gaming platform’.
While things went well at first, the club’s sponsor has recently faced some serious financial issues. The two companies that run BC.Game, Blockdance BV and Small House BV, have both been declared bankrupt by a Curacao court.
The judge in charge of the case made the ruling after it was determined that BC.Game had failed to meet its financial obligations. The two companies that run it hadn’t met their regulatory financial requirements.
The two companies also hadn’t paid their customers. There were two players reporting late payments: one worth €1.3 million (£1 million) and the other worth €639,000 (£532,000).
Leicester City’s Response
Despite concerns over BC.Game’s financial issues, Leicester City has assured fans that its sponsor remains committed to the club. It has also been said that the gambling platform’s current situation shouldn’t affect its sponsorship deal with the club.
Naturally, Leicester City wants the sponsorship to be as simple and hassle-free as possible, especially since there’s over a year left. The club seems to be optimistic that things will improve for BC.Game in time to come.
A spokesman for the club has said the following about BC. Game’s bankruptcy situation:
We have been and continue to be in regular discussions with BC.Game with regard to an active legal case in Curacao. BC.Game have provided the club with the strongest assurances that they are actively appealing this case, and that the process which has been initiated in Curacao is administrative in nature and has not arisen due to any concerns with their financial standing.– Spokesman for BC.Game, BC.Game , Mirror Football
The spokesperson also said:
” BC.Game have further assured us that they have no issues with liquidity and that they remain fully committed to meeting their ongoing contractual and financial obligations, including to the club, and that this case will not impact on BC. Game’s continuing international operations.”
BC.Game itself has said that they were appealing the judgement on the grounds of there being multiple inconsistencies in the evidence that was presented to the judge. They’ve also accused the lawsuit of being malicious.
Sponsorship Deals Going Forward
Like other clubs, Leicester City relies on sponsorship deals. Having a deal in place is especially important for the club right now, as it nearly faced a points deduction in September.
This was because of the club supposedly breaching rules regarding sustainability and profit. They argued that the Premier League didn’t have the authority to punish them despite them losing £129.4 million, more than the permitted £105 million.
These losses were over a three-year period leading into the 2022/23 season. Leicester City was successful in defending itself and the Premier League didn’t end up punishing them.
While the club did well to avoid a points deduction, it will have to rethink its sponsorship in the near future. The Premier League has banned gambling companies from being front-of-shirt sponsors from the 2026/27 season onwards.
Currently just over half of the league’s 20 clubs are sponsored by a company in the gambling industry. All of these, and Leicester City, will have to find a company that is not associated with gambling in any way.
