January 25, 2022 at 7:05 PM by Thomas
On the side of the sponsor, who came of age on the jersey at the start of this season (after the first three years of a less visible partnership), we prefer to see only the glass half full. Because despite the sporting situation of ASSE, currently last in the French Ligue 1 championship, the Zebet operator finds advantage with the Greens who, “even in doubt, remain a heart club, which makes people talk”.
Zbet major sponsor of ASSE jersey since the start of the season
Better, Quentin Etievant stands for Sportune, a review “satisfactory”, on the visibility gained, with the brand logo, in the center of the jerseys of the Saint-Etienne players. “Obviously we’d be better off exploiting a partnership – and the club too – with better results, explains the marketing director of the online gaming operator, but the sporting hazard, we all know it and we try to play with it. Where it is interesting and challenging is to succeed in maintaining visibility, and activations and operations, in a sporting context that is not advantageous. »
“It’s not easy, but in this context, we stand together”
It is an understatement to say that it is not, because after twenty-two days of the 2021-2022 Ligue 1 season (21, for Saint-Etienne *), the Forez team is stuck in the last place, eight points behind 19th. ” It is not easy, agrees Quentin Etievant, but in this context, we are obviously united, and we do not stop activating the partnership, because the results are not there. On the contrary, it gives us even more the desire to do things a little clever, to continue to exist well. »
Benevolence and support, more than trash and mockery of the sponsor towards the club
No question either, at Zebet, like a competing brand (Winamax and the Girondins de Bordeaux, editor’s note), of hitting on its partner. “We have a brand platform, today focused around the pleasure of betting. As soon as there is this notion, we have a positioning and a language around it which, mechanically, keeps us away from certain forms of communication, a little trash or mockery. This is not our positioning, nor what we want to do with our partner. Everyone has their own choices, I don’t judge the strategy of others. »
Confidence is maintained until the end of the season. Waiting to see or know…
Confidence is therefore maintained and displayed, at least until the end of the current financial year. What about afterwards? No one knows, but Zebet will keep its options open, in the event of relegation to Ligue 2, of Pascal Dupraz’s players. “We are on matters that are contractually recorded. There are relegation clauses in all these types of partnerships, to open up discussions. We will wait until the end of the season, because many options are planned. But the desire for us to continue with Saint-Etienne is clearly there. »
Zebet is also closely monitoring the ASSE sale process
Zebet and AS Saint-Etienne have signed a three-year agreement, until 2025. In addition to the specter of a sporting descent, there is also the context of the sale of the club, desired by the current governance. This, too, the bookmaker follows closely. “We are only a sponsor”, he insists, but an attentive partner, with “Impacts that a change of management could have, at one time or another, on the future of the group. » By wanting to bet more on the Greens, did Zebet lose his bet? “I believe in maintaining”, concludes, optimistic, Quentin Etivient.
* Postponed, on behalf of the 20th day, the Angers – Saint-Etienne match is played this Wednesday, at 7 p.m.