SPFL announces 'record-breaking' title deal with bookmaker

Brendan Rodgers' Celtic are the current Scottish champions

The Scottish Professional Football League has announced what it has hailed as a "record-breaking" five-year title sponsorship deal with William Hill.

The betting company takes over from car showroom company Cinch, which had been the league sponsor of the Premiership, Championship and Leagues 1 and 2 for three years.

SPFL group chief executive Neil Doncaster said: "William Hill is a name long associated with Scottish football and we are enormously excited to have reached a long-term, record-breaking agreement with our new title sponsors.

"This is tremendous news for our clubs and their fans, for the profile of the league, and for Scottish football in general."

Earlier this week, the SPFL announced that an additional 20 Premiership matches will be shown live on subscription television from next season.

A new sponsor was required after Cinch exercised an option to end its five-year sponsorship deal, said to be worth about £1.6m per year, two years early.

Rangers had refused to provide coverage for the company, citing an existing commercial deal with the car retail firm owned by then chairman Douglas Park, and the SPFL apologised to the Ibrox club, after lengthy litigation, and agreed to meet some of their legal costs while setting up a governance review.

The search for a new title sponsor was led by Brendan Napier of Scottish Football Marketing, a joint venture between the SPFL, the Scottish FA and the Scottish Women’s Premier League.

Napier described the William Hill deal as "a tremendous coup for Scottish football", although no financial figures have been revealed by the league or the bookmaker, which previously sponsored the Scottish Cup for nine years up until 2020.

In addition to becoming league sponsor, the company becomes the SPFL's official betting partner and will work with EPIC Global Solutions – a global consultancy focused on gambling harm prevention – to launch a multi-year, "first-of-its-kind" programme on gambling harm awareness for SPFL players, staff and supporters.

Workshops will be held across all 42 SPFL clubs to educate players and backroom staff on the dangers of gambling harm in the elite sports environment along with sessions for supporters and community groups.

"Results from similar programmes by EPIC in world sport consistently show that more than nine out of 10 professional athletes gain confidence on how and where to seek support if they are worried about their gambling behaviour as a result of the sessions," the SPFL states.