The Rossoneri are one of the biggest sports brands on the planet, but it wasn’t until the early 1980s that AC Milan began to truly recognise its commercial promise. Renowned as Milan is for fashion, it naturally made sense for the club to partner with a clothing brand for its first ever front of shirt sponsor.
In their native Italian, there seemed to be nothing wrong with having the words POOH – the name of a highly exclusive jeans brand – emblazoned on the front of their jerseys. Elsewhere on the continent, particularly in England, The Rossoneri’s shirts became a source of ridicule.
Since then the club have seriously improved their commercial prowess and have a range of different sponsors and partners. The current front of shirt sponsor is a worldwide aviation company and the back of shirt sponsor is a cryptocurrency company. The latter highlighting the club’s forward thinking approach to marketing, something which was perhaps lacking when the Pooh Jeans contract was signed in the early 80s.
AC Milan recently partnered with Aviator and Spribe.
In recent years online gambling, much like cryptocurrency, has grown hugely in popularity. Like crypto, the world of online wagering does come with an inherent level of risk, so if you’re looking to spin the online reels then make sure you play with the best and most reputable casino apps in Canada.
How though, did AC Milan go from having Pooh on the front of their shirts to partnering with global gaming apps and cryptocurrency companies? Read on to find out as we take a whistle-stop tour through the history of the Rossoneri’s sponsors and partners.
The 1980s
This decade was all about trial and error for shirt sponsors and commercial partnerships, not just for AC Milan, but for almost every professional sports team on the planet outside of the United States. It was a time when even the biggest football teams in the country could be sponsored by small time local businesses or basic brands.
The all-conquering Liverpool time of that period were famously sponsored by Crown Paints. After moving on from Pooh Jeans, AC Milan partnered with a corn oil company – Cuore – before selling sponsorship rights to a company that specialised in affordable paperback books.
To say then that clubs in the 1980s were almost totally unaware of the power of their global brand is somewhat of an understatement. Nowadays, no top European team would countenance the idea of selling their valuable front of shirt space to a lowly local oil company.
The journey toward that realisation started sometime in the…
1990s
This decade was the Golden Era for Italian football. It was when Serie A became the best and most-watched league on the planet, with fans from all over the continent tuning in to watch the country’s best teams battle it out for the Scudetto.
During this period clubs began to become conscious of two things. Firstly their commercial pulling power and secondly, outward appearances – how they appeared on TV to the world. Emphasis was not just put on gaining as much money from possible from commercial partners, but also on picking sponsors that would reflect well on the club and make for stylish kits.
Opel were the choice for AC Milan and became the club’s iconic front of shirt sponsor from 1994-2006. The end of that sponsorship neatly dovetails into the next and final period of the Rossoneri’s commercial growth.
The online eras...
In 2006 AC Milan changed from Opel to Bwin, an Austrian online betting brand. That was a significant move as it heralded the shift away from classic consumer brands to modern, online alternatives.
Since then, AC Milan, like every other sports team on the planet have diversified their commercial offerings. Not only are front of shirt sponsors now sold, but also back of shirt and sleeve sponsors too. In addition to that the club has a number of official partners such as the previously mentioned Spribe.
The club’s modern approach was the recent partnership deal with Spribe – a global gambling company. As with all of their partnerships, AC Milan had to think carefully about who they engaged with. Spribe are the designers of Aviator, which has established itself as a global phenomenon, becoming the number one crash game worldwide with over 40 million active players globally.
The game is going from strength to strength, it was recently granted a licence from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, opening it up to a Canadian audience. Many of the best casino apps in Canada host the game, Casino.ca rank only from apps with more than 7,000 reviews on the app store so players can be confident they’re playing with a trusted provider.
Konami, BMW, Gatorade, Somari, Eneos and Cincoro Tequila are just a few of the global and regional partners that the club currently boasts. In the modern age exposure sells and almost nothing can boast the same exposure as a major European football team, albeit one that is struggling on the pitch at the moment.
