Walker Morris advises Carabao on English Football League Cup sponsorship
8th December 2016
Sports law team reinforces expertise with major competition title sponsorship deal
A team of specialist sports lawyers at Walker Morris have advised the energy drinks company, Carabao Venture (Holdings) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., the European subsidiary of Carabao Group PLC from Thailand, on its three-year title sponsorship of the English Football League (EFL) Cup.
The sponsorship will begin in June at the start of the 2017/18 season. As part of the sponsorship deal, Carabao will see its brand colours adorn the ribbons of the trophy, the match ball, perimeter boards at every match across all stadiums and backdrops for every pre and post-match interview.
The Sports Team acted alongside James Crayton from the Commercial Team in providing legal support to Carabao.
The deal, worth tens of millions of pounds, adds to the number of sports-related commercial agreements that Walker Morris have worked on over the past few years. The team regularly work on Premier League Station Naming Rights Deals, Premier League Shirt Sponsorship Deals and Premier League Kit Supply Agreements, as well as agreements for EFL clients.
Pairoj Piempongsant, Chairman of Carabao added:
“The EFL Cup embodies the very essence of British football consciousness. All 92 clubs in the country competing in the first major cup competition of the season, culminating in the final at Wembley. The EFL Carabao partnership represents a unique platform to expand the Carabao brand nationally and globally; and thus leveraging the universal “fighting spirit” of football with a truly powerful global platform that will bring new awareness to the EFL internationally, while also establishing Carabao as a major player in the global energy drinks market. Walker Morris provided real added value throughout the process, as well as providing commercially-focussed, pragmatic advice throughout.”
The Sports Team added:
“We are delighted to have advised Carabao on their recent sponsorship agreement. This marks the latest in a number of sports-related commercial agreements that the Walker Morris team has completed and helps to reinforce our commercial sports offering.”
The Walker Morris Sports Team is ranked as a tier 1 practice in Legal 500 and has won a number of awards including: Global Awards, CorpLiveWire 2016 Sports Law Firm of the Year and Acquisition International Legal Awards 2016 Best Sports Focused M&A Team.
