Entain Renews SportsAid Partnership

Global betting and gaming operator Entain has announced that its foundation has extended its long-term partnership with sports charity SportsAid. The agreement will secure valuable funding for the UK’s top young athletes preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Tokyo Paralympics is now well underway, although this year the public cannot attend in person due to COVID-19. ?Run 4 FFWPU/Pexels

Support for 2024 Olympics and Paralympics

The Entain Foundation has confirmed plans to double its financial backing of SportsAid. That will bring the sum of its financial commitment to around ￡500,000 by the time the Paris Games take place in 2024. The deal cements Entain’s position as one of the sports charity’s biggest corporate partners.

Roughly a quarter of the athletes that will receive backing through Entain and SportsAid are para-athletes hoping to compete in upcoming Paralympic Games. The 2024 Paralympic Games are set to take place in Paris, while the following Games in 2028 will happen in Los Angeles.

Recipients include some of the UK’s top para-athletes, such as table tennis player Craig Allen, wheelchair fencer Abigail Marshall, wheelchair basketball player Dylan Wade, and track and field stars Joel Clarke-Khan and Charles Dobson. Forty-eight of the SportsAid alumni representing Paralympics GB in Tokyo have received support from the charity since Rio 2016.

SportsAid is a UK charity that works to financially support future elite British athletes. It supports more than 1,000 athletes every year, mostly aged between twelve and eighteen. Since the charity’s launch in 1976, it has distributed over ￡50 million in awards to tens of thousands of athletes, including Sir Mo Farrah, Baroness Grey-Thompson and Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.

Entain is one of the world’s biggest betting and gaming groups, running brands like Coral, Ladbrokes, Foxy Bingo and Gala. It first partnered with SportsAid in 2018, and now supports more than fifty hopeful athletes every year, across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Each athlete receives an annual financial support, which helps them to cover the costs of training, travel, competitions and equipment. As part of its partnership with SportsAid, Entain has helped to distribute more than 150 athlete awards so far. Sponsorship and event fundraising has been key to reaching this goal.

SportsAid Winners

Bethany Shriever is just one of the British athletes to have benefitted from this support. She then went on to win a gold medal for BMX Supercross at the Tokyo Olympics, and has since been awarded the World title at the BMX World Championships.

A number of SportsAid recipients competed for Team GB across twenty different sports in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. In total they won fourteen gold medals, nineteen silver and fourteen bronze. That accounts for an impressive 72% of Team GB’s total medals won, beating Rio 2016’s medal count of 46.

Entain’s support for SportsAid has not only been financial. It has also worked alongside the charity to offer athletes with vital recognition and personal development opportunities. At the heart of its work has been the delivery of workshops for athletes and their parents and guardians.

These workshops provide the recipients with expert advice on topics ranging from nutrition and mental health, to handling media attention. Former 800m Paralympic gold medalist Danny Crates has praised the support that he received from SportsAid. Speaking in a press release, the world champion and former world record holder said:

“It’s the overall package offered by SportsAid which helps make such a difference to athletes – financial backing, recognition of talent, workshop support, personal development opportunities – and this has really been enhanced in recent years. The outstanding commitment of the charity’s partners, such as Entain, is vital to making that a reality and I’m delighted to see this relationship going from strength-to-strength.”

Crates went on to add that such support is essential in enabling talented young athletes to achieve their ambitions. CEO of SportsAid, Tim Lawler, also spoke about what the extension of the partnership means to SportsAid in practical terms. The coronavirus pandemic has made training and competing more difficult than ever for young athletes.

Tokyo Paralympics Underway

Entain’s renewed support will go a long way to securing the ambitions of the next generation of athletes hoping to participate in the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games in four years. Lawler also noted that thanks to the partnership, SportsAid has also benefitted from increased recognition and a wider audience.

Entain’s support for SportsAid stems from its Foundation’s multi-million-pound grassroots sports investment program. The program has also been instrumental in helping local football clubs via its “Pitching In” initiative, as well as backing Greek athletes through bwin’s Team Future program.

The news comes as the Paralympics is well underway in Tokyo. The celebrated event has finally begun after being postponed for a year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this year’s event is quite different to those of previous years. It is largely being held behind closed doors and no public spectators are permitted.

The dazzling opening ceremony took place on August 24th, with the theme “Moving Forward: We Have Wings”. The ceremony, which was broadcast around the world, featured dancers, musicians and performers. The Parade of Nations was also carried out at the Japan National Stadium, with the Refugee Paralympic Team leading the procession.

This year’s Paralympics also sees the introduction of two new sports to the timetable. Badminton and taekwondo are now on the program, in place of sailing and seven-a-side football. The first medals have already been awarded, and China is currently in the lead with the highest count. Shortly behind China are Great Britain and the Russian Paralympic Committee.

All this could change though, as the Paralympics will continue until September 5th. By then, a staggering 539 medal events will have taken place, and 1617 medals will have been awarded. So far, SportsAid alumni Sarah Storey has won gold for cycling in the Women’s C5 3,000m Individual Pursuit, while Crystal Lane-Wright, Adam Duggleby and Tully Kearney have won silvers and Toni Shaw a bronze medal.

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