Online sports betting and gaming brand VBET announced today it entered into a partnership deal with the Ukrainian Ice Hockey Federation (FHU) to become title sponsor of the Ukrainian national ice hockey team.
Restoring Popularity of Ice Hockey
Under the terms of the sponsorship deal, VBET and the FHU will collaborate to restore the status of ice hockey as one of the most popular sports in the country and to attract new young and inspired fans by building the national team brand.
With our new partner VBET we are determined to make a new brand of the Ukrainian national ice hockey team. We have plenty of ideas just waiting for their time. I think this partnership will bring us quite high results.”
Heorhii Zubko, President, FHU
The men’s national ice hockey team of Ukraine has a history dating back to the World Championship in 1993, when it first competed separate from the former Soviet Union team. However, it has not achieved much on the global scene since then, despite its huge potential.
Ukrainian head of partnerships at VBET Anton Svitlychnyi outlined the country’s national ice hockey team is a coveted partnership target for many companies operating in the gaming industry, yet VBET grabbed the chance to become the title sponsor of the team.
[As] our partnership begins we present our collaborative video starring key players of the national team. We hope that with the new partnership, great victories and new challenges are waiting for our team.”
Anton Svitlychnyi, Head of Partnerships, VBET
Presence in Soccer
The agreement with FHU is set to expand the presence of VBET in Ukraine further and follows previous partnerships the BetConstruct-owned brand signed with the Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) for the Super Cup and the league championship.
In June, the gaming brand signed an agreement with the UPL to become title sponsor of the 2021 Ukraine Super Cup match between 2020/2021 UPL and Cup champions Dynamo Kyiv and UPL runners-up Shakhtar Donetsk, and the one-match competition was renamed to 2021 VBET Super Cup.
A month later, the partnership between VBET and the UPL deepened after a 3-year deal made the online sports betting and gaming brand title sponsor of the league, which in turn took the name the VBET League and adopted a new logo to fit its new identity and sponsor.
Both agreements with the UPL were signed after the Armenian sports betting and online casino operator received approval to operate online casino and poker from the Ukraine gambling regulatory body KRAIL in May, and became the first licensed poker operator in the country.