Kindred has shown its support to Middlesbrough FC’s MFC Foundation by donating its front-of-shirt sponsorship to the charity organisation.
Usually branded with the Unibet logo, Middlesbrough’s kit will instead promote the work of the MFC Foundation across Teesside during their upcoming Championship game against Hull City on 30 November.
The move is part of the club’s ‘Foundation Weekend’, which aims to “highlight the foundation’s life-changing work for participants of all ages in the local community”.
‘Think With Your Feet’
As part of its sponsorship of Middlesbrough through its Unibet brand, Kindred supports the MFC Foundation’s ‘Think With Your Feet’ – a programme that enables men to meet, play football and discuss their mental health issues.
Earlier this season, the club released a video in partnership with Kindred which saw Isaiah Jones – ‘Boro’s mental health ambassador – sit down with a group of participants from the course and talk about their experience with mental health problems.
The winger told the group: “Because we’re men, we don’t like to talk about our emotions and how vulnerable we are. But I think it gets to a certain point in life where you have to talk. [Either] with family or friends or a specialist that deals with those types of things.
“I feel once you talk about what you’re going through you eventually see the light which happened to me.”
Zero% mission
Alongside the Unibet logo, Middlesbrough’s usual matchday kit also features branding for Kindred’s Zero% mission, which seeks to ensure that Kindred derives 0% of its revenue from harmful gambling.
Per Kindred’s latest financial reports, its gross winnings revenue from high-risk players was 3.2%
Earlier this month, Kindred’s Head of UK Marketing, Adam Gaskell, outlined how the operator is promoting its mission through its sponsorship of teams like Middlesbrough and Rangers on the latest episode of Footprints in the Market.
He said: “By using the 0% mission, we’ve been able to open up the conversation on safer gambling with friends, fans and punters more easily.
“It’s on the front of shirts and in the front of people’s minds. We know fans are quite inquisitive about what it means and when we are able to explain to them what our initiative is, it’s a great conversation for us to have.
“It’s something that we’re very proud of and we feel like it’s a great initiative and it’s something for us to really champion and go out there and use as part of our sponsorship.”
