While the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is set to extend its controversial sponsorship of its marquee tournament Hundred with a fast food company, the yet-to-be-announced decision will face challenges. As reported by The Guardian, the ECB is set to extend Hundred’s £4m contract with KP Snacks, one of the UK’s biggest fast food companies, for another five years.
“The Guardian has learned that talks between the ECB and KP are at an advanced stage for a deal that will see brands such as Hula Hoops, McCoy’s, Tyrells and Butterkist promoted on players’ shirts for a further four years. The original KP deal was worth around £4m to the ECB over five years. Theo and the company want to extend on equal terms,” The Guardian reported.
The Hundred, the ECB’s innovative format where each team faces 100 teams, was launched in 2019 but the first edition of the tournament was delayed to 2021 due to Covid-19. Although the tournament has seen four seasons, the ECB announced a £4 million sponsorship deal with KP Snacks in 2019. The past four seasons have featured KP Snacks brands such as Hula Hoops, McCoy’s, Tyrells and Butterkist on the eight men’s participating teams. and women’s competitions. According to The Guardian, the new sponsorship deal will also not be affected by the pre-9pm ban on junk food ads, which comes into effect in October 2025. Hundreds of games are played during the afternoon and evening to target families and youth audiences. . According to the newspaper, a loophole in the law allows fast food and snacks ads to not feature the actual products. “The ECB faced strong criticism from health campaigners and MPs when an initial five-year deal with KP as title sponsor of the Hundred was announced in 2019, six months before the tournament’s planned start, which was delayed until 2021 by the Covid-19 pandemic. Short The format was specifically designed by the ECB to appeal to children and was marketed to families with considerable success, as research by the board after the first season in 2021 showed that of all tickets 19% were sold to children, and 55% of ticket buyers had never bought a ticket for cricket in this country before,” the report added.
The ECB is already in the process of selling its 49 percent stake in the tournament’s eight franchises and the second round of a three-part bidding process will close on Monday with bidders including the Ambanis, owners of IPL side Mumbai Indians, India and Knighthead Capital. Owners of the City of Birmingham. Earlier in 2019, the Obesity Health Alliance criticized the agreement. “Junk food brands sponsoring sporting events is another way to ensure that their unhealthy products are focused on children’s minds.” the watchdog said in a statement.
In 2022, ECB and KP Foods were embroiled in a dispute after an email sent by ECB to its mailing list and a KP Foods Instagram ad about a chance to win Hundred tickets were found to be in breach of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) code. . According to the BBC, the ad was sent to an ECB mailing list of 29,276 ticket buyers, 326 of whom were under the age of 16. The email contained logs from The Hundred and KP Brand McCoys and Originals. “The email, banned by the ASA, contained The Hundred and KP brand McCoy’s logos and carried the text “We have teamed up with Manchester Original’s official team partner McCoy to offer you the opportunity to claim a free bat and ball. Celebrating The Hundred” reported the BBC.
The ASA posted two complaints which it acted on. “We have asked the England and Wales Cricket Board Limited and KP Snacks Limited to take appropriate steps to ensure that future advertisements for HFSS (foods high in fat, salt and sugar) products do not target children through media selection or reference. As they appear,” the ad said. The Standards Authority said in a statement in 2022.