English football club Manchester United is about to sign a record-breaking £60 million shirt sponsorship deal with Mansion Poker. The poker site is owned by Putera Sampoerna, a former tobacco tycoon from Indonesia who sold his company to Philip Morris (Altria) in March last year for $5.2 billion.
The deal is expected to be signed early next week. Mansion Poker will replace Manchester United's current sponsor Vodafone. The four-year £60 million deal is the highest shirt sponsorship contract in the history of football, beating Chelsea's five-year £50 million contract with Samsung. The Guardian said Mansion beat stiff competition from Quatar Airlines.
Born as Liem Tien Pau in Schiedam, The Netherlands, Putera Sampoerna is one of Southeast Asia's richest people according to Forbes Magazine. Mr. Sampoerna joined his family's cigarette business HM Sampoerna in 1978 after finishing his studies in business management at the Houston University.
He guided the company to a successful flotation on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 1990, the first Indonesian cigarette company to do so. In March 2005, Philip Morris (Altria) acquired a 40 percent stake in the company for $5.2 billion.
Sampoerna is the owner of Mansion, an online casino, sportsbook and betting exchange operating from Gibraltar. Mansion Poker is part of Mansion and set to launch in early 2006. The deal with Manchester United is expected to boost Mansion's growth, especially in the Far East, where Manchester United is extremely popular.
Update: Mansion has terminated the negotiations with Manchester United because the club has been secretly discussing a similar deal with another company. Mansion is now now "actively seeking another major sponsorship deal in the English Premier League," according to a company spokesman.