Unibet hails enthralling FIDE World Chess showdown

Unibet hails enthralling FIDE World Chess showdown

The unprecedented success of this November’s Fide World Chess Championship match between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen vs American Fabiano Caruana – has been branded as one of Unibet’s most successful sports sponsorships.

Following 51-hours of play featuring 12 drawn matches, FIDE’s London event has been labelled by chess aficionados as the sport’s ‘tour de force’, rivalling the all-time classic matches of Bobby Fischer Vs Boris Spassky (1972) and Anatoly Karpov vs Garry Kasparov (1985).

Going down to the wire, with the Championship decided through a ‘time-limited – tie-break’, Magnus Carlsen retains his title of FIDE World Champion for a further two-years.

Last August, Unibet marketing raised eyebrows announcing that it had become the first betting partner for FIDE’s World Championship event, as sports betting rivals raced to secure football partnerships, following World Cup Russia 2018.

Backing the sponsorship, Unibet marketing stated that it was confident that the London showdown would establish chess as a permanent fixture for betting.

Furthermore, seeking to engage with chess’ unique audiences, Unibet supported its sponsorship by developing the most comprehensive betting market for the sport featuring markets such as first move, next move, game points and winner.

Backing an unknown horse, Unibet’s comprehensive efforts paid-off, with FIDE’s World Championship securing November’s highest sports coverage, through digital mediums.

In addition, drawing in daily global press coverage, Carlsen vs Caruana would garner front-page headlines, with the event being described as a ‘chess grand opus’ and ‘being trapped in a glass cage of emotions’.

Anthony Cousins Head of Sportsbook Commercial Relations at Kindred Group comments on the FIDE sponsorship:

“When Magnus Carlsen retained his World Title in 2016 we saw a record amount of turnover for a Chess competition. That competition went to a tiebreak and with that repeated this year, we are once again on track for some record-breaking figures which have been boosted thanks to our sponsorship.

This has been another successful Chess sponsorship for Unibet on an event with excellent exposure which strengthens our brand across our global markets. “


Source: SBC News