Stoke City will be playing at the bet365 Stadium for their Premier League matches from the start of the new 2016/17 season. The Potters have signed a six-year naming rights deal with the sports betting brand, whose bosses have owned the club for more than a decade.
Fans and commentators will have to get used to referring to the ground as ‘bet365 Stadium’ rather than the ‘Britannia Stadium’ and also a new look. It will be expanded to a capacity of over 30,000 seats in time for the new season. 
That’s an additional 1,800 seats that are being added to one of the corners of the ground of the bet365 Stadium. The developments on the expansion will mean that the area between the DPD and Marston’s Pedigree Stands will be filled in by builders.
Use of bet365 Stadium name a growing trend
The selling of naming rights on football grounds has become a worldwide trend as clubs try to maximise the limited amount of ways that a club can generate money to try and keep with the chasing pack. Stoke’s continuing partnership with the bet365 sees an additional extension of their shirt sponsorship agreement to three more years. More money in the coffers for the Potters there, too. Bet365 have been extremely successful with the growth of online sports betting during the last decade. The introduction of mobile betting on Android and iPhone Devices has certainly extended the company’s reach.
Other notable clubs who don’t have naming rights at their home grounds (yet) include Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane, Manchester United’s Old Trafford, Liverpool’s Anfield and Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. With ground moves for Spurs and Chelsea afoot, this is likely to change, though. In fact, Tottenham have already shown images of their new stadium with a “Naming Rights” placeholder. It makes a lot of sense for football clubs to do this, despite meaning that the traditional name of their home is sometimes lost.
After announcing the news of the name change, Stoke Chief Executive Tony Scholes commented: ‘The Premier League is constantly evolving and to ensure Stoke City remain as competitive as possible it’s important we explore as many ways as possible of generating revenue. As supporters are no doubt aware the Britannia brand no longer exists and it was important we attracted a new stadium naming rights partner.’
With the name change of the Britannia Stadium to the bet365 Stadium, Stoke have joined fellow Premier League clubs including Leicester City (King Power) Arsenal (Emirates), Manchester City (Etihad), Bournemouth (Vitality) in having one of their club’s main sponsors adorn the name of their home ground.
Bet365 is a local Stoke company and the Coates family have a long association with the club. Realistically, the Potters very likely would not be in the lofty position that they find themselves today without such support. John Coates, who is the joint chief executive of bet365 is also vice-chairman of Stoke City.
The previous sponsors of the newly renamed bet365 Stadium were Britannia but this is now no longer a brand since being taken over by the Co-operative Bank. Their ground sponsorship deal lasted for almost 20 years. Scholes said that the club felt that the ‘time was right’ to redevelop the corner of the ground between the DPD and Marston’s Pedigree Stands after long having the planning permission approved.
The Stoke-on-Trent success story of bet365 is the city’s largest private sector employer with around 3,000 employees. The Potters will be hoping that this timely boost in their revenue will help them to push higher up the Premier League table.
German has promised the Anfield faithful a title in the next four years. The weight of expectation will be enormous for the former Dortmund manager, but whether he can deliver three points at the weekend using the current Liverpool squad is debatable. Tottenham are arguably one of the form teams in the league at the moment, beating first-placed Manchester City in a 4-1 thriller recently. Liverpool are without captain Jordan Henderson and summer signings Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino whilst Spurs are without Son Heung Min and a few periphery players.
competition at will. News from Spain this week is suggesting that Barcelona are in big trouble, with many of their key players facing time on the side-lines with injuries. Summer signing Arda Turan is still not able to play for the Blaugrana and it’s being reported that Barca will petition the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn their transfer embargo in a last-ditch effort to bolster their squad. In spite of this, they’re heavy favourites to dispatch Rayo with ease and are priced 1/7 (1.14) to take the three points on Saturday. Suarez and Neymar are both expected to start and both find themselves short-priced to score in the encounter, with the Uruguayan coming in at 2/5 (1.40) and Neymar priced at 4/11 (1.36). Los Blancos will be lining up without the likes of Karim Benzema, James Rodriguez, Luka Modric and centre back pairing Ramos and Pepe which may leave Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez with a selection headache on Saturday. Regardless Real are 1/12 (1.083) to come through on the day and 13/8 (2.62) to do so with Levante managing to notch a consolation goal.
keen to maintain their 100% start in the league and they are 1/5 (1.20) to do so, with the aggregate score from their last three trips to the Weserstadion 13-0. Thomas Müller (pictured, right) has been in imperious form for Bayern this season, scoring 10 goals in 11 games in all competitions and he is 3/1 to score first on Saturday. Equally Robert Lewandowski is arguably one of the hottest properties in international football at the moment and his sensational performances this season have seen him net 16 goals in just 11 games in all competitions. With the mercurial Polish captain being in such staggering form, he is the favourite to open the scoring on Saturday at 2/1 (3.00).
now Sturridge has overtaken Torres and Suarez as Liverpool’s most prolific goal scorer in the Premier League era with a 0.65 goals per game ratio. Everton do feature in the Monday night fixture tonight but have done very well in the last month and do have the superior goals for and goals against record so far when compared to their rivals, with a 3-1 win over Chelsea a key highlight. They’ll look to cause further distress to an anxious Brendan Rodgers who will be desperate to avoid another defeat and he’ll be hoping that Christian Benteke (right) will be fully fit after his hamstring problems of late.
Arsenal are favourites for the tie and will be very pleased with Alexis Sanchez’s 
return to goal scoring ways following a brilliant hat-trick at the weekend, and he could well strike again now the flood gates have opened. United also secured a strong win at the weekend and currently top the Premier League table with the league’s joint-top defensive record, so it will be a true test for both sides who will look to continue recent form. Over 3.5 goals looks good value at 
Dortmund are 2nd in the chase however, but are 4 points shy of their rivals.
Sunday, but with Los Blancos so far undefeated in the league campaign and hungry to gain ground, it could be a very cagey affair. 2014/15 offered up 6 matches between the Madrid sides in all competitions extraordinarily, which led to 3 draws, 2 Atletico wins and 1 Real win in total; with an average of 1.6 goals per game. A 
rom the bookies. Here are the best ones we’ve found.
Paddy Power customers only. Aston Villa V Birmingham is being played at 19:45 Tuesday and there is an added sweetener of £300 in free bets for the rest of the Premier League Season too.
Sky Bet you can get this acca, as price boosts happen often there, and if you’re a new customer you can get the 
always a plus. This offer is looking to be excellent value, especially considering that the opposition against these two favourites is from the lower leagues.
including some woeful losses towards the end of last season as they dropped like a stone down the table, indicates a home win.
have not strengthened in their attack much and will hope that he stays fit for as long as possible until some backup arrives. Soldado and Adebayor surely must be leaving during this window.
nearly managed to pull off such a shock a couple of seasons back, only to fall agonisingly short. The Reds are at 20/1 which shows how wary the bookmakers are of them doing something special again.
injuries, suspensions, different conditions, bad luck etc. However, the top 3 or 4 teams always seem to have that extra bit of quality and squad depth that means that they’re able to win even though they aren’t on top form.