BetFred Get Behind Manchester Charity Walk

Sponsorship by betting companies has received a fair amount of negative press in recent weeks so it’s good to report on something from a far more positive angle. As a long established brand, BetFred have been involved in many partnerships in the past but the company have moved away from sport in their latest venture by backing a charity walk in their native Manchester.

The Manchester Midnight Walk is an annual event, featuring a night of entertainment with proceeds going to St Ann’s Hospice in the city. This year, the Walk takes place on Friday April 27 and the input from BetFred will hopefully give the entire evening a huge boost.

Need

As Chief Executive of St Ann’s Eamonn O’Neal explained,

We’re a charity and need to raise thousands of pounds every day to ensure we can continue to provide care to our patients and their families.

We can only continue to do so thanks to the generosity of local people and we’re incredibly thankful to BetFred for agreeing to be our headline sponsor for this year’s Manchester Midnight Walk.

Speaking on behalf of BetFred, Natalie Bradford added:

St Ann’s Hospice is an amazing charity doing fantastic work for our local communities every day.

For BetFred to be a part of their biggest fundraiser is an honour and something we are really looking forward to, both as sponsors and participants.

Events

The walk itself is 12 years old this year and for 2018 it has a new venue for the pre-walk warm up with ramblers starting from the city’s Cathedral. The night promises lots of events with what Eamonn O’Neal refers to as a ‘cheesy disco theme’ and people are encouraged to get down early in time for opening at 9pm.

All of this builds up to the main theme of the evening which is the Midnight Walk itself, which is a 10km stroll under the moonlight. Participants have to register and there is a link for this on the charity’s official website.

Good Press

The whole issue of gambling sponsorship has received a lot of negative coverage in recent weeks and this seems to have been started, somewhat ironically, by SkyBet’s decision to place responsible betting messages on player’s sleeves following the extension of their contract with the English Football League.

Since then, a number of clubs at amateur level have refused to take money from sponsorship deals of this kind and the debate shows no signs of slowing down. With that in mind, it’s really positive to see BetFred getting behind a charity that is so important for the city of Manchester and therefore gives us some good news for a change.

They aren’t alone and Betway, who are the main partners to West Ham United, are another sponsor who do great work in the local community and therefore does more than simply throw money at a club.

Overall, it’s well done to BetFred and their input can best be summed up once again by Eamonn O’Neal of St Ann’s:

Fred and everyone at Betfred have been so generous in their time and support of the hospice in recent months and years, and it’s always great to be working alongside them. Huge thanks to all of them for their support on behalf of our patients and their families.