Burnley Cancels Finotive One Deal, Vertu Motors Steps In

Burnley’s new season has not even started and already their shirts tell a different story.

Just 42 days after announcing Finotive One as their front-of-shirt sponsor, the club have torn up the agreement and turned instead to long-term partner Vertu Motors. The timing could hardly be more chaotic: two days before West Ham United visit Turf Moor for the Premier League opener, the club are scrambling to replace a brand they had only just paraded.

Supporters who bought the 2026-27 home and away kits emblazoned with Finotive One have been offered full refunds or exchanges. Some may hang on to them as curiosities from a deal that barely made it out of pre-season. Most are expected to trade them in for the new Vertu-branded version.

Only a fortnight ago, Burnley had rolled out a lavish launch for their cream away shirt. A slick, big-budget video featured minority investor and former NFL star JJ Watt, England cricket great James Anderson and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was meant to set the tone for a bold commercial era. Instead, that promo is already obsolete, pulled along with the shirts from the club’s online store. They will not be on sale at the ground on Sunday.

The first hints of trouble came from the TV trailers, not the boardroom.

On Thursday, sharp-eyed fans noticed Sky Sports’ promo for the West Ham game showed Kyle Walker in a sponsorless Burnley shirt. Odd, given Vincent Kompany’s side had worn Finotive One across their chests throughout pre-season. As recently as last Saturday, in the Carabao Cup first-round tie against Notts County, the logo was still front and centre.

Then the digital trail began to vanish. Articles announcing the Finotive One partnership quietly disappeared from Burnley’s official website. By Friday morning, the club could no longer keep the lid on it.

In a brief statement, Burnley confirmed the deal had been scrapped “to protect the club’s interests, and those of our supporters”. No further explanation, no detail on the trigger. But walking away from a freshly signed shirt deal so close to kick-off will not come cheap.

This is not new territory for Burnley. Shirt sponsors have become a recurring headache.

LoveBet, an Asian betting company, agreed a three-year deal only to disappear after two seasons when it hit financial trouble. That exit came in the wake of AIK Capital’s takeover in December 2020, a moment that was supposed to reset the club’s commercial outlook.

Facing criticism over the club’s heavy reliance on gambling money, new chairman Alan Pace took to X to promise a review of sponsorship strategy, admitting there were “historic contractual obligations” but pledging to examine the issue with his team.

The reality since then has been very different. With the exception of a single-season partnership with Classic Football Shirts in 2022-23, every main shirt sponsor under AIK Capital has been linked to betting.

• LoveBet gave way to SpreadEx, a fixed-odds and spread-betting firm.
• After the brief detour with Classic Football Shirts, Philippines-based gambling company W88 took over.
• In 2024 came a controversial two-year agreement with 96.com, a betting website run by TGP Europe.

That tie-up drew the attention of the Gambling Commission. Last year, Burnley and three other clubs were warned over their links to sites operated by TGP Europe, which had surrendered its British gambling licence. Investigators concluded TGP Europe had failed to carry out proper checks on its business partners and had breached anti-money laundering rules.

Trying to move away from that minefield, Burnley took a different path in replacing 96.com.

Finotive One, registered in Cyprus, billed itself as an “all-in-one ecosystem” for traders, a kind of trading hub rather than a traditional bookmaker. Little was publicly known about its operations or its customer base, but on paper the numbers appealed. It looked the most lucrative offer on the table.

Six weeks later, the club have walked away from it.

Into the gap steps Vertu Motors, a UK-wide car dealership that has been a commercial partner of Burnley since 2022. Vertu’s move from secondary partner to front-of-shirt saviour has stabilised the immediate situation, but at a cost. Negotiating at the last minute, with the season days away and one deal already ripped up, Burnley could not possibly have held the strongest hand.

The club now carry a new logo into Sunday’s opener. The question is what the revolving door of sponsors says about their broader strategy – and how long it will be before the name on the front of the shirt finally stays put.