Burnley Cancels Finotive One Deal, Vertu Motors Steps In

Burnley’s new season has not yet kicked off, but they have already made their first big tackle — on their own shirt sponsor.

Just 42 days after announcing a deal with Finotive One, a company that bills itself as a “trading ecosystem”, the club has ripped up the contract and rushed in a replacement. It is an extraordinary late U-turn that leaves the marketing department scrambling and the fans queuing for refunds.

The club has not explained the detail of what went wrong or why the agreement collapsed so quickly. What is clear is that it will not be cheap. Burnley are offering full refunds or exchanges to supporters who bought the 2026-27 home or away shirts with Finotive One on the front.

Only a fortnight ago, that new cream away kit had been launched with huge fanfare. The club rolled out a glossy, star-studded promotional video featuring minority investor and former NFL player JJ Watt, ex-England fast bowler James Anderson and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was designed to make a splash. Now it is redundant.

The video has been rendered obsolete almost overnight. Shirts have been pulled from the club’s website. They will not be on sale in the club shop before Sunday’s Premier League opener at Turf Moor against West Ham United.

Some supporters will tuck the Finotive-branded tops away as curios, early contenders for the “what on earth happened there?” section of future memorabilia collections. Most are expected to swap them for the new version carrying the logo of Vertu Motors, the UK-wide car dealership that has stepped into the gap.

The first hints of trouble surfaced on Thursday. Sky Sports’ promo for Sunday’s game showed Kyle Walker in a Burnley shirt with no sponsor across the chest. That jarred. Burnley had worn Finotive One on their kits throughout pre-season.

Even last Saturday, in the Carabao Cup first-round tie at home to Notts County, the Finotive logo was still emblazoned across the jersey. On the surface, everything looked normal.

Then fans noticed that every news story about the Finotive One partnership had quietly vanished from Burnley’s official website. By Friday morning, the club confirmed what many had already guessed: the deal was off.

In a short statement, Burnley said the agreement had been terminated “to protect the club’s interests, and those of our supporters”.

This is not the first time the Lancashire club have found themselves in a mess over front-of-shirt sponsorship.

LoveBet, an Asian betting brand, had signed a three-year contract but disappeared from the shirts after just two seasons when the company ran into financial trouble. That change came soon after AIK Capital completed their takeover of the club in December 2020.

Facing criticism over the club’s close ties to gambling, new chairman Alan Pace took to X to promise a review. He said the issue would be examined “as part of the overall commercial strategy for the club”, while warning there might be “historic contractual obligations” that could not be unwound immediately.

The words pointed to a shift. The reality has been different. Throughout the AIK Capital era, betting companies have dominated Burnley’s shirt deals.

Aside from a single-season agreement with Classic Football Shirts in 2022-23, every front-of-shirt sponsor under the current ownership has been linked to gambling — until now.

LoveBet gave way to SpreadEx, a fixed odds and spread betting firm. After the one-year detour with Classic Football Shirts, Philippines-based gambling operator W88 took the space. In 2024, Burnley signed a controversial two-year deal with 96.com, a betting website operated by TGP Europe.

That relationship drew the eye of regulators. Last year, the Gambling Commission issued warnings to Burnley and three other clubs over links to sites run by TGP Europe, which had surrendered its British gambling licence. Investigators concluded TGP Europe had failed to “carry out sufficient checks on business partners” and had breached “anti-money laundering rules”.

Trying to move away from 96.com, Burnley opted for something different. Finotive One, a Cyprus-registered business, describes itself as an “all-in-one ecosystem” for traders. Very little was publicly known about how it worked or who it served, but on paper the agreement looked like the most lucrative on offer.

Six weeks later, it has gone.

With the clock ticking towards the opening weekend, Burnley have turned to a familiar name. Vertu Motors, which has been a club partner since 2022, has stepped up to take over as front-of-shirt sponsor.

The terms of the new arrangement have not been disclosed, but Burnley’s bargaining position at this late stage would have been weak. The club has lost a headline deal, taken a financial hit on stock and marketing, and endured an avoidable public embarrassment.

For now, the claret shirts will carry a more conventional brand, backed by a company with an established UK footprint. After a chaotic summer in the commercial department, the question is simple: does this finally mark a clean break from the turbulence that has dogged Burnley’s shirt deals, or just the latest twist in a saga they cannot seem to escape?