Winamax is a French gambling company. Its product offering includes

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

and

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

. In 1999, Winamax was originally founded as

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

Sponsorship

Until the summer of 2015, Winamax was the main shirt sponsor of

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), abbreviated as A.S.S.E. () and commonly known as Saint-Étienne, is a French professional football club based in Saint-Étienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The club was founded in 1933 and competes ...

. The company became main shirt sponsor of

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

in 2019 and renewed the contract with the club in 2020 for another two years. In 2020, Winamax signed a three-year deal as sponsor for the front of the away shirts and the back of the home shirts of

RC Strasbourg Alsace Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace, commonly known as RC Strasbourg (, ; RCS) or simply just Racing, is a football in France, French professional association football club founded in 1906 and based in the city of Strasbourg, Alsace. It became a p ...

. From August 2021 to January 2022 Winamax was the main shirt sponsor of

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux () or simply Bordeaux, is a French Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (department), Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitain ...

. Winamax briefly sponsored the French soccer club

as the main shirt sponsor during

2021–22 Ligue 1 The 2021–22 Ligue 1 season, also known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, was a French association football tournament within Ligue 1. It was the 84th season since its establishment. It began on 6 August 2021 and concluded on 21 May ...

season. The club ceased the partnership after gambling brand made posts on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that were considered to be mocking the club's performance that season. In the 2022–23 season, the company was main shirt sponsor of

ES Troyes AC Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (ESTAC), commonly known as Troyes, is a French professional association football club based in Troyes that competes in Ligue 2. It plays its home matches at the Stade de l'Aube. Founded in 1986, it is ...

. On 3 August 2023, Winamax signed a three-year deal as main shirt sponsor with

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

. In July 2024, the German club announced the early termination of the contract with Winamax for the summer of 2025. Before winning the

2024–25 DFB-Pokal The 2024–25 DFB-Pokal was the 82nd season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 16 Au ...

, Stuttgart announced a last-minute sponsor swap and the premature removal of the Winamax brand from their jersey for the

2025 DFB-Pokal final The 2025 DFB-Pokal final decided the winner of the 2024–25 DFB-Pokal, the 82nd season of the annual German football cup competition. The match was played on 24 May 2025 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The match featured Arminia Bielefeld, a ...

, stating that this decision was necessary from a business perspective. In June 2025, VfB Stuttgart took legal action against the sponsor, arguing that Winamax suspended payments in spring 2025 and still didn't pay after numerous reminders.

References

External links

* {{Official website Online gambling companies Gambling companies of France Online poker companies French companies established in 1999 Gambling companies established in 1999 Internet properties established in 1999 Companies based in Paris