FA 'to continue partnership with Bet365 despite government calls for cancelling'

The FA will continue their controversial streaming partnership with Bet365 until its conclusion in 2024 despite government calls on Wednesday for them to withdraw from the deal.

Sportsmail has been told that cancelling the contract — which allows the betting company to broadcast the majority of FA Cup ties online to fans while encouraging them to place bets — would cost the FA millions and leave them vulnerable to legal action from Bet365.

This would also have major implications for the funding they provide for grassroots football. Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan led calls for the FA to reconsider their position on Wednesday after the Daily Mail's exclusive story on Bet365, who provided a live broadcast of 22 of last weekend's 32 FA Cup third-round ties.

But the governing body's hands are tied by a deal that was agreed by their media rights partner IMG three years ago.

There are no contractual grounds for the FA to withdraw from the agreement, which has a number of other sub-licensees as well as Bet365, and doing so would land them with a hefty compensation bill of several million pounds.

The FA are a not-for-profit organisation who spend over £75million each year on grassroots, women's and disability football and are unwilling to jeopardise that investment despite the political fallout from the Bet365 agreement which led to numerous celebrities, including Gary Lineker, criticising them on Wednesday.

The controversial deal was agreed in January 2017, six months before the FA became the first governing body to terminate a sponsorship deal with their official betting partner Ladbrokes.

There are no plans to sell streaming rights to a betting company when the current six-year deal, which was part of a bigger package including global broadcast rights sold by IMG, expires in 2024.

The FA's other domestic broadcast partners, BBC and BT Sport, appeared relaxed regarding the Bet365 deal on Wednesday despite the potential for it to attract viewers from their own programming.

The viewing figures for the streaming service are understood to be modest, partially as a result of its poorer production quality and the heavy gambling promotion, with a wide range of odds offered on multiple different markets throughout all of the games.