Betfair's Cash for Clubs awards its first grants

Other / Editor / 19 March 2008 / Leave a Comment

Five sports clubs in East Anglia land £1,000 jackpots as Betfair rolls out its new charity scheme

Cash for Clubs is an exciting new scheme developed by Betfair to help community sports clubs throughout the country raise vital funds for their club.

This is a unique chance for clubs to raise the money they need to improve facilities, purchase new equipment, improve coaching and staff qualifications, and nurture young talent. As a major supporter of SportsAid, the charity helping the next generation of young British talent to succeed, Betfair understands the importance of community sport in developing teamwork and promoting an active lifestyle, and therefore the need to sustain and develop clubs and facilities.

Over the last month, East Anglian Daily Times readers have had the opportunity to enter a competition to win five jackpots of £1,000 for their sports club. Over 70 individual clubs applied for a grant during this period.

There were many deserving organisations in Suffolk and Essex but after much deliberation the winners and their worthy causes were:

• Pipers Vale Gymnastics Club, who are in desperate need of funds to replace broken equipment
• Ipswich Basketball Club, who are looking to form a women's basketball team
• Deben Swimming Club, who need extra cash to develop Mini Polo at the club
• Colchester Rovers Cycling Club, who would like to purchase new bikes for their grass track sessions and enable more children to try cycling safely
• East Anglian Sailing Trust, who need to kit out a new boat with the right safety and communications equipment and enable more people with disabilities to have access to sailing.

Georgina Hard of Betfair said: "Cash for Clubs has proved really popular in East Anglia and the money awarded to these five very deserving clubs will hopefully make a huge difference.

"Betfair is passionate about sport at all levels. We are delighted to be able to make such a commitment to supporting the development of community sport and we look forward to seeing how his impacts the organisations and their wider communities."

Cash for Clubs will now be rolled out by Betfair across the UK so that clubs outside of Suffolk and Essex have a chance to apply for a similar pot of money.

Betfair has also changed its Refer and Earn programme to make it easier for clubs to earn money by introducing someone new to Betfair or Betfair poker. 'Refer friends and club members and earn money for your club as they bet.'

To find out more about Cash for Clubs visit www.cash-4-clubs.com.