Mark Bouris reveals how Eddie McGuire outwitted him over $1.6million deal to sponsor Collingwood   

‘He got me deluxe’: Famous businessman turned TV star Mark Bouris reveals how Eddie McGuire outwitted him over $1.6million deal to sponsor Collingwood

  • Multi-millionaire businessman Mark Bouris sponsored Collingwood in 2005 
  • He was outsmarted on the deal by former Magpies president Eddie McGuire
  • Bouris thought team wouldn’t make the finals, had to pay a bonus when they did 

Mark Bouris’s business skills have earned him a huge fortune and even TV stardom as the host of TV’s Celebrity Apprentice – but he was taught a lesson on the finer points of footy sponsorship deals by Eddie McGuire.

The high-flyer has revealed the former Collingwood president approached him about sponsoring the famous AFL club after a deal he had with the NRL fell through.

Bouris’s Wizard Home Loans business had been the naming rights sponsor for rugby league’s State of Origin series, which worked wonders for the company – but he baulked when the asking price went up to $1.2million.

Mark Bouris has made millions upon millions of dollars with his knack for doing great deals - but he met his match in Eddie McGuire

Mark Bouris has made millions upon millions of dollars with his knack for doing great deals – but he met his match in Eddie McGuire

Before Wizard signed the deal with Collingwood, then-president McGuire warned Bouris the price would go up if the lowly Magpies made the finals - and they did just that

Before Wizard signed the deal with Collingwood, then-president McGuire warned Bouris the price would go up if the lowly Magpies made the finals – and they did just that 

Enter McGuire, who kept at Bouris after he initially said he wasn’t interested in sponsoring he Magpies.

‘I said, ‘Where are you guys?’ [on the ladder] and he said, ‘Second last.’ The deal is $750,000, much cheaper than the State of Origin, but what you’ve got to do is pay a bonus if we get into the semis,”’ Bouris told the Herald Sun.

‘So I figured I’d be pretty safe considering the finished second last. Then the next year they finished in the grand final and it went from $1million to $1.6million.

‘Eddie got me deluxe.’

Bouris didn’t specify which year the deal was done in, but Wizard signed on as a tier-one sponsor with Collingwood in 2005 in a five-year agreement that was believed to be the biggest in Australian football at the time. 

Bouris figured he'd be 'pretty safe' when it came to his chances of having to pay out extra because the Magpies had finished second last that year

Bouris figured he’d be ‘pretty safe’ when it came to his chances of having to pay out extra because the Magpies had finished second last that year

That year the Magpies finished second last, winning just five of 22 games and emerged victorious in just one of their first eight matches.

In 2006 they rocketed up the ladder to finish fifth – but instead of making the grand final, they lost to the Western Bulldogs in the first week of the finals series and their year was finished. 

They next made the year’s biggest game in 2010, when they tied with St Kilda before beating them in the grand final replay.

‘It is an absolute privilege to be associated with Wizard Home Loans, one of the great success stories of Australian business,’ Mr McGuire said when the deal was done.

No wonder he felt so good about it.  

source: dailymail.co.uk