A STREAMING service is bringing a slice of “Roy family dysfunctionality” to Scotland with a Succession-inspired football takeover in Edinburgh.
In the previous season of the show, Roman Roy bought Scottish football club Hearts to impress his father Logan (Brian Cox, below), only to discover that his billionaire dad is actually a fan of Hearts’ big cross-city rivals, Hibernian.
Sky-operated streamer NOW has worked with Hearts on a partnership celebrating Roman Roy’s fictional takeover of the team.
It sees the name of the Roy family’s infamous company Waystar Royco added to the front of Hearts’ shirts, as well as on branding within the club’s Tynecastle Park stadium.
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The limited-edition Succession-inspired shirts were unveiled by manager Robbie Neilson and players John Souttar, Ben Woodburn, Stephen Kingsley and Beni Baningime.
Neilson said: “The club has been so excited to feature in one of the main storylines of one the biggest TV shows on the planet.
“Just like the Roy children in Succession, we’re a club battling for the one place at the very top.
“Unlike the Roys though, we know we can only get there by working together.”
This partnership marks a world first – the first time ever that the front of a major professional football team’s shirt has been sponsored by a fictional company.
Citing “the Roy family’s love of all things exclusive”, only 95 of the Waystar-branded shirts have been created, meaning the only way to get one is to follow NOW on its social media pages.
Jamie Schwartz, director of brand, marketing and merchandising at NOW, said: “We want as many people as possible to enjoy amazing, critically acclaimed shows like Succession on NOW.
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“This partnership with Hearts FC is a great way of celebrating the show in a way that fans will love and that also raises awareness of this must-watch content among a completely new audience.”
Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinley said: “We love watching the Hearts-related storylines in the show, although we’re quite thankful not to have any members of the Roy family running the club in real life!
“Brian and Kieran are always welcome in the director’s box at Tynecastle as a guest of the real owners of the club – the fans.”
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