South Korean casino operator Paradise Co has hired Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho as the face of its new advertising campaign.
It is hoped that Mourinho, who replaces Robert De Niro as brand ambassador, will help the casino to attract more Chinese customers.
“The growing interest in football in China and the fact that a significant number of casino customers are Chinese was the main reason behind naming Mourinho as the model,” said Paradise in a statement.
The company has also joined with Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings to construct a $1.7bn casino resort in the coastal city of Incheon, due to be completed in 2017.
It expects to attract 160,000 visitors a day, of which most are likely to be Chinese.
The number of Chinese tourists to South Korea surged 52.5 per cent to 4.3 million last year, according to the Korea Tourism Organsation.
However Paradise faces steep competition from operators such as Genting Singapore and Caesars Entertaiment Corp, which are attempting to build their own tourist-focused resorts in South Korea.
Gaming revenues in South Korea reached $2.7bn in 2013 according to research house CIMB, which was slightly higher than in the Philippines at $2.6bn.
However both Singapore and the Chinese Territory of Macau eclipsed those figures achieving $6.4bn and $45bn respectively.
