Liverpool FC is being sued for more than £1 million commission over a £15million deal with BetVictor to sponsor the team’s training kit.

Sports sponsorship firm Winlink claims the Premier League leaders owe £1.125 million, because one of its senior executives introduced club officials to their contacts at BetVictor in 2013.

Winlink says it was “heavily engaged over a number of years in securing a successful introduction… and in assisting to bring about a sponsorship deal”, which led to a £5-million-a year deal for three seasons between 2016/17 to 2018/19.

But Liverpool say their head of global partnership sales, Rafaella Valentino, “personally negotiated the deal with BetVictor’s CEO, her friend Andreas Meinrad”, shortly after she joined the club in late 2015, and that Winlink’s introduction was not the cause of the deal.

At a remote High Court trial starting on Monday, Winlink’s barrister Andrew Sutcliffe, QC, said Winlink “spent significant time and effort in building the relationship between Liverpool and BetVictor”.