“I like to wind people up” – Derek Beaumont on reasons behind Leigh Leopards rebrand

One of the biggest stories going into the 2023 Super League season has been the rebrand of Leigh Centurions as the Leigh Leopard.

The mastermind behind this was owner Derek Beaumont who also spearheaded the club’s amazing recruitment in the off-season bringing in the likes of Zak Hardaker and Ricky Leutele.

Speaking on Talksport, Beaumont revealed the reasons behind the bold decision to rebrand the club ahead of their return to Super League.

He said: “It is a big step, if you stay stationary you go backwards. People think it was just on a whim but it wasn’t.

“A lot of research and work has gone into it. It did birth from just wearing a hoody and someone mentioning it getting a lot of media coverage a guy in his 50s in Leopard print.

“I like to wind people up, so we said let’s have a look at that.

“Really speaking the people we thought would be really bothered by it the older generation weren’t really bothered. They weren’t always Centurions.

“Really from a commercial point of view, there is a lot of eyes on the sport with IMG and if they’re going to pick 12 clubs we look too similar to our neighbours Wigan.

“You see everywhere, everyone wearing leopard print are getting asked, are you a Leigh fan? People are not wearing leopard print because they’re not wanting to be seen as a Leigh thing.

“The good thing with it is you can use a lot of colours with it, you can utilise different colours, red is our colour so is still in there.”

The Leopards make their big return to Super League with a battle against last year’s semi-finalists Salford Red Devils.

Scouting For Girls will be performing at the game.