Allianz and Saracens RFC have announced that their successful sponsorship partnership will continue until at least 2021..

The original six year deal was announced in July 2012 and this was followed by the official opening of Allianz Park as the club’s home ground in January 2013.

The home of Saracens is part of the Allianz Group's roster of stadiums which currently includes seven stadia around the world, growing to eight in 2019. Allianz says that it believes that access to local stadia and their facilities helps people move on and up in life - the Saracens Sport Foundation holds many events at Allianz Park in support of community activities.

Since the beginning of the sponsorship, the Saracens team has achieved considerable success, including winning the Premiership and Anglo Welsh Cup double in 2014/15 and winning the Premiership and a first-ever European Champions Cup in 2015/16 (which the club retained in an exciting final at Murrayfield the following season).

Saracens' achievements both domestically and in Europe have generated coverage across a variety of media and, says the company, this has helped to grow the profile of the Allianz brand in the UK.

(The success of the team and the growth of the Allianz companies in the UK seem to be well aligned: Allianz has recently announced a £713m joint venture agreement with LV= to create the third largest personal insurer in the UK).

Jon Dye, CEO of Allianz Insurance, said: "There is an excellent cultural alignment between ourselves and Saracens so I am delighted we are continuing our relationship. We are both achieving considerable success in highly competitive environments and our shared belief that this is only achieved through our people is another example of the good fit that exists between us".

Saracens Chairman, Nigel Wray, was equally upbeat: "We are delighted to renew our sponsorship and indeed our partnership with Allianz, one of the world's great companies, who share our values and our desire to really mean something in our community. There's so much more to do and with Allianz we will be doing it!"