European Football Sponsorship: Category Landscape Overview
Sponsorship in football, by definition, entails a collaborative arrangement between a football club and brand where the club offers its platform for promoting the brand in exchange of financial or in-kind support. SBI Barcelona discusses.
Sponsorship constitutes a significant share of the commercial revenue generated by the club. In a broad scope, clubs with global fan presence attract the bigger brands and subsequently highest financial returns. A club with more concentrated local presence, as a result, attracts attention from the local brands.
Sponsorship is worth billions in the football industry. As per a report by Astute Analytica, “global football sponsorship market was valued at $38.29bn in 2022 and is projected to reach a valuation of $55.37bn by 2031 at a CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period of 2023-2031”.
Sports sponsorship, if used effectively, is one of the most powerful avenues of brand marketing. Precisely why brands are investing millions in maximising the sports platform, from community-level football to the top-level professional sports. European Sponsorship Association, in its research ‘The 2024 ESA Sponsorship Market Overview’ with Nielsen Sports states that the total value of Europe’s sponsorship market is €30.86bn in 2023 out of which sport sponsorship sector is €22bn.
In today’s blog we look at the category of brands associated with European football as sponsor partners.
European Top Tier Leagues
Commercial revenue, a large part of which is through sponsorships, aggregate approximately €8.9bn in FY23 for the 700+ top tier league clubs in European football market that is almost 33% of the total revenue with a reported growth of about 16% over FY2022 as per the UEFA Club Finance & Licensing Report 2025.
In this domain, the front-of-shirt, kit and sleeve are the most coveted assets. So much so, that a rough calculation based on reported sponsorship deal values shows the combined value of front-of-shirt and kit sponsorships cover approximately 42% of the commercial revenue of the top ten revenue generating clubs! If you consider only shirt sponsor, then the value share is approximately 25%!
This leads to the question on the industry categories behind these key asset sponsorships. Like it or not in FY23, betting and gambling firms still account for the highest number of sponsorship deals, that is 15% of the total sponsorships although it has dropped from 23% recorded in FY22. That is how widespread betting and gambling sponsorships are. It’s worth noting here that in 2021/22, the value was 22%.
Countries where betting & gambling is the main shirt sponsor industry are:
– England
– Russia
– Netherlands
– Portugal
– Belgium
Starting from 2026/27 season, Premier League clubs have collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of clubs’ matchday shirts. That, however, does not include the sleeve and other forms of sponsorship. Leaving it to the readers to determine if the withdrawal would have any effect. Meanwhile, the juggernaut continues.
Other Key Sponsor Industries
While betting and gambling firms dominate in the front-of-shirt sponsorship deals but their representation share across top-tier European league clubs falls when the entire sponsorship assets are considered. They still manage to stay at the top of industry categories though covering 15% of all sponsorships in 2024/25! They are followed by retail, professional services, airlines & automotive and financial services who make the top five industry categories involved in sponsorships.
Other industry categories are:
– Food & Beverages – 10%
– Construction & real estate – 8%
– Industrial goods – 7%
– Telecommunications
– Energy – 5%
– Tourism – 4%
– Charity & Pharma form the last category covering 1% share each
Premier League
The English Premier League is one of the top leagues where betting and gambling sponsors rule the front-of-shirt asset with as many as 11 clubs (55%) have them in the 24/25 season. As mentioned above, starting from 2026/27 season, Premier League clubs have collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front-of-shirts spot, however they category is still open to look for other assets within the clubs. Financial services and airline categories form the other two key industries in the front-of-shirt space.
Kit sponsorship category is slightly more open with 7 brands covering the 24/25 clubs. Adidas leads with 7 deals followed by Nike and Umbro with 4 deals each and Puma with two. Castore, Macron and Sudu form the other three.
Sleeve sponsorship space is the most open with 12 industrial categories covering the clubs between them. Interestingly, brands in travel and tourism and the IT services category form the largest blocks with 4 clubs associated followed by brands in financial services & crypto category with 2 clubs each.
SBI’s Masters in Football Business Management program focuses extensively on sponsorships and activations having a dedicated module towards it with expert speakers giving real life case studies to illustrate the subject.
The 2025-26 edition of the program, beginning in October 2025, has been announced and in case the subject interests you and you’re looking at kickstarting your career growth in the football industry, please look at the programme details here
In Conclusion
Sponsorship is a calculated, planned and long-term investment made by the sponsor with a view to meet and fulfill organisational objectives. The value associated with sports sponsorship often goes beyond the tangible metrics with a view to increasing organisational values. Sanofi, one of the world’s biggest pharma companies, sponsored Paris Olympics to bring the employees closer and more connected with the brand.
As a result, the companies agree to the astronomical values associated with the front-of-shirt and kit sponsorship deals in the world’s most loved and followed game of football. It is then onto the sponsor and rights holder, acting in tandem, to create a base of planning and associated activations to leverage the sponsorships to create a success story.
Images: SBI Barcelona
