Premier League shirt sponsorship leader in Europe

Thu 28th Oct 2010 | Football Sponsorship

Newcomers AON and Standard Chartered top European deals

Football shirt sponsorship across the top European leagues has never been so lucrative: 470.7 million Euros show that the football shirt market is the top target for sponsors, which invested 18% more in comparison to last year (+75.2 mill. Euros).

This is a result from the twelfth edition of the European Jersey Report by global sports marketing consultancy SPORT+MARKT with the Barclays Premier League leading the way in Europe with 128 million euros.

“The Premier League is the standard-bearer for shirt sponsorship in Europe and represents the major platform for international companies wishing to invest in football”, underlines Gareth Moore, Director UK SPORT+MARKT.

“15 clubs have improved their revenue from improved shirt sponsorship deals, and 3 of the 5 clubs with the most lucrative deals in Europe come from the Premier League.

” More than 70 million Euros are generated from new sponsors in football, with Manchester United and Liverpool FC’s new respective deals with AON and Standard Chartered the clear leaders in Europe, each worth 23.6 million Euro”.

In addition, FxPro has chosen the Barclays Premier League to make its debut in football sponsorship with 2 top clubs, whilst Autonomy has agreed to sponsor Tottenham Hotspur FC’s shirt for Premier League matches only, with the club having secured an alternative partner, Investec, for cup and European matches.

Moore explained: “It is plain to see that when a new company chooses to invest significant amounts of money in sport sponsorship, the Premier League is the top destination”.

The Premier League has overtaken the Bundesliga in the total amount of revenue from shirt sponsorship, with an increase of 45 million Euros compared to last year.

On a European scale, France and Germany have also impressively increased their revenue thanks to the banking and insurance provider sector, along with betting companies: 85 million Euros come from the two sectors, with 61 sponsorship engagements.

The liberalisation of the French market for betting companies has helped Ligue 1 to grow and overtake Spanish Liga BBVA: BetClic is third amongst newcomers to football sponsorship with 20 million Euros paid for Juventus FC, Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique Marseille.

“Betting and gambling have helped to deliver significant revenues for football clubs across Europe in what are challenging economic times and the importance of the sector cannot be overlooked” added Moore.

“As a consequence of liberalisation for betting companies on the French market and, potentially in the future, in Germany market, next year’s sponsorship engagements from the sector may increase even further”.

The crisis appears to have been shrugged off by the financial and banking sector, which is leveraging the emotional factor of sport sponsorship more and more as a means of effective communication.

Whilst in the Netherlands, revenue is similar to last year, the only league to record a decline is the

Italian Serie A TIM, where in spite of the new deal between AC Milan and Emirates, the trend is negative - also because two major clubs in SS Lazio and ACF Fiorentina are currently without shirt sponsors.

However, Serie A TIM remains the league with the third highest revenue in Europe. The Spanish Liga BBVA, despite an overall increase of 9 million Euro, slips one position in the ranking: apart for the major new deal for Real Madrid CF with bwin, most other Spanish clubs still fail to attract lucrative sponsors.

Potentially, if the club with the greatest European fan base, FC Barcelona, chose to have a sponsor, Liga BBVA could occupy third position in the ranking.

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