Sponsorship holds the dominant share in a football club’s commercial revenue income, accounting for more than 50% of commercial income. The fact that merchandising and retail are becoming the fastest growing segment across the top-tier clubs in European football, it is many ways driven by 20-or so clubs with global fanbases. The value generated by sponsorships for the club goes beyond the steady financial support, it becomes a strong way to connect with the fans as well. When sponsorships are authentic, the sponsor brand amalgamates with the identity of the club and the partnerships become synonymous.
In its annual research, ‘The 2024 ESA Sponsorship Market Overview’ with Nielsen Sports, European Sponsorship Association states that Europe’s sports sponsorship market grew by 5.9% in value to a record high of €24.79bn in 2025. Out of all European markets, Germany was the largest market with a value of €6.26bn, ahead of the UK, which was valued at €6.15bn. Spain remained the fastest growing market, growing by 14% to €2.18bn.
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, becomes the most-suited partnership opportunity for local brands. This trend can be seen in football’s most valuable sponsorships assets, kit and front-of-shirt space.
In this blog we look at the industrial category of sponsors associated with these assets in European football’s ‘big five’ leagues.
Premier League
Perhaps the most dramatic change of industrial categories can be seen in the front-of-shirt segment in Premier League clubs. In 2023, Premier League clubs had collectively agreed to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of clubs’ matchday shirts starting from 2026/27 season That, however, does not include their presence in sleeve and other forms of sponsorships. That led to a change among 11 clubs, including the eight clubs that remained in the league, who had gambling and betting sponsors in their f-o-s space.
So, which industrial sector gained from this development?
The key beneficiary industries replacing betting & gambling are brands from financial services and technology categories:
- In 25/26, 3 clubs had financial services brands as sponsor-partner which jumped to 7 clubs in 26/27.
- Similarly, 2 clubs had brands from technology sector as sponsor which increased to 5 clubs. Key thing to note here is the entry of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company, Temporal, as the sponsor of Crystal Palace.
The globalised nature of Premier League sponsors can be gauged from the fact that out of 19 active f-o-s sponsorships (Sunderland has yet to confirm sponsorship deal), 13 sponsor companies (68%) are based out of the UK. Further, 6 out these 13 companies are US based.
As per data from Ampere Analysis, the net result of the change in sponsorship Premier League clubs have increased front-of-shirt sponsorship revenues by 8% to £444mn for the 2026 – 2027 season. Further, the Ampere data shows while 8 clubs that remained in the league – Aston Villa FC, AFC Bournemouth, Brentford FC, Crystal Palace FC, Everton FC, Fulham FC, Nottingham Forest FC and Sunderland AFC – have increased their sponsorship value by a mere £8mn it is the ‘big six’ clubs which have increased their combined front-of-shirt sponsorship revenues by £46m, partly driven by Arsenal’s improved Emirates renewal and Chelsea’s new full-season agreement with Circle, replacing its short-term deal with IFS last season.
‘Big Five’ Leagues
The effect of Premier League clubs’ collective replacement of betting and gambling companies as front-of-shirt sponsors made the category almost negligible in the combined big five league clubs’ scenario. From a dominant position in 25/26 with 14 deals, the category has been reduced to presence in just 2 clubs.
Two industrial categories that stand out being dominant are:
- Financial Services sector with presence in 17 clubs. The sector has increased its presence considerably from 25/26 where it had 12 associations.
- Transportation, Travel & Tourism sector having deals with 16 clubs. Further breaking down, 9 of the 16 deals are with Airlines sector and 5 are with tourism related companies.
The other industrial categories with significant presence are Beverages sector with 8 deals, Construction and Real Estate sector with 7 deals, Industrial Goods sector with 7 deals and Media & Telecom sector with 7 deals.
Kit Sponsorship
Kit sponsorship is the other most sought-after category. For the big clubs, kit sponsors pay high value to be on their jerseys. In 24/25, based on the reported values, kit sponsorship accounted for almost 21% of the total revenue for the ten highest revenue-generating clubs! In return, the kit sponsors generate billions through shirt sales due to huge supporter demands. Naturally, there is considerable interest on the part of kit manufacturer to be associated with clubs.
In 25/26 and 26/27 both, Adidas, Nike and Puma combined supply kits to 53% of all clubs in ‘big five’ leagues. However, the formation of the three have changed. Adidas further consolidates its presence having deals with 26 clubs compared to 23 deals in 25/26 at the cost of Puma whose number of deals were reduced from 15 to 11. Nike’s strength increased marginally to 14 deals from 13. Number of deals from Macron, Joma and Hummel remained unchanged and together, these three manufacturers form the next big block supplying to 21% of clubs.
Overall, in 25/26 as well as in 26/27, 18 kit manufacturers cover all the 96 the clubs from the ‘big five’ leagues.
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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 increase the organizational 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 the sponsor companies agree to astronomical values associated with the front-of-shirt and kit sponsorship deals in the world’s most loved and followed game of football, it becomes imperative for them to create a base of planning and associated activations to leverage the sponsorships to create a success story.
