EUROPEAN TOUR event the Qatar Masters has confirmed another commercial partner in the form of ExxonMobil with the Qatari subsidiary of the multi-national oil and gas corporation signing a two-year deal to become the tournament’s scoring services partner.
The new agreement represents the fourteenth year that ExxonMobil has supported the event since its inception in 1998. One of more than twenty corporate sponsors, Frontloaded values the deal at around $100,000 per year.
The Qatar Masters, the only European Tour event to be held in the country and one of four tournaments to be staged in the Middle East region, benefits from a wealth of national and international sponsoring partners including national bank Commercialbank as title sponsor and Qatari gas provider Dolphin Energy as presenting partner.
Commercialbank and Dolphin Energy were originally co-title sponsors for the event but the latter has since been demoted to presenting partner as a result of a new three-year contract signed in 2010, seeing the brand paying around $1m per year.
ExxonMobil's contribution to sport in Qatar is more commonly associated with the ATP’s ExxonMobil Qatar Open, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with ExxonMobil as title sponsor since 1993.
Bart Cahir, President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar, led the negotiations with the Qatar Masters on the brand side.
By Luke Harman
luke.harman@sportbusiness.com