Formula 1 and the Fifa men’s World Cup are the ‘hottest’ sponsorship properties in sport according to a global survey of industry subscribers conducted by SportBusiness Sponsorship.
Nineteen per cent of readers surveyed across the month of July said Liberty Media-owned F1 and Fifa’s flagship national team event currently offer the most sought-after sponsorship rights in the sector, ranking the two properties first. The National Football League (NFL) and the Uefa Champions League ranked third and fourth, with 13 per cent and 11 per cent of the votes respectively.
The survey forms part of our first ever Global Sponsorship Report, a comprehensive analysis of the sponsorship industry and the commercial portfolios of eight of the biggest sports leagues in the world. The report is designed as a companion to sister title SportBusiness Media’s respected Global Media Report.
The survey responses appear to validate the significant gains made by F1 under the ownership of Liberty Media, which reported that it increased sponsorship income by 35 per cent to $579.6m (€531.2m/£443.2m) last year. As outlined in the report, the increase is largely thought to have been driven by the addition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix to the motorsport’s calendar and lucrative renewals with existing sponsors. The sponsorship rights to the inaugural race were sold on a standalone basis but are included in F1 sponsorship revenues.
The overall revenue figure is expected to jump again significantly in the coming years following the motorsport’s landmark 10-year sponsorship deal with French luxury goods giant LVMH, which covers multiple categories and is understood to be worth more than $100m per season. As exclusively reported by SportBusiness, existing regional sponsor American Express is also expected to upgrade to an ‘Official Partner’ of the series while the motorsport will also benefit from an upgraded deal with Chinese computer company Lenovo and a new agreement with Spanish banking group Santander.
A total of 175 subscribers representing blue-chip brands and marketing agencies, as well as rights-holders, governing bodies and federations, completed all of the questions in the survey. The questionnaire sought to gauge sentiment in the sector and gather predictions about its future direction of travel.
North America
The rankings changed when the responses were filtered for the North America region. For instance, 35 per cent of North America-based respondents ranked the NFL as sports’ hottest property, while seven per cent of respondents from the region put Formula 1 as their first choice. The motorsport’s elevated position in the survey can therefore be attributed to positive sentiment among respondents from Europe, with 27 per cent of those questioned ranking it first.
The Fifa men’s World Cup, however, proved its appeal across both regions, perhaps explained by the fact the US, together with Mexico and Canada, will host the 2026 edition of the event. Twenty one per cent of North American respondents and 15 per cent of European respondents ranked the competition first. Fifa is predicted to capitalise on the regional appetite for its sponsorship rights in the coming months, with several US-based brands already having announced deals with the federation.
US appetite for cricket
The wider survey also asked respondents to rank the sports that they would or would not consider sponsoring.
The results appeared to indicate that the outreach efforts of popular European sports are beginning to bear fruit in the US. Months after the International Cricket Council (ICC) hosted several T20 men’s World Cup matches in the country, 50 per cent of those surveyed in North America indicated they ‘would consider’ sponsoring cricket.
Respondents also delivered predictions about the future direction of the betting and cryptocurrency sponsorship categories and the decline of others, such as fossil-fuel related sponsorship industries.
NFL on top
In pure financial terms, the NFL remains the most valuable sports league in the world, generating around $1.8bn to $2bn in league sponsorship and licensing income last year, according to our research.
The Global Sponsorship Report compares the league’s commercial performance, and the sponsorship revenues generated by its teams, against US peers like the NBA and MLB, as well European rivals like the Premier League, F1 and the Uefa Champions League. It also examines fast-emerging properties like the Indian Premier League.
Analysis in the report ranks the NBA as having the second most valuable sponsorship portfolio, although MLB is the NFL’s nearest competitor when accounting for combined sponsorship and licensing income.
Women’s sport
There were positive signs for the women’s sport sector in the survey, with 77 per cent of respondents indicating they agreed or strongly agreed with a statement that said women’s sport is “beginning to deliver audiences that are meaningful to brands” while a further 78 per cent of those surveyed said sponsorship fees for women’s sport are “trending upwards”.
Significantly, four per cent of those surveyed identified the WNBA as the ‘hottest’ property in sport, helping the women’s basketball league outrank its men’s equivalent, the NBA, which registered three per cent of the votes. The league recently announced its highest attended opening months in 26 years and has delivered its most watched start to the season ever across each of the US networks that cover it. The record audiences have been driven by the emergence of exciting new players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink, but the news of a new 11-year media deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC means more than 125 regular season and playoff games will be shown nationally each year from 2026 onwards.
A future-facing section in the report examines the sponsorship portfolios of the major US and European women’s sport properties, as well as assessing the emerging opportunities in US college sports following the landmark antitrust settlements by the National Collegiate Athletics Association.
There are also detailed profiles of some of the most active brands in sport, including hardy perennials like PepsiCo and AB InBev and aggressive new entrants like BYD, Betano and Castore.
To download an executive summary of the report, or to purchase a copy, click here.