Irish stout brand Guinness is close to signing a six-year title sponsorship agreement for the Six Nations rugby tournament from 2019, according to a report in today’s The Times newspaper.
The report states that Guinness will pay £6m ($7.6m/€6.7m) in the first year of the deal. The fee will escalate over the duration, culminating in a £12m payment in the contract’s final year.
SportBusiness Sponsorship reported last November that RBS banking group brand NatWest paid about £8m for its one-year deal for the 2018 tournament.
This represented a 27-per-cent drop on the £11m per year that RBS paid under the previous contract from 2013 to 2017.
For more on the decline in value of the Six Nations title rights read: ‘NatWest grabs Six Nations at big discount on former offer’.