Heineken, the world’s third largest brewer, has extended its sponsorship of the Uefa Champions League in a three-year deal, from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Heineken, which replaced its Amstel brand with its main brand as a sponsor of the Champions League in 2005, is the first sponsor to commit to the tournament beyond the current 2012 to 2015 cycle, according to Reuters.
Financial details were not disclosed publicly, but the news agency said that sports marketing research group IMR believe the deal is worth more than the current US$70m (€51m) per year Heineken pays in the current agreement.
“As Heineken is available in 220 countries in the world and so is the UEFA Champions League, this platform really is to build the Heineken brand worldwide,” Heineken's global activation manager, Hans-Erik Tuijt, said.
The new deal will increase the amount of time the Heineken brand is shown on LED boards around Champions League grounds to 13 minutes per match – up from nine minutes. The boards will also be used in the future in group phase matches.
Heineken will also have quicker access to images for its live Twitter feed linked to matches and will retain the right to take the trophy to show fans across the globe.
The tournament’s other sponsors are Ford, Gazprom, MasterCard, Sony’s PlayStation and UniCredit.