Telecommunications company Lebara has made its first major entry into the football sponsorship market after agreeing a one-year deal with Borussia Dortmund.
The agreement with the 1.Bundesliga club will take effect from the 2013-14 season, with Lebara keen to leverage its status as one of Europe’s leading mobile telecoms operators for foreign nationals through its partnership with Dortmund.
Lebara’s sponsorship will be centred on the club’s home in the heart of the North Rhine-Westphalia region – the most populous area in Germany for both migrant and native communities. Of the 1.08 million migrants who came to Germany in 2012, around 186,000 moved to this region.
Lebara said it selected the club for its first venture into football sponsorship because the team also has an international profile with 60% of its followers coming from outside Germany. Many of the club’s key players are from similar ethnic backgrounds to Lebara’s customer communities.
Lebara added that the sponsorship will strengthen its foothold in the city of Dortmund as well as reach new customers in the Polish, Croatian and Turkish markets. Although exact details of the sponsorship have not yet been confirmed, the company may launch an exclusively packaged Lebara Mobile ‘BVB 09 SIM card’.
David Moffatt, CEO of Lebara Group, said: “Our partnership with one of the world’s top international football clubs provides a valuable platform for our business to further extend its reach into the migrant community in Germany – our fastest-growing region, but also to tap into other migrant hotspots elsewhere in Europe.”