Sponsorship
Who's actually sponsoring in the Gulf, and what they're buying
Sam Cherry
Founder
,
2403 Group
8
minutes to read
KEY TAKEAWAY
Gulf brand money is growing, moving into new categories and spreading from sport into music and culture. It's also concentrated and quick to move, so the rights holders who track it every month and match it to their own audience will be at the front of the queue.
If you built your picture of Gulf money from the headlines alone, you'd think it was all transfers, takeovers and mega-events. There's certainly no shortage of those stories. But if you're a rights holder, the useful question is narrower: which brands are actually signing sponsorship deals, in which categories, and what are they paying for? The answer is more varied than the headlines suggest.
That question matters whether you run a club in Riyadh, a festival in Abu Dhabi, a league in Lagos or a gallery in Singapore, because Gulf brands now sponsor at home and abroad, across sport, music and culture. Knowing where their money is going this year is the first step to winning some of it, so here's what the latest data shows.
8.7%
projected growth of the Middle East sports market over the next three to five years, against 7.3% globally
PwC, 2025 [2]
89m
visitors to Saudi Arabia's entertainment sector in 2025, across 1,690 events
General Entertainment Authority via Arab News, 2026 [3]
$528.9m
global tourist-board sports sponsorship in 2025, with Abu Dhabi Tourism the largest annual spender
GlobalData, 2026 [9]
How fast is the region growing?
Globally, Two Circles estimates brands spent $250bn of their sponsorship and media budgets reaching audiences through sport, with sponsorship taking 19% of that spend. The Middle East is growing faster than most. PwC projects the region's sports market will grow at 8.7% over the next three to five years, against a global average of 7.3%, and cites expected growth in Saudi Arabia from $8bn to $22.4bn by 2030 under Vision 2030. That pace means the list of brands worth calling changes quickly too.
Sport is only part of it. Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority says the entertainment sector drew more than 89 million visitors in 2025 across 1,690 events. MDLBEAST said it anticipated around 500,000 people across three days at Soundstorm 2025, on a site that can host roughly 150,000 a day. In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Culture and Tourism delivered a record 252 culture and leisure events in 2025 with more than 4.2 million attendees, and Coldplay's four sold-out concerts at Zayed Sports City alone drew 193,470. That's a lot of people for a sponsor to reach.
Who's writing the cheques
Airlines are out in front. GlobalData found Middle Eastern airline brands accounted for 53.5% of airline spending in sports sponsorship in 2023. In 2025, Emirates and Qatar Airways were the highest-spending airlines and Etihad also exceeded $100m, while the largest annual airline deal of the year was Qatar Airways' partnership with the UEFA Champions League. So a big slice of airline money in sport is coming from this region.
Energy and tourism come next. Aramco became a FIFA Major Worldwide Partner, exclusive in the energy category, through the end of 2027. GlobalData puts global tourist-board sports sponsorship at $528.9m in 2025 and names Abu Dhabi Tourism the largest annual spender. That's a Gulf name at the top of a global table.
Banking, telecoms, technology and automotive are rising fast. Financial services were the most active sector in Saudi Pro League team sponsorship, with 26 deals for 2024/25. Esports shows how deep these deals can go: stc signed a three-year deal as Elite and Founding Partner of the Esports World Cup, including naming rights for three venues. The event's owner has said its sponsorship revenue in 2025 was over $120m. And BYD signed as Official Automotive Partner of the Khaleeji 27 Gulf Cup in Jeddah.
Gulf brands want a seat in the region's biggest growth story, and they'll pay for it.
Why music and culture are next
The WFA found the number of brands investing in music and arts has doubled since 2023. In the Gulf, the audiences are already there. Abu Dhabi's MOTN Festival drew 252,988 visitors in 2025, and the emirate's cultural sites and libraries welcomed more than 8.6 million visitors, with Louvre Abu Dhabi alone recording 1.4 million.
So if you run a festival, museum, venue or promotions business, I'd start with the categories that dominate sport: airlines, banks, telecoms, tourism boards and technology brands looking for audiences they can't reach through sport alone.
Worth pausing on
Which of the Gulf's biggest-spending categories are missing from your partner list right now? And honestly, when did anyone on your team last speak to them?
Three Key Steps
Find out who's spending, match them to your audience, then make your move early.
1
Track who's spending, every month
Keep a live list of the brands signing deals across the region in aviation, banking, telecoms, tourism, energy, technology and automotive. Tourism shows how much can be at stake: GlobalData found global tourist-board sports sponsorship reached $528.9m in 2025, with Abu Dhabi Tourism the largest annual spender. [9] Categories like that shift every season, and your list needs to shift with them.
2
Work out what each brand needs
For every target brand, write down what it needs this year, whether that's routes to fill, customers to sign up or a product to launch. Then use what you know about your fans to show where they overlap with the customers it's chasing. Youth reach is often the strongest card you hold, since more than half of the GCC population is aged under 25. [2]
3
Pitch before budgets are committed
Approach target brands with a tailored idea while their plans are still open, before the year's deals are signed. Timing matters more now that long commitments are becoming common: stc's Esports World Cup deal runs for three years and includes venue naming rights. [11] Once a brand locks in something like that, its budget is spoken for.
Your competition for Gulf budgets is global
Riyadh Air signed as main and official airline partner of Atlético de Madrid, with its logo on the front of all team kits, before it had flown a single commercial flight. It's a good reminder that Gulf brands don't only spend at home. Ampere Analysis found 76% of sponsorship spend in Europe's top five leagues now comes from companies headquartered outside each league's domestic market. Sponsorship money goes wherever the audience is, and Gulf money is no different.
If you run a club, festival or venue in the Gulf, Asia or Africa, that cuts both ways. You're competing with global properties for the same Gulf budgets, but you also have things they can't easily offer: proximity, cultural relevance and audiences that brands want to reach at home. That last one carries a lot of weight when more than half of the GCC population is aged under 25.
The categories, budgets and decision-makers all change quickly. A bank launching a digital product wants a different audience from an airline opening a new route, and a tourism board chasing a new source market wants something different again. Knowing which is which is half the pitch. The other half is knowing your own fans well enough to match them to each brand's customers and put a credible value on the rights you're offering. Rights holders who keep track every month, and who know their audience that well, will be first in line when the next brand starts looking for partners.
How well do you know who's spending?
Put these to your team to see how well you really know the brands spending in your market.
Could we name the Gulf brands that signed sponsorship deals in our sport or art form in the last year?
Which of the busiest categories aren't we talking to at all?
Do we actually know what each target brand is trying to achieve this year?
Have we got a young or local audience that a brand can't reach anywhere else?
Are we only pitching our sport, or our music and culture assets as well?
From 7,500 AED a month
Timeline
Monthly
Gulf brand money is real, it's growing and it finds new categories every season. It's also concentrated and quick to move, so if you wait for a brief to arrive, you'll usually find the budget has already been spent. The encouraging part is that staying ahead mostly comes down to paying attention, every month, to who's signing what.
If you'd like that monthly view without building it yourself, our Sponsor Radar managed service tracks deals, categories and decision-makers so your team calls the right brands at the right time.
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