Sponsorship
Your next sponsor might be in a category you haven't sold yet
Sam Cherry
Founder
,
2403 Group
9
minutes to read
KEY TAKEAWAY
If all you sell is logo space, you end up in a discounting race with every other rights holder in your market. Categories, sub-categories and regional tiers create new buyers with budgets of their own. And more than half of new deals in Europe's top leagues now come from brands that weren't in the market a few seasons ago.
Two meetings with the same brand can go very differently. In one, you're selling a sleeve, and the conversation never gets past the fee. In the other, you're offering to make them your official bank, and the talk turns to what your audience could do for them. Most sponsorship decks are built for the first: a grid of logo positions, a number next to each and the hope that someone bites.
It's an easy way to sell, and the quickest way to end up discounting against every other club, festival and venue in your market. The rights holders growing fastest have stopped asking 'who wants a logo?' and started asking 'which businesses need our audience, and why?' That turns one crowded market into many smaller ones, some with brands that have never sponsored anything before. The evidence suggests that's where much of the new money is.
53%
of this season's deals in Europe's top five leagues came from companies new to European football since 2021/22
Ampere Analysis, 2025
100%
of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 commercial packages sold, across 32 partners and sponsors
2403 Group team portfolio
2.2
property categories the average brand now activates across, up 73% in two years
WFA, 2025
What changes when you sell a category
When you sell a logo, the brand compares your sleeve with every other sleeve and goes with whoever asks for least. A category turns that conversation around, because what you're selling is exclusive access to your audience for one type of business: the official bank, the official ticketing partner, the official learning partner. Each category comes with its own budget holders, its own objectives and competitors who'd rather not be left out.
The best category plans go a step further and split broad categories into sub-categories. Financial services can become retail banking, cards, payments, insurance and trading apps, each with its own buyer. And new sectors keep appearing. IEG's tracking of emerging categories names affordable sunglasses, prebiotic sodas and hot chicken restaurants among those that have significantly increased their presence in sports and entertainment sponsorship. Few of them would have made a typical prospect list until recently, so your next sponsor may be somewhere you haven't looked. Knowing what your fans actually buy, use and care about is how you find those places first.
Crypto, edtech and blockchain at Qatar 2022
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is a useful case. Alongside its long-standing partners, FIFA sold categories that would have looked unusual at earlier tournaments. Crypto.com became the exclusive cryptocurrency trading platform sponsor. Edtech company BYJU'S was named an Official Sponsor. And Algorand became FIFA's official blockchain platform and a Regional Supporter of the tournament in North America and Europe.
In previous roles, our team sold 100% of the tournament's commercial packages across 32 partners and sponsors. FIFA's marketing rights revenue for the 2019-2022 cycle reached USD 1,795m. The point I'd draw from that cycle is that the new categories sat alongside the traditional ones and added to them. The regional tier worked the same way, letting a brand buy relevance in the markets it cared about without paying for global rights.
Whatever's on the contract, every brand is really asking the same thing: can your fans become our customers?
Who's actually signing now?
This isn't limited to mega-events, either. Ampere Analysis found that companies new to European football since 2021/22 account for 53% of all deals signed for the 2025/26 campaign in the top five leagues. Trading and foreign exchange services, household goods firms and luxury fashion brands had already passed their deal count for the whole of the previous season, pushed along by first-time sponsors including Vodafone, Louis Vuitton and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Financial services are still the most active category, with 16% of all new or renewed deals. If your prospect list is mostly last season's sponsors and their rivals, you're missing the busiest part of the market.
Brands are widening their horizons too. The WFA found the average brand now activates across 2.2 property categories, up 73% from two years ago, and the number of brands investing in music and arts has doubled since 2023. If brands are exploring new kinds of property, rights holders should be looking for new kinds of brand.
Worth pausing on
How many of your current partners came from a category you created on purpose, and how many did you simply inherit? And which brands in your market are already spending on sponsorship, yet have never heard a category pitch from you?
Three Key Steps
Draw the map first, build the packages second, and go after the pipeline last.
1
Map every category and sub-category
List every type of business that could own a relationship with your audience, then split each one into sub-categories with different buyers, so banking becomes retail, cards, payments and wealth. Ampere found financial services alone made up 16% of new or renewed deals in Europe's top leagues in the 2025/26 season. More categories mean more people to sell to, and less riding on any single one.
2
Make each category worth owning
Give every category something nobody else can have: a designation, exclusive content, data, fan access or a product integration. Then add regional or local tiers, so a brand can buy just the markets it cares about. FIFA used a Regional Supporter tier at Qatar 2022 to do exactly that. It gives you a way in with brands whose interest stops at a single market.
3
Follow the money that's already moving
Track which brands are entering sponsorship in your sport, in your region and in the ones next door. More than half of 2025/26 deals in Europe's top five leagues came from companies new to European football since 2021/22. Prioritise brands with budget, a clear objective and no rival already in your portfolio. That's your shortlist.
Whatever's on the contract, every brand is really asking the same thing: can your fans become our customers?
Close to home, the category list is growing
Some of the fastest category growth is happening here in the Gulf. In the Saudi Pro League, financial services were the most active sector across team sponsorship portfolios, with 26 deals agreed for 2024/25. The Esports World Cup's partner list spans Saudi telecoms, destination development, energy, airline, food and ticketing brands, alongside international technology, insurance and hospitality names. The chief commercial officer of the foundation that owns it has said sponsorship revenue in 2025 was over $120m. Count the categories on that list and you'll see how many separate budgets a single property can draw on.
Automotive is opening up as well. BYD signed as Official Automotive Partner of the Khaleeji 27 Gulf Cup in Jeddah, with a test-drive area and interactive fan zones. Tourism boards are another growing category. GlobalData puts global tourist-board sports sponsorship at $528.9m in 2025, with Middle East and Africa boards dominating premium spending and Abu Dhabi Tourism the largest annual spender.
For clubs, leagues, festivals and venues across Asia and Africa, the lesson is the same. The brands most likely to sign next may not be on your list yet, and a category plan is how you find them before someone else does. Build it on a real picture of your fans and you'll also be able to value each category with confidence, and walk into those first meetings with evidence to hand.
Five questions to find the buyers you're missing
Run through these with your commercial team before anyone starts on next season's deck.
How many categories are we selling today, and how many could we be selling?
Which of our categories could we split into sub-categories with different buyers?
Do we offer anything regional or local?
Which brands started sponsoring in our region this year, and did we talk to any of them?
What does each category get that a logo on its own can't give them?
From 5,000 AED
Timeline
Findings within weeks
Logos will always have their place. But if logos are all you sell, you're competing with everyone else in your market on who'll accept the lowest fee. Sell categories and you're competing on relevance instead, which is a far better place to be, and frankly a more interesting conversation to have.
If you'd like to know which categories and brands you're missing, a short review will tell you. Our Get More Sponsors Accelerator maps your categories, identifies the brands most likely to buy and gives you a roadmap within weeks.
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