Football in Asia, the continent’s most popular sport sponsorship vehicle by far, accounted for only 2.4% of the global football sponsorship pie, worth US$58 billion (B2.116 trillion) according to ASN’s recently-released report ‘Brands In Football Asia 2024’.
Even then, a huge chunk of investment went to English and European football rather than to the regional game. Indeed, 62% of the 20 biggest Asian sponsorship deals (US$255mn) was invested in English and European clubs.
Nevertheless, football sponsorship in Asia has grown by 73% since 2013. While the old favourites, Financial Services and Apparel continue to feature prominently in Asia’s sponsoring brands ‘league table’, Technology and Gambling brands demonstrated the most significant gains, coming into their own over the recent years.
The Top 10 brands in Asia sponsoring football in 2023 were Nike at US$85.2mn (Apparel), Spotify at US$70mn (Technology), Standard Chartered at US$62.8mn (Financial Services), Adidas at US$52.5mn (Apparel), AIA at US$52.4mn (Financial Services), King Power at US$26.7mn (Retailer), Toyota at US$26mn (Automobile), NTT Docomo at US$19.6mn (Telecoms), Qatar Airways at US$19.5mn (Airline) and Evergrande Group at US$17.6mn (Conglomerate).
Knocking Standard Chartered into third place, Spotify leapt onto the football sponsorship scene as recently as 2022 with a US$60mn investment in Barcelona FC. Interestingly, the Top 10 brands accounted for only 32% of overall spending, while only 58% of the total was derived from the Top 50 brands; the remaining 42% came from 661 other brands. As Paul Poole of The Sponsorship Experts said, “Football offers a unique range of opportunities for sponsorship from global to grassroots.”
Since 2013, the main sponsorship brand categories have remained more or less the same, with Financial Services and Apparel sharing the top two slots, accounting for 30% of total 2023 investment, thanks largely to brands such as Nike, Adidas, Standard Chartered and AIA.
Despite this near stranglehold, there have been a couple of notable developments. Technology jumped to 9% of total spending in 2023 compared with 2% in 2013. This was mostly the result of the US$70m investment by 2023’s No.2 ranked brand Spotify as main sponsor at Barcelona FC, as well as naming sponsor of the club’s home ground, ‘Spotify Camp Nou’.
Also new to the football sponsorship limelight, several gambling brands have, together, emerged to account for 6% of 2023’s total Asian sponsorship spend. It remains to be seen whether this is sustainable, given moves to ban gambling sponsorship in football, notably on the English Premier League team shirts.
Another category to show notable movement – in this case downward – is alcoholic beverages, down from 6% in 2013 to 3% in 2023. The result of a combined ‘attack’ from legislation and popular opinion, alcohol brands would have suffered a bigger fall if not for the fact that alcoholic beverages accounted for 20% (US$15mn) of Thailand’s total investment through three of the country’s leading beer brands: Chang, Singha and Leo.
The three biggest single football sponsorship deals in Asia in 2023 were by Standard Chartered (Liverpool FC), Spotify (Barcelona FC), AIA (Tottenham Hotspur FC) combined to make an investment of US$172mn. The biggest deals made by the Top 20 spending brands (total US$414mn) accounted for 31% of all sponsorship investment in Asia in 2023. Investment from 10 of those deals (US$255mn – 62% of the total) went to English and European clubs.
As we look forward to 2024, there remains a big question mark over legislation affecting gambling sponsorship on team shirts. It’s big money, as evidenced by the most expensive football shirt on the market… Manchester United’s shirt goes for US$50-60 million. Currently all gambling sponsorship of football in Asia is directed to non-Asian platforms.
There’s also the paradox of Thailand, with its strict alcohol control legislation, featuring as the Asian country with the highest proportion of football sponsorship investment from alcohol (beer) brands.
Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co Ltd, ‘The Sponsorship Experts’ are member of the Asian Sponsorship Association and the parent company of Asia Sponsorship News (ASN).
To read ASN’s ‘Brands In Football Asia 2024’ full report, click here.