New moves by the Premier League to remove betting firms as front of shirt sponsors have gained significant headlines in recent days.
Since the announcement, sports business experts have speculated about the consequences of this decision. Limiting the sponsorship options for one of the industry’s major partnership categories is likely to have a significant impact. The lost revenue opportunities are perhaps the most obvious concern for sponsorship departments and finance directors. Of the 20 clubs in the Premier League, eight currently have front of shirt deals with gambling firms. These are said to be worth in the region of £5 million to £10 million per season per team.
Everton FC’s “club record” front of shirt sponsor cryptocurrency and casino' platform Stake.com. One of eight such sponsors in the Premier League
However, talking to Sports Pro, the general manager of Turnstile, Dan Gaunt is quoted as saying “we anticipate that the front-of-shirt betting sponsorship ban will drive up the value of other key sponsorship assets such as the sleeve, training kit and LED advertising boards”.
Training kit and training ground sponsorships are of particular interest to us at Sport Science Agency. Training kit and ground sponsorship have grown rapidly as categories over the last decade. Now, of the clubs in the Premier League, only Nottingham Forest doesn’t have a training kit sponsor (although it should be noted that a number of clubs have wrapped training kit in with other sponsorship rights).
Brand-led training kit and ground sponsorships are different to performance partnerships. Performance partnerships put performance at their heart, with partners and rights holders working together. They produce tangible performance benefits whilst using the platform to publicise expertise and potentially develop commercial products for wider use.
Shifting training kit sponsorships to performance partnerships is where Sport Science Agency offers its clients significant value. We have worked with a number of rights holders and sponsors at both a strategic and delivery level, to establish and develop such successful partnerships.
The latest example is of Vodafone’s partnership with the Welsh Rugby Union. Vodafone has a genuine desire to support its partner via the use of its technology. This has been seen via the development of PLAYER.Connect, an integrated performance monitoring and tracking system. The system has been upgraded to include menstrual cycle tracking for the women’s team. The aim of PLAYER.Connect is to give the coaches and sport scientists enhanced data to support players in training, injury prevention, recovery and of course, when playing.
Vodafone now has a platform upon which to showcase its technological expertise and its support for female sport at a level well beyond just a branding exercise. The project has a roadmap to add new Vodafone technology, which will support ongoing comms and PR opportunities.
Credible performance partnerships offer huge value to partners and rights holders. Everything that fans see on the pitch, court or track has hours of training and preparation behind it. The demands of modern sport mean that many athletes adopt an ‘always on’ performance lifestyle outlook. This means all their decisions are made with a performance focus. Increasingly fans want to know about these building blocks of performance and social platforms allow clubs or athletes to share these insights.
The question for rights holders is how do they package these increasingly valuable content and sponsorship rights to maximise the commercial return?
Sport Science Agency is an expert in translating performance insights and the work of performance departments into commercial rights. This expertise helps maximise revenue for rights holders, whilst offering brand partners significant value and a well-defined category/theme within which to activate their partnerships.
Increasingly, the area of performance and the translation of performance messages is being led by brands outside of the traditional market sectors of nutrition and sports apparel. A true understanding of the different segments that make up performance programmes means that rights can be developed to support messaging across multiple business sectors.
Any change to major rights opportunities within the sponsorship industry will drive innovation. Now betting firms and Premier League clubs have been put on notice regarding front of shirt deals, a new look at their sponsorship assets will be necessary. A shift to training kit and training ground sponsorships would be the obvious route to consider.
However, the performance programme and the rights that surround it should be amongst the most valuable areas any sporting organisation has. This means a strategic look to ensure rights holders and brands are maximising these opportunities. Currently, training kit and training ground sponsorships often fail to deliver much more than a brand billboard. The performance programme can and should be used for more than this.
Sport Science Agency is uniquely positioned to support the greater use of performance partnerships. So, if you want to look at how your performance programme is structured to maximise commercial value or your sponsorship is being activated to create genuine cut through, get in touch…
Sport Science Agency uses its insight and expertise to tell performance stories and unlocks their value for brands, broadcasters and rights holders. To see some of our work clickhere If you want to know more about what we can do for you, drop us a note via info@sportscienceagency.com and we can arrange to go for a healthy vitamin packed drink.