The report again provides the most authoritative, detailed, and comprehensive review of the European football finance landscape, competition landscape and players landscape, and this year’s edition focuses closely on how European top-division clubs have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sponsors, investors and fans are showing unprecedented interest, with record sponsor and commercial revenue 13% higher than it was pre-pandemic, record levels of club takeover activity detailed in the report, and record gate revenues reported by the clubs in countries with a full return to play throughout the season, where full return to play protocols were in place during the season.
Sports betting and gambling companies continue to grow market share
Sports betting and gambling firms account for 22% of all main shirt sponsors in Europe’s top divisions in 2022/23 (2022), an increase of three percentage points from last year, making it again the most represented sector and the one with the highest market share growth.
This rapid growth comes despite restrictions on betting sponsorship in many European countries. Of the 182 clubs with a new main shirt sponsor this season, 27% secured deals with gambling or sports betting companies, up 2% on last season.
Diverse profile of sponsors
While the number of sponsorships from the gambling and betting sector grew, there is still a broad spectrum of industries keen to use football club sponsorship as a core element of their marketing.
Gambling remains the most common industry (22%), followed by financial services companies (13%), retail (9%), industrial goods (9%) and construction/property (8%). There were no huge movements in market shares in other sectors following the pandemic, with professional services seeing the greatest decline of two percentage points.
Gambling/sports betting companies are the most common title sponsors for national leagues
There are 16 top divisions whose title sponsor is a gambling/sports betting firm. Two pairs of leagues share the same title sponsor: Lithuania and Latvia; and Czechia and Slovakia.
There are also 13 top divisions (including the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga) that have opted for commercial structures that do not currently feature a naming rights partner.
Consolidation of title sponsors
All in all, 42 of Europe’s top divisions ̶more than threequarters ̶ currently have a title sponsor. This is the same figure as in the previous season, meaning that there has been little negative impact as a result of the pandemic.
Two new countries have gained a title sponsor this season: Luxembourg and Türkiye. Meanwhile, 11 countries have changed or lost their title sponsor: Armenia, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania, Russia and Serbia.
Rise in naming rights for cup competitions
In addition, 35 domestic cup competitions have sold naming rights for the current season: 30 primary cup competitions and five league cup competitions.
Gambling/sports betting firms and food/drink companies are still the most common title sponsors for cup competitions, backing ten and five competitions respectively.
Source: GMB
