Football is by far the most popular sponsorship vehicle in Asia and rights holders secure lucrative deals with some of the region’s largest brands. Given the size of this this particular sponsorship sector, ASN has published a new report, ASN Brands In Football Asia 2024, taking a closer look at the brands spending millions every year.
Although sponsorship into football make up the largest portion of the overall sponsorship cake in Asia, the region only accounted for 2.4 percent of global football sponsorship, worth USD58 billion. And even so, the majority of investment goes to English and European football rather than to the regional game. In fact, 62 percent of the 20 biggest Asian sponsorship deals (USD255 million) was invested in English and European clubs.
Football sponsorship in Asia has grown by 73 percent since 2013. Financial services and apparel have traditionally spent the most money on football sponsorship and continue to do so. However, technology and gambling brands have grown significantly, coming into their own over the recent years.
The top 10 brands in Asia sponsoring football in 2023 were Nike at USD85.2 million (apparel), Spotify at USD70 million (technology), Standard Chartered at USD62.8 million (financial services), Adidas at USD52.5 million (apparel), AIA at USD52.4 million (financial services), King Power at USD26.7 million (retailer), Toyota at USD26 million (automobile), NTT Docomo at USD19.6 million (telecoms), Qatar Airways at USD19.5 million (airline) and Evergrande Group at USD17.6 million (conglomerate).
Spotify only came into the table in 2022, knocking Standard Chartered into third place with a USD60 million investment in Barcelona FC. While numbers like that may seem high, it is important to note that the top 10 brands accounted for only 32 percent of overall spending, while only 58 percent of the total was derived from the top 50 brands; the remaining 42 percent came from 661 other brands. As a result, football offers a unique range of opportunities for sponsorship from global to grass roots.
Although financial services and apparel have remained the main sponsorship brand categories for a decade, thanks for brands like Nike, Adidas, Standard Chartered and AIA, other sectors are making movements too. Technology jumped to 9 percent of total spending in 2023 compared to 2 percent in 2013. This was mostly the result of 2023’s No.2 ranked brand, Spotify’s, USD60 million investment 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 are gambling brands which together accounted for 6 percent 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.
While some categories are moving up, others are moving down. Alcoholic beverages are down from 6 percent in 2013 to 3 percent 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 percent (USD15 million) 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 USD172 million. The biggest deals made by the Top 20 spending brands (total USD414 million) accounted for 31 percent of all sponsorship investment in Asia in 2023. Investment from 10 of those deals (USD255 million – 62 percent 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, the Manchester United shirt at USD50-60 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.
ASN is the leading market intelligence service for the sponsorship industry in Asia, which distributes independent news, analytics and insights on a subscription basis, with a bespoke consultancy and training service.
ASN is operated by Asia Sponsorship News Co., Ltd. a subsidiary of Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co., Ltd.
Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co., Ltd. is an independent marketing consultancy based in Bangkok, Thailand specialising in commercial sponsorship and partnership marketing, working with both rights holders and brands - acting as a catalyst by bringing them together and maximising the relationship.
We have packaged, sold and managed sponsorship and partnership opportunities for a wide range of rights holders and worked with many of the world’s leading brands to source and engage the right sponsorships and partnerships for them to maximise.
