Revealed: Premier League Fair Market Sponsorship Valuations 2024
The Sponsor has published its annual fair market valuation of every Premier League club’s front-of-shirt and sleeve sponsorship assets. The results highlight that some brands are getting a great deal from their sponsorship while others are overpaying.
Fair market valuation in sponsorship refers to the income a team or event can reasonably expect to receive for its sponsorship on the open market without any existing associated party connections. Premier League fair market value (FMV) and Associated Party Transactions (APT) rules are in place to maintain the league's competitiveness by preventing clubs from inflating sponsorship deals with companies associated with their owners.
Manchester City launches unprecedented legal action over FMV rules
An unexpected development has rocked the Premier League as Manchester City announced unprecedented legal action against the league's FMV rules.
Today's FMV sponsorship figures published by The Sponsor highlight that Manchester City’s current deal with Etihad Airways is £2.6m more than its fair market value. If the value of the deal were to increase further, Manchester City would be in danger of breaking the Premier League rules.
“Manchester City’s sponsorship value is driven by its reputation for quality and cultural relevance, together with its huge brand reach. However, these traits are not exclusive to City. Both Manchester United and Liverpool score higher than City across many key aspects driving sponsorship strength, such as history, social reach, fan engagement, and community development.” - Sean Connell, Editor, The Sponsor
Manchester City’s current front-of-shirt sponsorship reported to be worth £67.5m is currently with one such associated party in Etihad Airways. However, the club also has a significant sleeve sponsorship arrangement with an non-associated partner in crypto exchange platform OKX highlighting the club's commercial power to command top prices above market rate.
Liverpool’s front-of-shirt is the most valuable sponsorship asset of any Premier League club with a valuation of £65.8m
Despite missing out on the Premier League title, Liverpool’s qualification for next season’s Champions League competition ensures the club and its sponsors, Standard Chartered, gain significant brand exposure next season.
“Liverpool’s value as a sponsorship asset is not limited to their on-field success and media exposure. Our research shows brands that partner with Liverpool benefit significantly from association with one of football’s most successful clubs. Furthermore, Liverpool is a culturally relevant football brand in terms of fan engagement, star power, and action towards social causes, something that sponsors place considerable value on.”
Gambling firm Betano overpays by £13.6m to secure sponsorship with Aston Villa before the ban
The 2024/25 season marks the last for front-of-shirt gambling partnerships in the Premiership. Despite the reputational damage associated with such arrangements, many clubs, including Villa and Forest, are choosing to take advantage of the increased income now. Gambling sponsors pay a premium for the extensive exposure provided by Premiership sponsorships. However, these clubs may face a significant financial gap during the 2025/26 season, as non-gambling brands are unlikely to match these high sponsorship payments.
Aston Villa's £40m sponsorship deal with Betano represents a £13.6m increase over the club’s fair market value of £26.4m. Similarly, Nottingham Forest’s £14m sponsorship deal with Kayun Sports is more than double the club’s fair market sponsorship value of £5.2m.
Sleeve Sponsorship
Sleeve sponsorship remains a grey area for both clubs and sponsors, with deals fluctuating considerably. The fair market value of sleeve sponsorships across the Premier League ranges from just shy of a million pounds per season to Liverpool, at the top end of the scale, with an annual value of £25m.
Manchester City’s sleeve sponsorship deal with crypto exchange OKX is the most lucrative in the Premier League, reported to be a staggering £55m, more than double its fair market value of £23m. The Premier League Champions represent the third-strongest sponsorship offering in the league. Unsurprisingly, they lead the pack when it comes to quality, but the club and its associated partners are also the most culturally relevant team underpinned by strong support for the women’s game. In fact, no club posts and promotes their women’s team more than Manchester City.
Manchester United lose £17.5m per year from Team Viewer deal
Manchester United is the biggest loser in terms of lost sponsorship value. The current deal with TeamViewer, reportedly worth £47m per year, is the most undervalued sponsorship in the league. Manchester United boasts the largest social reach of any club, with 173 million social followers and the highest levels of fan engagement across the Premier League, which are key considerations for sponsors. The fair market value of United’s sponsorship is just over £64m, indicating that the club is missing out on £17.5m of potential sponsorship revenue each year—a significant financial loss.
Leicester City back with a bang
Despite a brief spell in the Championship last season, Leicester City remains a strong sponsorship opportunity due to the club’s history and strong fan engagement scores. Typically, the sponsorship of newly promoted teams would be at the lower end of the spectrum, but Leicester has come straight back with a strong valuation of £11.2m, greater than that of Fulham, Crystal Palace, Brighton, Wolves, Brentford, Nottingham Forest, and Bournemouth.
Newcastle United’s sponsorship value falls after missing out on Europe
Manchester United’s unexpected FA Cup final victory has significantly impacted the value of Newcastle United’s sponsorship. The Magpies and their associated sponsors will receive considerably less brand exposure as the club will not feature in any European football next season.
Methodology
The Sponsor surveyed an audience of brand marketing executives from leading sponsors to ascertain the key qualities they look for when evaluating a sponsorship asset. The qualities are categorised into Reputation (history, quality, cultural relevance, infrastructure), Audience (reach, frequency, demographics, engagement) and Contribution (sustainability, community, development, fans). The categories are compiled into a weighted scorecard recognising the additional importance all sponsors place on brand reach.
Using this scorecard, our team measured the strength of every Premier League club’s sponsorship by drawing on wide range of data points. Metrics included but were not limited to: on-pitch performance, honours, star power, social following, digital presence, TV viewing, audience demographic, fan engagement, ticket pricing, ticket pricing changes, charitable donations, support of the women’s and grassroots game and more.
Our team used each club’s sponsorship score together with real-world sponsorship deals reported in the media to conduct a polynomial regression analysis to determine the true and fair value of each club’s sponsorship.
The research methodology takes a point-in-time valuation as of 23:59 on 27th May 2024 and does not seek to forecast or predict the future performance of teams as it relates to European qualification or relegation. Consequently, sponsors and clubs may place a higher or lower value on the sponsorship due to their own predictions of future performance. Unlike sponsors and clubs, The Sponsor is an independent valuer with no vested or commercial interest in the outcomes of this research.
