We analysed nearly 4,000 sponsorship deals since the start of 2023 to understand which sectors are most likely to do deals around English soccer’s Premier League (EPL) compared to other rights holders

This type of analysis helps rights holders identify which sectors to focus on pitching, as the term ‘most likely’ can mean two different things.

A bit of maths

Firstly, it can simply mean volume, i.e. which sectors have done the most EPL-related deals. In this case, Gambling leads the way at 9.2% of deals. However, Gambling also does a lot of deals in other rights holder fields such as Equestrian, Cricket and Basketball. This means there is a lot of competition successfully fighting for Gambling’s budgets.

So, the idea is to focus attention where there is less competition and this is where the second meaning of ‘most likely’ comes in: how likely is a sector to do a deal in my field (in this case, the EPL) compared to that sector doing a deal in any other field?

This is called over-indexing, propensity or probability and is normally measured by a number (not a percentage). In this scenario, Investment/Trading brands lead the way: accounting for 8.5% of EPL-related deals compared to just 1.8% of all other deals.

This means Investment/Trading brands are 4.7x more likely to do English Premier League sponsorship deals compared to any other rights holder (8.5% divided by 1.8%).

In other words, although Investment/Trading brands do less EPL sponsorship deals than Gambling firms, they are the most likely to choose an EPL entity compared to any other type of rights holder. So, the level of competition (or noise) for an EPL rights holder when approaching this sector is much less.

Going back to Gambling, its over-indexing figure is 1.4 (admittedly, still pretty high) as Gambling accounts for 9.2% of EPL deals and 6.5% of all other deals. This makes Gambling the 14th most likely sector to choose the EPL vs. any other rights holder.

Who’s driving Investment/Trading deals?

These have been dominated by online trading brands, led by eToro’s deals with four clubs (Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Everton and West Ham), alongside the likes of Trade Nation (Aston Villa), Uphold (Burnley), TMGM (Chelsea), Axi (Manchester City) and CFI (Sheffield United). These almost always tend to be ‘Official Trading Partner’ deals.

The more ‘investment’ side of the equation is represented by the likes of financial advisory firm Strategic Solutions (Bournemouth) and online pension provider PensionBee (Brentford).

Either way, it shows how broad a sector Investment/Trading is and what a rich seam it is for EPL teams to mine, particularly their likelihood of succeeding in this sector compared to any other type of rights holder.