Moving the Goalposts: CFDs Sport Sponsorships Go beyond Football

In the tech-savvy, trend-chasing world of CFDs and crypto marketing, one strategy stands out as a dominant force: sports sponsorship. As financial markets and digital currencies continue to gain popularity, brands are increasingly recognizing the potential of associating themselves with clubs, sporting events, and athletes. Watch any Premier League, La Liga, or Serie A match, and chances are you'll spot a familiar name with "Pay" or "Markets" on the players' outfit.

eToro, Plus 500, ThinkMarkets, Libertex, and IC Markets are only a few retail brokers with high-profile sports sponsorship deals. They, and dozens of other brokers, have tied with many sports clubs and teams globally, spending tens of millions, if not more. But How are these deals inked? Who are involved? How much do these deals cost? and how do they even help the brokers?

Trust and Brand Awareness

The now innocuous trading partnerships started over a decade ago, as means for brokers to associate their names with well-known brands, earn credibility, and tap into new audiences that are likely to embrace the trader-as-an-athlete ethos (and rush).

FxPro is known to be one of the first to close a sports deal in 2009 by sponsoring Virgin Racing team, which does not exist anymore. Eventually, in the 2010s, with the rising popularity of retail trading, more and more brokerage brands started to show an interest in sports marketing.

"After the global financial crisis of 2008, the level of trust in traditional finance players was at an all-time low," says Maximilian Schindler, a Senior Director at Sportfive, a sports marketing agency. "These sports sponsorship deals assured both trust and brand awareness to newly emerged online brokers."

The Strategy around Sports Sponsorships

Today, dozen of brokers of all sizes and shapes engage in active sports sponsorship deals. eToro must be the most active one with no less than 18 deals. Another Israeli broker, Plus500, garnered its reputation by becoming the shirt sponsor of Atlético Madrid during the club's peak (Plus500 ended its contract with the Spanish football club last year).

eToro and IC Markets are putting a lot of resources into sponsoring local sports clubs, counting on their loyal communities. Others, like Libertex sponsoring FC Bayern, Doo Group closing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Manchester United, and Axi backing Manchester City, are betting on the global reach and prestige of Europe's giants.

One way or another, football has always been the darling of brokers, except for racing: precisely Formula One. with about 450 million people across over 200 countries watching the 2023 Champions League Final between Manchester City and Inter Milan, it's quite clear why. No other club-level single sporting event has received such global viewership, edging towards the Super Bowl in the US (the 2023 edition of the Super Bowl attracted 115 million viewers in the US). Crypto exchange Coinbase ran a Super Bowl ad showing only a QR code for a minute.

While the popularity of football deals shows no signs of slowing down, brokers test the waters in other fields too.

"Bdswiss picked golf because it is widely recognized and played globally, in addition to it being associated with affluent demographics, which fits the profile of our clients," said Daniel Takieddine, BDSwiss' Middle East CEO.

The strategy is to promote the brand in a specific region or demographics by sponsoring locally popular games and clubs. CMC Markets' deal with a rugby team in New Zealand and a cricket team in Australia; CFI is sponsoring Jordan's national basketball team.

One distinct example of entering a market via sponsorship is the US. Following its expansion into the US and the prospect of going public there, the London-listed Plus500 inked a new four-year sponsorship deal with Chicago Bulls, which has 10 million followers on Instagram.

"Sports partnerships are important, but it's not everything. They are one crucial part of every [company's] marketing strategy. Still, they should also be accompanied by other types of marketing too – from performance marketing to maybe TV commercials or out-of-home campaigns. But there's no better marketing genre than sports sponsorships to load up your brand with a maximum of positive emotions while fans recognize you as a trusted and loyal partner," Schindler added.

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*Some of these brokers may have more active sports deals.

The Search for a Perfect Deal

The popularity of sports is only rising. And, with globalization and internet connectivity, some local games in one region are even gaining popularity in other parts of the world. Brokers are being very strategic and making use of this knowledge within their sports deals.

Football and Formula One racing have received most of the brokers' money regarding sponsorships for years. Yet, currently, brokers are diversifying their strategies by partnering with niche sports like golf, eSports, cricket, rugby, and more. Though some of these sports do not have a mass audience, like football, they have a cult-like following in some specific regions – like cricket in India and other South Asian countries.

"Brokers and crypto companies are buying a real range of strategies and, importantly, are achieving big results with them. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach and effectiveness of a strategy is determined by a brand’s respective marketing goals," said Matt House, the CEO and Founder of SportQuake, a sports sponsorship agency specializing in football sponsorship.

"There are many variables that determine the benefits of different sponsorship packages for brand sponsors. At the heart of the process is clearly establishing what goals a company is trying to achieve, e.g brand awareness, brand preference, sales, retention etc, what a company’s key markets are and what budget that company have."

Part two of Finance Magnates' three-part sports sponsorship series will discuss the costs of sports sponsorship deals.