The alcoholic beverages industry is estimated to shell out $462.77m across 666 sponsorship deals with European sports properties. As alcoholic consumption is widely regarded as an important component of watching sport, sponsorship thus provides alcoholic beverage brands a direct route to reach and engage with their target audience and ultimately, drive sales growth, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Liam Fox, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Alcohol’s endemic nature with sport has seen alcoholic beverage sponsorships become a staple within the sporting landscape. For alcoholic beverage brands, sport sponsorship is one of the keystones of their marketing activities, as sports fans often represent a collective gathering of a demographic which aligns well with that of their target audience.”

Beer brands dominate, accounting for 67% of the sector’s total spend and 61% of the total volume of deals. Heineken and its non-alcoholic beer brand Heineken 0.0 spearhead the sector’s spend, contributing an estimated $187.32m across 44 deals. This is $150m more than any other brand and accounts for almost 41% of the total spend of alcoholic beverage sponsors in Europe.

Fox continues: “Continental sports properties, such as the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Euro 2020 are generating the most revenue through alcoholic beverage brand sponsorships in comparison to any single market territory. It has been observed there are 18 deals estimated to be worth over $200m combined, which is 43.7% of the total sponsorship revenue generated from the sector in Europe because sponsorship of continental sports properties grant extensive rights and engagement opportunities across a range of markets. Therefore, sport properties have the ability to reach consumers on a mass-scale.”

The UK sports market is the most attractive single market territory for alcoholic beverage sponsors with 21% of the sector’s total sponsorship spend channelled towards the market, while 29% of the total volume of deals are with UK sports properties.