The following is a guest editorial courtesy of Stephen Pearson, Founder and CEO of boutique global sports marketing agency SMG.

---

The last years have seen most FX brokers opt for a football led marketing strategy. With the density of deals and increasing clutter in football, how can brands find different opportunities to stand out from the crowd?

Football still remains the most popular sport of choice for the online trading sector since 2010 when the first broker sports deals came on the scene.

Since then, over 70% of investment into sports sponsorship has been allocated to football related deals. Nearly every club in the top European leagues now has an online trading partner – on the shirt, on the sleeve, on the back of the shirt or as a global/regional partner.

Along with sports betting, online trading now represents one of the largest number of sponsorships than other brand sectors with teams, players, managers and events. Add crypto into the mix and the percentage of investment increases significantly.

Why football ?

It is demographically relevant to the client base, it offers significant tangible benefits such as brand exposure to global audiences, and a transfer of intangible benefits such as credibility by association to world class partners who enjoy sporting success.

But the football sector is seeing a greater deal of density than ever before, there may be a  point that another broker announcing yet another football deal doesn’t quite hit the mark that it used to. Brokers are starting to look for standout in a market that is becoming increasingly cluttered.

One route round this issue within football itself has been to dominate the landscape. Etoro  as example now have partnerships with over 20 clubs around Europe giving them permanent visibility week in week out.

Another issue has recently come into play. Whilst FX brokers are now expanding into crypto related sectors, this creates complex product category discussions with rights holders who are trying to maximise the revenue from every angle of online trading. Online trading as a category used to be quite straightforward but not anymore. In many cases a greater investment is needed to ensure exclusivity across multiple category sectors.

So where have brokers been turning their attention to and where else can they find standout in the from their peers?

Formula1 was a staple platform for brokers several years ago, multiple teams had an FX sponsor, but most gradually moved to football. Today only one team has an FX partner.

But F1 has become relevant again, the Netflix Drive to Survive has opened the sport to a new audience, no longer petrol heads but a mass audience who have been lured in by the behind scenes insight to the sport.

F1 has created its own successful esports series, audiences are increasing and digital platforms are generating significant return on investment. Speed and trading have always gone hand in hand, F1 offers better opportunities than ever before.

A number of other sports are also seeing changes that have drawn in brokers. Tennis is one of them. It is seeing a new era where the same three top players no longer dominate. A global sport it however also allows sponsors to carve out territorial deals for markets of importance.

More brokers have been doing rugby sponsorships than ever before. A sport that has less global exposure than football, it however provides a more upscale audience with higher disposable income.

For brokers who also target a B2B audience, sports like golf and sailing have evolved into more sponsor friendly environments. These types of sports compete harder for sponsorship revenue, they are more adaptable to finding solutions to draw in clients.

Regionality continues to play a huge part and as brokers are continually expanding, markets like MENA, LATAM, South Africa offer opportunities for brokers to partner with sports that are strong in the region, be it golf in Dubai or rugby in South Africa and UFC in Brazil which remains the most followed sport after football.

The pandemic had a massive impact on sports but one that saw a reversal of fortune in a positive direction has been esports.

1 in 3 people on the planet are gamers, 2020 saw biggest ever growth in esports. The audience is tech savvy, digital orientated by nature, and high disposable income (67% household income over €85k [Nielsen]), average age 23, 74% Male.

In 2021 there were over thirty esports deals done by crypto exchanges alone, one of the fastest paces of sponsorship investment ever seen. The esports market is relevant and huge for brokers, we are sure to see much more investment into esports.

What will the future bring? Potentially big sponsorships in the Metaverse! Football will still play a major part of broker investment but brokers can be assured there are many alternatives out there.

Stephen Pearson, founder of Sports Media Gaming Ltd, has brokered multiple sponsorships for FX and crypto brands, most recently ThinkMarkets global sponsorship of Liverpool FC, Vantage’s sponsorship with McLaren Extreme E, and Bit Stamp Exchanges global esports partnerships in North America and Europe.