The following guest article is courtesy of Stephen Pearson, CEO of Sports Media Gaming Ltd (SMG). SMG is a leading international sports marketing agency, and has been involved in brokering a number of the recent Sports Sponsorships and Brand Ambassador partnerships with online brokers including Ingot Brokers MENA partnership with La Liga, ThinkMarkets sponsorship of Liverpool FC and GemForex partnership with David Beckham.

The Qatar World Cup is currently in full swing but whilst all eyes are on the Middle East for football, it’s also a rapidly growing market of interest for brokers.

Alongside the already regulated entities, there has been a recent explosion of brokers acquiring licenses in the region, many of them in 2022 alone.

The importance of the region is backed up by the increasing level of marketing from brokers specifically targeting this lucrative market.

Being able to align with a global sports property on a regional level offers highly targeted marketing with limited wastage and at a fraction of the cost of an international sponsorship.

BDSwiss were in 2021 the official partners of the DP World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai. As part of that agreement, BDSwiss received strong brand exposure through on-course signage and visibility across a range of other tournament media materials. They also had the opportunity for excellent business-to-business opportunities through access to the tournament’s Pro-Am competition and suite of hospitality services.

More recently we have seen Jordanian based INGOT Brokers become regional partner of La Liga across MENA. It was the first time a broker has sponsored a league instead of an individual team. A huge launch event in Jordan was recently attended by the Jordanian Royal family and legendary footballer Luis Figo.

CFI have doubled down in the region. First securing the services of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to act as a brand ambassador, the partnership is adorned across outdoor media in Dubai as well as on television commercials on airlines such as Emirates.

CFI have gone on to become official partner of the Abu Dhabi Mubadalah World Tennis Championships taking place in December 2022 featuring some of the top tennis players in the world.

There is a tremendous opportunity for established brokers and new entrants in the Middle East. This opportunity is further accelerated by regulators’ willingness to create the legal frameworks needed to solidify sustainability and innovation in the financial industry.

The region is also attractive because of its size and diversity. According to a recent IPSOS survey the financial sector was the fourth highest for ad spending in 2021 whilst Statista forecast that smartphone penetration will reach 80% by 2025.

The finance world has been going digital for a long time, and it’s easier for marketers to engage young people in the MENA region because they’re tech-savvy. The population in the region is accepting of new innovations such as cryptocurrencies, and other non-traditional financial services.

Many ex-pat professionals in the GCC come to benefit from a tax-free environment where they can accumulate large sums of money in relatively short periods of time. This gives marketers in the finance industry the incentive to target those international expats and offer them services similar to those available back home.

From a sporting perspective there is a lot of money coming from the Middle East. This has seen acquisitions of leading football teams in Europe such as Manchester City, Paris St Germain, Newcastle united and rumours of investment into Manchester United.

There have also been significant moves to take global sporting events into the Middle East. Formula1 now has four races in the region, franchises are being set up by leading IPL cricket teams in the UAE and major boxing and other sporting events are being staged in the market.

For brokers it’s definitely becoming one of the hottest markets from a marketing perspective as Asia continues to create regulatory barriers and struggles with the pandemic in China.

Sport continues to play a major part in broker budgets and the Middle East will continue to remain a focus long after the final whistle in Qatar is blown.