October 6 – Combined spending on new and renewed sponsorship deals across Europe’s top five leagues – the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1 – has already surpassed $1.1 billion only three months into the 2025/26 season, according to new figures from market research specialists Ampere Analysis.
The data highlights not only the scale of investment but also shifting patterns in which industries are driving football’s commercial growth — and which are beginning to pull back.
Financial services remain the most active category, accounting for 16% of all new or renewed deals this season: a six percentage-point rise year-on-year. The data shows that drinks brands also expanded their presence to 10% of the market, while automotive and consumer goods companies each posted modest growth, reaching 7%. Sports apparel and equipment brands continued their steady climb, up to 6%.
At the other end of the sponsorship scale, the construction, heavy industry, food, and professional services sectors have scaled back spending, each dropping between two and three percentage points compared to last season.
A wave of new entrants has helped fuel the early-season splash. Trading and foreign exchange services, household goods firms, and luxury fashion brands have already surpassed the number of deals signed across all of last season – pushed on by first-time sponsors including Vodafone, Louis Vuitton and even the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In total, sponsorship across Europe’s top five leagues is now worth an estimated $5.4 billion annually.
Remarkably, companies new to European football since 2021/22 account for more than half (53%) of all deals signed for the current campaign — evidence of how the sport continues to attract a wider mix of investors.
Adidas remains the single biggest commercial player, increasing its kit supply spend by more than $100 million year-on-year to claim an 11% share of total sponsorship value across Europe’s top leagues. Nike follows at 6%, down from 8% last season having lost big players such as Liverpool FC to rivals Adidas.
Meanwhile, the balance of power continues to tilt internationally: Ampere’s report finds that 76% of sponsorship spend now originates from companies headquartered outside the domestic markets of each league — a share that continues to rise in the Premier League, Serie A, and Ligue 1.
The numbers underline football’s enduring global pull as a marketing platform — and suggest that, despite a tighter economic backdrop, elite European clubs remain some of the most powerful brand vehicles in sport.
Ed Keppie, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis, said: “Sponsorship is an important revenue stream to clubs and leagues tackling stagnating media rights revenues. Banking $1 billion on new sponsorship deals in the first three months of the 2025/26 is a huge positive for the industry and indicates that many brands view European football sponsorship as a viable solution in the face of challenging macroeconomic conditions. With first-time sponsors now driving over half of new deals, our data suggests the European football sponsorship market’s health is not only holding up – it’s broadening.”
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at [email protected]