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The process by which a new shirt sponsorship was struck between SEGA Europe and Arsenal FC is described through a case study. The circumstances leading both organizations to seek out a sponsorship partner are identified. SEGA Europe was preparing to launch its new Dreamcast video console in Europe and wished to create a high-impact marketing program. Arsenal was looking for a company to replace its former shirt sponsor JVC. The case study also provides information about the sponsorship deal, the first 18 months of the partnership, and draws out some some more general lessons.

The article examines AXA UK's decision to invest in a four-year, £25 million sponsorship of the English Football Association's Challenge Cup beginning with the 1998-99 season. Corporate profiles are provided for the sponsor along with a comprehensive socio-historical overview of the property. As a member of the French-based, multinational AXA Group, the relationship of this domestic sponsorship (offering worldwide exposure) to the company's strategic emphasis on “Thinking Globally” and “Acting Locally” is examined. The Sponsorship Team's careful selection of the property and formulation of strategic goals, challenges, creative themes, consumer targets, and partnerships is presented. Evidence suggests that AXA UK's decision to pursue sponsorship over advertising paid significant dividends through the first two years of the agreement.

This paper analyses the cost efficiency of Italian football clubs using a stochastic frontier model. The frontier estimation confirmed that the model fits the data well with all coefficients correctly signed and in line with the theoretical requirements. Marketing and Sponsorship is taken into account as an explanatory variable and the factors which contributed to these findings, as well as other policy implications, are provided.

This research aims to examine football fans' awareness of their team sponsors and to compare sponsorship awareness between season ticket holders and casual spectators. Data was collected from among fans of a professional football team and results revealed that spectators recall 'top of mind' those sponsors with their logo displayed on the team shirts. Thus, being visible from the stadium stands is important to ensure recall rates. Fans are typically able to properly recognise sponsors and non-sponsors of their team. However, some competitor brands engaged in football sponsorship are incorrectly recognised as sponsors of a team. Finally, the number of brands recalled and recognised correctly by season ticket holders is significantly higher than for casual spectators. The research findings, managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Over the past several years, growth in sponsorship spending has surpassed that of traditional marketing and promotional approaches, as it has become an indispensable part of the marketing mix. Yet, despite considerable advances in the application of analytics across the sport industry, sponsorship revenue forecasting still largely relies on a decades-old methodology. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This research seeks to assist sport organizations by applying more advanced survival analysis methodologies to the study of shirt sponsorships of football clubs, utilizing more than 300 sponsorships of every team that has competed in the English Premier League (EPL) over the past 25 years.

The analysis of the lifetimes of shirt sponsorships provides several insights for those employed by European football clubs and tasked with managing these increasingly lucrative sponsorships. Notably, tests confirmed that survivor functions of EPL shirt sponsorships are significantly different than those that appeared solely in English Football League (EFL) Championship play. In addition, results found that the median lifetimes of shirt sponsorships of EPL clubs were more than one year longer, when compared to EFL clubs.

This research marks the first attempt in the literature to apply survival analysis methods to describe the lifetimes of European football shirt sponsorships. The results provide empirical evidence that the potential effects of promotion or relegation could have consequences for football clubs in the tens of millions of dollars, and illustrate the importance of providing those tasked with managing such partnerships with more advanced methodologies to assist in the organization’s sponsorship revenue forecasting activities.

The international trade of players in European club football does not seem to have had any negative effects on the national teams in the major leagues. Data presented in this article indicate a potentially positive effect for England and no effect for Spain, Italy and Germany. Contrary to this, the national teams in Norway, Greece and France seem to have benefited from exporting players to leagues of better quality than their own domestic leagues.

A key concern in sports sponsorship decisions is knowing under what conditions sponsorship can effectively act as a brand building tool. The purpose of this study is to list attributes to use when examining congruency in the sponsorship of national football teams. The second aim was to test whether being a client of the sponsor brand and being involved with the sponsee moderates the relationship between image congruence and sponsorship response.

Data were collected on four sponsors of the Portuguese national team, just before the 20th Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup. Analyses were conducted on a representative national sample of fans. The research design encompassed a two-step approach. First, qualitative analysis identified the main attributes that fans associate with the national team. In the second quantitative phase, moderated regression analysis was used to test the proposed model.

This study confirmed sponsor–sponsee congruence in seven attributes (i.e. national symbol, strength, strong emotions, happiness, optimism, connection and positive feelings) enhances positive brand image and fans’ involvement with the national team moderates this relationship. Positive sponsorship outcomes tend to be higher for sponsors when fans are currently clients of the sponsor brand.

This study adds to previous research by using mixed methods to study sponsor–sponsee congruence regarding national teams and by testing whether fans being clients of sponsors and being involved with sponsees moderate sponsor–sponsee congruence.

This paper examines what drives match-fixing in football and why some leagues collapse from corruption. Based on more than 220 interviews with players, referees, sports officials and law enforcement officers, the gambling industry and corrupters, three factors presented when high levels of match-fixing were observed: strong illegal gambling networks, high levels of relative exploitation of players, and perceived corrupt officials. Leagues collapsed if the public became aware of high-level corruption and an alternative market competitor was introduced.

This article provides a plain language commentary on the distributive equity structure of the English Premier League (EPL) with the aim of introducing sport business practitioners to a foundational challenge facing professional leagues as they grow financially with market opportunities, namely financial inequality between clubs.

Introducing and discussing data from seasons 2009/10–2018/19, the article reveals that despite maintaining a consistent distribution of the EPL prize fund over time, the financial imbalance within the league has grown throughout the period.

The EPL's financial distributive equity is exacerbated by growing imparity in the acquisition of sponsorship revenues, the distribution of broadcasting revenues and the implications of policies concerning financial fair play and parachute payments, leading to a problematic differential in the talent distribution and win–wage relationship experienced by the top six teams and the remainder.

The EPL's market-driven continuation of its revenue allocation policies has led to a broadening financial imbalance, in favour of the top clubs, which could paradoxically undermine the financial security of the teams and league. Sport business practitioners should be familiar with this fundamental challenge for sport leagues that accompanies financial growth.

Whilst the percentage difference in prize fund allocation between top and bottom clubs appears minor, there is a significant financial variation across the league, primarily due to the large increase in broadcasting income. This is compounded by positive feedback via the relative dominance of the top six clubs receiving the larger share allocated to higher finishing teams.