Fans who have been following the matches of the 2025/26 Champions League season may have noticed the predominance of the brands of online betting and financial services companies and large airlines in a prominent place on the teams’ uniforms.
Of the 36 teams participating in the league phase of the current edition of continental Europe, 19 of them, or around 53% of the total, have companies from one of the three sectors as their master sponsor.
Betting companies lead the way, sponsoring seven clubs: Inter Milan, Sporting, Olympiacos, Kairat, Copenhagen, Club Brugge and Union Saint-Gilloise.
Next, with six each, are financial services —Liverpool, Tottenham, Athletic Bilbao, Bayern Leverkusen, Slavia Praga and Bodø/Glimt— and airlines —Manchester City, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Benfica and PSG.
Telecommunications companies appear next, with master sponsorship of three Champions clubs: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax.
“The sports betting segment is undergoing aggressive expansion and is seeking the football audience. It is a perfect partnership to explore the consumption of content in real time”, said Eduardo Corch, director of EMW Global for Latin America and professor of marketing at Insper.
In the Club World Cup, betting had also stood out, accounting for around 30% of sponsorships for the 32 teams competing in the United States.
“The betting sector was even more prominent in the past, but when investment from Arab States took place via airlines, it lost space in the main brands, especially in more mature markets, such as the English, where it already faces some restrictions”, said José Sarkis Arakelian, consultant and professor at FAAP (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado).
Champion of the new expanded FIFA World Cup, Chelsea is the only team without a master sponsorship in the Champions League.
The English club is in the market looking for sponsorship worth around 60 million to 65 million pounds (between R$429 million and R$464 million) per season.
Real Madrid (Emirates), Barcelona (Spotify), Manchester United (Snapdragon) and PSG (Qatar Airways) are the teams with the biggest sponsorship deals in football, with values around 70 million euros (R$437 million) per season.
Sponsor of Atlético de Madrid, Riyadh Air, a Saudi Arabian airline, is highlighted by the English press as a strong candidate to stamp its brand on the blue shirt of the world champions.
“Where we perceive the sponsorship of airlines, in reality what we have is investment from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in a kind of reinforcement of symbolic capital, by becoming close to the most recognized brands”, stated Arakelian. “By establishing a presence in key spaces, these companies provide a clear demonstration of economic strength.”
“Companies like Etihad and Emirates use football as a ‘soft power’ tool, linking their brands to sporting giants to strengthen their countries’ image,” said Corch.
“These companies see that these clubs are platforms for visibility and business on a scale that few other assets in the world can match.”
In the case of financial services, added the Insper professor, companies use sponsorship agreements in search of credibility and global reach, “and nothing offers this better than a global, cutting-edge club”.
Corch also highlighted the diversity of sectors present at Champions. There is, for example, the streaming application Spotify, sponsor of Barcelona, and APM Monaco, from the jewelry sector, which sponsors the principality’s team. “This just proves football’s global attraction power.”
Arakelian, from FAAP, pointed out that there is also the case of sponsors with a historical connection with the clubs, such as Jeep, sponsor of Juventus —company and team are linked to the Exor group— and Pamesa, controlled by Spanish businessman Fernando Roig Alfonso, who is also the president of Villareal.
In its second year under a new format, the 36 teams classified in the Champions League phase face eight teams each, in round-trip matches.
The eight best classified will advance to the round of 16. Those placed between 9th and 24th in the table will compete in a playoff for the remaining eight places.
The decision is scheduled for May 30, in a single game, at Puskás Aréna, in Budapest, Hungary. The Eastern European country will host the Champions League final for the first time.
