What makes people love certain brands? Is this love genuine, or imposed by advertising? It’s a tough question: yes, we can truly adore some companies that share our own vision, but what if they are not? Then brands do their utmost to sink into your mind by all means.
Football sponsorship deals become another great way to boost the brand’s popularity. Players need to wear something on the field as well as they need a specific equipment to play. That’s where brands come in. But do you remember what brand name is on the shirt of your favorite footballer in the Premier League? Let’s check whether you are right.
Kit Sponsors Kit sponsors are brands that literally dress footballers up. Every cloth you see on a player is made by the particular sports apparel brand. As for the 2018-2019 season, there are 6 kit sponsors in the Premier League: Adidas (30%), Nike (20%), Umbro (20%), Puma (20%), Under Armour (5%), and New Balance (5%).
It worth noting, the number of kit sponsors is decreasing. In the previous season, we had 8 brands in the Premier League when in the 2016/2017 season there were 10 companies providing clothing to the top footballers of England.
When it comes to the leaders of the league standings, 3 teams — Manchester City, Chelsea, and Tottenham — are sponsored by Nike. Manchester United’s kit supplier is Adidas, players of Liverpool wear Under Armour, when Arsenal remains faithful to Puma, which was the leading kit sponsor during the last season.
Shirt Sponsors
If your favorite team was outside the top-6 during the last season, you will likely see a gambling company’s logo on shirts of its players. 9 out of 20 (that’s 45%) teams are sponsored by the representatives of this industry, 20% — by the companies from the financial sector, and another 20% — by automotive brands and airlines.
Still, top teams tend not to choose a gambling company as their shirt sponsor. The current #1 in the Premier League, Manchester City, signed a contract with Etihad Airways, UAE airlines. The same position shares Arsenal — they continue their long-standing collaboration with Emirates. Both Chelsea and Manchester United wear shirts with logos of well-known automotive brands — Yokohama Tyres and Chevrolet, when Tottenham and Liverpool decided on financial enterprises — AIA and Standard Chartered respectively.
The reason why gambling brands are so unpopular among the leaders is the better choice of sponsors to collaborate with. Outsiders have fewer options, so they have nothing to do but stick with gambling companies that are ready to pay them more than brands from non-gambling industries. However, the increasing number of gambling sponsorships can harm our society, according to the opinion of the authorities.
That’s Why a Prevailing Percentage of the Gambling Sponsors Raises Concerns Among Authorities
The representatives of Labour government consider gambling sponsorships a threat to British society. The only way out is to ban them or significantly decrease the percentage of gambling companies sponsoring the teams of Premier League. “Football has to play its part in tackling Britain’s hidden epidemic of gambling addiction” — says deputy leader Tom Watson.
We agree: it’s hard to resist the temptation to try your luck when the gambling companies are bombarding our minds with tons of advertisements almost everywhere: on the football stadium, on the street, and on the web. And if the huge billboards and logos on the shirts of football players are their “heavy artillery”, there are more concealed marketing weapons those companies use to draw your attention.
Welcome casino bonuses may serve as a great example: on the one hand, it seems like casinos just give you money for free. “All you need is to register on our website and make your first (usually small) deposit” - they say. But in fact, casinos use this tool only to entrap more customers: you won’t be able to withdraw this money after signing up. First, you need to fulfil wagering requirements. It’s not that simple: you need to place a specific number of bets, which statistically leads to loss of all your bonus funds. A deceived gambler continues to play more and more in an attempt to get it back, but usually, he or she only starts to lose their own money.
This way, authorities will try to do their utmost to prevent the further spread of gambling addiction. Who knows, probably the next season will be the first one when the percentage the gambling sponsorships will go down.
Sleeve Sponsors Sleeve sponsorships are a novelty for the Premier League: the teams were allowed to place logos on their sleeves only in the previous season. That’s why Burnley, Newcastle, and Tottenham haven’t signed any contracts with sleeve sponsors yet.
Here we have sponsors from a variety of industries, but the most widespread are financial companies — the share of 23% belongs to them. The second leading are the gaming and gambling brands — they sponsor 3 teams (17%). By the way, Manchester United and Chelsea go with automotive logos this season, when Manchester City’s and Arsenal’s sponsors come from manufacturing & hospitality and tourism industries.
We appreciate the contribution of those companies to the evolution of the Premier League. But let’s not forget they also gain huge profits from this collaboration, and they are not only about money. There are a lot of people in the world who wanted to buy Nike sneakers just because Wayne Rooney wore them. The other group of football fans didn’t know about Emirates airlines before watching a match with Arsenal.
If you imagine how many people watched football at least once in their life, you will get terrified how strong its impact on our minds is. That’s how sponsorships work for brands — sometimes much better than advertising. And we can not realize this, but that’s exactly how brands make us love them.