Premier League Tops Shirt Sponsorships; Bundesliga Gets More Per Team

Primary shirt sponsorship revenue is greater for the Premier League, but individual clubs in Germany's Bundesliga are more lucrative, according to a new report from Int'l Marketing Reports. The '11-12 season saw total shirt sponsorship in the EPL amount to €128M ($162.6M), compared to €121M ($153.7M) for the Bundesliga. However, the 20 Premier League clubs had an average deal value of €6.4M ($8.1M), while the Bundesliga's 18 teams averaged €6.7M ($8.5M) (IMR). In Rio de Janeiro, Emerson Gonçalves reported that "one of the first things observed from the study is the increasing polarity between large and small."

THE REIGN IN SPAIN: This is most notable in Spain's La Liga. Without Barcelona and Real Madrid, the average shirt sponsorship deal for the other 18 clubs would average out at €500,000 ($635,000) instead of the €3.1M ($3.9M) listed when those clubs are included. The top six European clubs are Barcelona with €32M ($40.6M) (Qatar Foundation), Bayern Munich €26.5M ($33.7M) (Deutsche Telekom), Man City €22M ($28M) (Etihad), ManU €22 ($28M) (AON), Real Madrid €21M ($26.7M) (BWin) and Liverpool €20M ($25.4M) (Standard Chartered). The report also found that the "biggest shirt sponsors by number of clubs are the bookmakers." Oddly enough only two (Real Madrid with BWin and Juventus with Betclic) of Europe's top teams are sponsored by such companies. Most of the teams sponsored by such firms are smaller teams in both France and England. The other two industries "with large participation in sponsorships" are financial firms and airline companies (GLOBOESPORTE, 6/20).

For a complete breakdown of the total shirt sponsorship revenue in Europe's top leagues and the average deal per club, see the chart below: