Asia-Pacific (APAC) Sport Technology Sponsorship Landscape - Analysing Biggest Deals, Sports League, Brands and Case Studies

Asia-Pacific (APAC) Sport Technology Sponsorship Landscape - Analysing Biggest Deals, Sports League, Brands and Case Studies

Summary

An analysis of the technology sponsorship industry within APAC as well as a larger look at major global deals.

Electronic Arts (EA) is the most active brand from the sector with 11 partnerships in 2023, thanks to partnerships with significant organizations and teams including LaLiga, NHL and Liverpool. Sponsorship values for EA are approximately $35.1 million annually, and $182.8 million over their durations, the bulk of which stems from significant deals with LaLiga and the NHL. Despite the greater volume of deals, EA’s sponsorship agreements only amount to 5.6% of the spend within the technology sponsorship sector in APAC, with 33.7% of the value accounted for by 2K Sports.

Soccer was the most prominently sponsored sport, with 38% of technology deals falling within that sport. It remains the most attractive sport to sponsor for technology brands within APAC, given its sizable popularity and growing profile within Asia and Oceania. Despite that, the total value of soccer deals accounts for 13.5% of the overall value, the majority of which is accounted for by high-value deals within basketball. Once again, 2K Sports are responsible for basketball providing much of the deal value, with their licensing deal with the NBA worth $1.1 billion over its seven year duration.

195 different technology brands have been recorded as having sponsorship agreements in place within APAC. 151 of these active deals are from brands who are headquartered in APAC, indicating that much of the sponsorship in the region comes from brands closer to home. The majority of these deals stem from East Asia, with Japan, South Korea and China featuring prevalently compared to the rest of Asia and Oceania. Additionally, 41 of the deals included in this analysis are global deals, which are active in APAC as well as all other regions, and these account for some of the most sizable deals.

Key Highlights

Sponsorship is one of the most effective ways for brands to increase their visibility and profile. Sports are incredibly popular around the world, with the most popular leagues and teams being viewed by millions. Brands are eager to attach themselves to widely viewed properties to increase the number of eyes on their branding and advertisements. Greater awareness of a brand can lead to increased sales and profits, so it certainly pays for brands to pay sums of money to attach themselves to sporting properties. Obviously, the value of the deal depends significantly on the size of the property, the scope of the agreement and the size of the brand itself, but technology is among the fastest growing sectors in the world, making it a perfect sector for sporting products to align themselves with. As a sector, technology is evolving and changing rapidly, and there will always be a future for technology in the modern world given how reliant society has become on it. This means that sponsorship opportunities for technology within sport will only continue to grow and become more significant in the coming years, which in turn will increase deal values and durations as brands build up long-term partnerships with sporting properties. Looking specifically at the APAC region, many of the world’s most innovative and profitable technology brands have originated from Asia, with titans such as Samsung, Sony and Tencent having dominated the technology industry globally within the last few decades.

As of 8th March 2023, there are a total of 263 active deals with technology brands within the APAC region, with much of this deal volume being accounted for by deals with sporting properties. In terms of value, basketball has the highest value deals across any sports, although this largely due to the enormously valuable licensing deal between 2K Sports and the NBA, which is said to have a total value eclipsing $1 billion for its seven year duration. Among the most prominent brands are EA with 11 separate deals in the APAC region, while Konami and Acronis are the next most prominent, accounting for ten and five deals each respectively. Despite the greater deal volumes present here, the total combined deal value for these brands accounts for only 17% of the total technology deal value within APAC, suggesting that the greater value is more concentrated towards brands that are less active in terms of deal volume.

In terms of the most active brands, East Asia is home to many of them, with brands from Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea accounting for 36% of active deals. In particular, Japanese brands are dominant here, with Fujitsu, Konami, NEC and Transcosmos all accounting for multiple sponsorship agreements within the sector. Looking further afield, Intel stands out as one of the highest value brands, with a total of $506.9 million in sponsorship deal value, the bulk of which comes from global deals with the Olympics and ESL Gaming, a major Esports organization.

In terms of deals specifically focused on APAC, the highest value deals are Infosys’ sponsoring of the Australian Open, which is estimated to be worth a total of $15 million over five years. This deal serves as a renewal to a partnership that began during the 2019 edition of the tournament. Another high-value deal is the CJ Group’s title sponsoring of the South Korean PGA event, which began in 2017. Estimated to be worth $1.5 million a year over a decade, the deal will expire in 2026.

Who Should Buy

Investors who are attempting to understand the current dynamics of tech companies and their forays into sports sponsorship.

Sports industry professionals who want a detailed analysis on some of the tech industry’s bigger deals within sports sponsorship.

Sports industry workers who want further information as to how common tech deals have been in recent years, and how it compares to the current landscape.

ScopeThis report provides an overview of the technology sponsorship sector in the Asia-Pacific region.The report identifies the key brands operating in the sector, including the most active brands and the ones with the highest spend.A look at which sports are the most frequently sponsored by technology brands, and how they are benefiting from these deals.A detailed look at what specific countries in APAC are the most active when it comes to sponsorship, and how this compares to global deals from other regions around the world.Reasons to BuyFor those wanting an in depth analysis of how the biggest partnerships active in the sector.Discusses why some brands are more active than others, and how this is affected by the sports that are most popular in their regions.GlobalData’s thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition, and secure that all-important competitive advantage.