The Future Of Arsenal’s Sponsorship Deals

Sponsoring a Premier League side is a productive investment for companies looking to expand their global reach. The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, and Arsenal, as one of the most successful clubs in the history of the English game, command a significant presence when looking to choose their sponsors. While the most notable kit sponsors usually take front and center of the Arsenal strip, other matchday sponsors cover a wide range of businesses, local and international.

Recent Sponsorships

Arsenal’s most recent big sponsorship deal came when Adidas announced in September 2022 that they would be sponsoring the Arsenal kit as of the start of the 2023/24 season. This enormous deal, worth a reported £300 million, is the sort of deal Arsenal fans will be hoping fuels the big money singings that could lead them to their first league title in two decades. Judging by last season’s performance, they aren’t that far off, just running out of steam toward the end of the season.

Key sponsorships help the club and the business. They help the business appeal to a global international audience and help Arsenal balance their books. Sponsorships come in many forms and sizes, whether small localized businesses to keep the community ingrained within the club structure or exciting new industries like cryptocurrency. Blockchain companies and cryptocurrency projects have struck deals with several clubs in the Premier League over the last few years. Arsenal was one of the first to explore this sponsorship avenue back in 2018 with a blockchain-based betting company.

There’s a lot of ingenuity occurring within the crypto space, and digital assets like Bitcoin spearhead the way for gambling companies to make considerable profits and use that profit to create brand visibility by sponsoring some of the biggest sports teams in England.

Cryptocurrency casinos have struck up deals with several teams in the Premier League over the years. As gambling and cryptocurrency permeate sponsorships across this league, this trend could continue gathering steam over the next few seasons. Bitcoin casino games like roulette and slots don’t work differently than in a traditional casino. However, this growth in profit and user numbers has resulted in an enormous profit, which has led to casino companies reaching out to multi-billion pound clubs like Arsenal and striking up sponsorship deals.

Are Sponsors Good Luck Omens?

Football is a superstitious game, and many fans have a range of different beliefs as to why a season or game pans out the way it does. For those old enough to remember, the O2 sponsorship deal that the Invincibles had in 2004 is one of the great Arsenal kits. An iconic sponsor can make fans remember kits for generations, so this is something that is also in mind when deciding on a sponsor at a corporate level.

Arsenal’s Fly Emirates sponsor is one of the most recognizable kits in the league, and they’ve been a sponsor on the front of Arsenal’s shirts for years. Going into last season, nobody thought the Gunners could challenge for the league. A few fans were quietly optimistic that they could break into the top 4 potentially, but nobody envisaged the first six months they would have.

While Arsenal couldn’t keep pace with Man City at the business end of the season, with new, big-money additions like Declan Rice bolstering the squad, Mikel Arteta will be hopeful that they will be able to go one better this season and lift their first Premier League trophy at the Emirates. Rice has stated he should be judged on his trophies and not his performances, which is the sign of a true winner, and the England international will only get better. If Arsenal can win the league this year, the Fly Emirates sponsor will stand alongside the iconic O2 kit in the Arsenal Hall of Fame, immortalized forever.

Final Thoughts

Although the Adidas sponsor we discussed at the beginning of the article is the most significant in the Premier League, if new signings Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, and Jurrien Timber are the genuine missing pieces of the puzzle and can help push Arsenal to their first Premier League since the Invincibles era, the amount of money on the table that sponsors will bring in will increase dramatically.

Not only is the money from winning the Premier League huge but as it is now a global enterprise, the team that wins catapults itself as a viable avenue for a host of international sponsorship deals with the world’s biggest companies. Although Arsenal already commands the same level of sponsorship as the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United, who are huge businesses in their own right, a Premier League win would take the North London club into lucrative deals, with a significant seat at the table.