Spobis Analyses Sponsorship Spending for Esports World Cup

Spobis, a German media company specialising in the sports business, has analysed the sponsorships of the Esports World Cup (EWC) and presents the approximate sums that the partners paid for the sponsorship rights.

Since official information on the EWC's total revenue is not available, it is difficult to assess how close Spobis comes to reality in its analysis. However, as one of the leading B2B service providers in the European sports business, Spobis is very well connected with all market participants in the sports industry, including sponsors. In the analysis, which can be found here (in German), Spobis assumes that the EWC 2024 had a turnover of around 100 million euros. More than half of this is said to have been generated by sponsorships, according to Spobis.

There were five companies in the highest sponsorship category that could be sold, the ‘strategic partner’ category. In addition to Pepsi and Sony, three Saudi Arabian companies belonged to this category. According to Spobis information, the packages cost around four million euros each. In addition, there were more than half a dozen so-called ‘main partners’, including Honor, Axe, Amazon, KitKat and LG. Spobis estimates their investment at around 1.5 to 2 million euros.

Adidas was the only German sponsoring partner at EWC and participated at the third sponsorship level, the so-called ‘official partner’. According to Spobis information, Adidas invested a mid-six-figure sum, which is why Spobis assumes a range between €400,000 and €800,000 in this category.

As Spobis further writes, this year the two highest categories, the ‘Presenting Partner’ and the ‘Nexus Partner’ could not be sold, presumably because advertisers wanted to wait for the debut. The list prices of these categories are estimated at 50 million euros and 15 million euros, respectively.

Spobis did not provide any further information on the financial commitment of the two EWC partner companies Saudi Telecom and Quddiya to this year's event. However, both were presumably the biggest supporters of EWC 2024, not least because gaming and esports are of strategic importance to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its efforts to diversify the economy.