The Brazilian online betting market is heating up the football market again. Corinthians, Palmeiras, Flamengo and São Paulo announce million-dollar deals from bookmakers, generating widespread interest among Series A teams. However, the boom requires caution precisely because of the announced values.
Medium-sized clubs may suffer, with a “natural selection” in sponsorship. The warning to clubs is to carefully evaluate the proposals, considering the companies’ background and financial capacity to support the new agreements.
Bernardo Pontes‘ article for Máquina do Esporte addresses this context, highlighting that there is a concentration of these large agreements only with the main clubs in the country. Check out the text below:
Bookmaker´s sponsorship generates millions
On January 7th, Corinthians announced a R$120 million sponsorship with VaideBet. Last week, Palmeiras announced a master agreement for women’s football worth around R$18 million with Esportes da Sorte.
At the end of last year, Flamengo had already signaled Pixbet‘s transition to the master space worth R$85 million. And the officialization of São Paulo with Superbet is added to the list.
This change in the property values of uniforms affects the entire ecosystem of football clubs, after all, no club wants to be left behind in this race for large checks.
In the week following Corinthians’ announcement, most of the Serie A clubs contacted my agency, Alob Sports, to find out if we were interested in presenting a betting brand to take the place of our current partner.
This current partner recently announced the biggest sponsorship deal in the history of these clubs.
This boom generates expectations in practically all clubs to recover their contracts, whether with the current partner or even with a new partner. But note that these clubs that made a big leap have one fundamental characteristic in common: national presence.
Fans spread across Brazil, potential for impact, engagement and conversion. This makes companies literally bet big.
Money from bookmakers only goes to the big guys
There is no point in a regional club thinking that its sponsorship, which, before betting brands, was sold for R$5 million, has now received a contract worth R$20 million, and will get a new contract worth R$40 million in this new wave. Will not. It doesn’t work like that.
Consider that these companies will very soon have to pay a license fee of R$30 million to be able to operate in the country. I talked about this in my last column.
Furthermore, it is essential that club executives understand that the advertising market will not be able to closely follow this new pricing. It’s practically a value table for bets and another for other segments.
A few years ago, before the arrival of betting companies, a sleeve sponsorship, for example, corresponded on average to 55% of the value of the master, while for the collarbone region it was 40%.
Today, this proportion is impossible to apply. The world of betting has become different from the rest. The club that does not understand this will have difficulty attracting commercial funds. And this will generate a distancing from other segments.
Another point that needs to be analyzed very carefully is the fact that medium and small clubs understand that these investments can stabilize or even reduce in the near future.
I foresee the following scenario: most of the companies that sponsor Series B clubs, for example, will not have the financial strength to pay for the license. As a result, they will not be able to showcase their brands in these clubs.
Only companies that have passed this point will be allowed to acquire these assets. The consequence of this is a decrease in the number of companies able to purchase these products. The more supply and less demand, the lower the price.
Hectic scenario at the negotiating tables
Today, we live exactly the opposite, with rare offers (practically all clubs occupied) and very high demand, newly created companies buying assets to generate leads and trying to sell their bases/platforms in the future to some company that passes regulation.
And it is important that clubs have the discernment and ability to carry out a thorough background check on each of the proposals that arrive.
Understand where the company operates, how long ago it was created and who the partners are, among other analyses, precisely to understand the real capacity that this company has to pay for this new agreement.
