By Riccardo Tafà| Posted May 8, 2019 | In Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
By Riccardo Tafà| Posted May 8, 2019 | In Sport Sponsorship, Sports Marketing
In recent years, the African continent has transformed sport from a vehicle for local visibility to a global strategic lever. With targeted investments, African governments and brands are building reputations, activating soft power, and generating concrete economic returns through international sports sponsorship. This article analyzes current cases, traces strategic developments, and identifies emerging opportunities for those who want to activate or advise on sports sponsorships with African roots but global impact.
Strategic vision: Rwanda uses sports sponsorship to build systemic tourism and strengthen its national narrative on a global scale. The agreement with Arsenal FC, active since 2018 and still ongoing, provides daily visibility on one of Europe’s most intense media stages.
Measurable results: by 2024, tourism will have contributed over $1.7 billion to the Rwandan economy and supported hundreds of thousands of jobs, with significant growth in international visitor spending.
Reputational and geopolitical risks: The partnership is not without controversy: regional tensions have led to criticism and diplomatic pressure, demonstrating that high-level sports sponsorship must include political risk assessments and coordinated narratives.
Implications for consultants: combining tourism KPIs (e.g., increase in arrivals, average length of stay) with reputation and sentiment metrics is essential to fully assess the value of similar initiatives.
Strategic evolution: After a period of expansion in Europe (sponsorships with English clubs and federations such as the FAI), SportPesa has reconfigured its approach. Its European agreements (including those with Arsenal, Hull City, Southampton, Everton, and the previous one with the F1 Racing Point team) have ended; today, the company is focusing on strengthening and establishing itself in the African market.
New direction for 2025: a strategic partnership with the Football Kenya Federation was recently launched, with a multi-year commitment and a significant investment (estimated at over 1.12 billion Kenyan shillings) to support the domestic league and build local engagement.
Strategic lessons: The case shows that “stepping off the global stage” is not a failure but a smart reallocation to build reputational resilience and depth of impact. Regional sponsorships, if well structured, can become solid foundations for future expansion.
Strategic transition: Investec is no longer a sponsor of women’s hockey in England (the partnership ended in 2020) but has realigned its positioning on assets with continental and lasting visibility, such as European rugby, becoming the title partner of the Investec Champions Cup with a multi-year agreement.
Brand narrative: From supporting women’s sports to premium properties, the strategy remains consistent in its values (performance, development, collaboration) but adapts to audience dynamics and perceived return.
Advice for consultants: working with African brands that have heritage means knowing how to orchestrate transitions where historical “legacy” is re-engaged on new platforms that are more relevant to the present.
Current situation (August 2025): there are currently no major African sponsorships in MotoGP, unlike in regions such as Southeast Asia.
Narrative asset: Brad Binder, South African rider for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team, represents a natural “connection point.” His presence in MotoGP (5th place in 2024) and the continuation of the KTM project make it possible to build continental storytelling with sponsorship, co-branding, and local/global activations.
Suggested strategy (inference): an African brand can partner with the rider, develop “South Africa to the world” campaigns, activate local fan-centric events, and use the MotoGP platform to amplify the narrative. The current void in the segment offers space for early entrants with a coherent value proposition.
Contact us at info@rtrsports.com for a quick diagnosis or to build a tailor-made pitch.
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Managing Director for RTR Sports, Riccardo graduated in law at the University of Bologna. He began his career in London in PR, then started working in two and four-wheelers. A brief move to Monaco followed before returning to Italy. There he founded RTR, first a consulting firm and then a sports marketing company which, eventually, he moved back to London.
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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a motorsport sponsorship project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Motorsport is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Motorsport is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A motorsport sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which racing series, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of motorsport sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a motorsport marketing project, you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase online, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in motorsport sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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