By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted March 10, 2024 | In Sponsorizzazioni Sportive, Sport Sponsorship
By Emanuele Venturoli| Posted March 10, 2024 | In Sponsorizzazioni Sportive, Sport Sponsorship
The sports sponsorship landscape continues to expand rapidly. The global sports sponsorship market was valued at around USD 66.7 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach over USD 70 billion in 2025. Forecasts even anticipate it will surpass USD 90 billion by 2029 as more brands invest in sports partnerships.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this trend presents a valuable opportunity. Aligning with sports properties—whether a local club event, a community race, or even a digital motorsport platform—offers a high-impact way to stand out and build lasting customer relationships. Top-tier series like Formula 1, MotoGP, WEC, and Formula E offer global exposure, while grassroots events provide targeted engagement at manageable costs.
Sports sponsorship gives SMEs access to broad and engaged audiences. For example, Formula 1 reached 1.5 billion TV viewers in 2023. According to Nielsen Sports, 81% of motorsport fans feel more connected to brands that sponsor their favorite teams.
Local sponsorships enhance community involvement, whether through karting championships, junior leagues, or fun-runs. Many packages are highly affordable—for example, pitch-side advertising in a UK local club can start from £450 per season.
Moreover, sponsorship provides trial opportunities: sampling products at circuits, promoting via team social channels, and capturing fan feedback. Industry data suggests an average return of $6.20 for every $1 spent, especially when paired with social media campaigns.
Even small placements—like a banner at a racetrack—can deliver powerful visibility. Repetition builds recognition and trust: fans seeing your logo at events or on uniforms begin to associate it with their passion.
SMEs also benefit from exposure via the sponsored team or event’s communication channels: shout-outs on social media, logo placement on websites and newsletters, and even official team merchandise. Programs like F1 Academy’s “Shop Small” campaign show how small businesses can ride the visibility wave of major sports platforms.
Niche sports often yield higher sponsor engagement, as their fans tend to interact more deeply. This makes targeted campaigns especially effective.
Sponsorship enhances emotional loyalty. A 2024 survey showed that 20% of consumers chose a brand because it sponsors their favorite sport, and 28% recommended it to others.
Beyond branding, small sponsors often receive VIP perks—tickets, pit access, meet-and-greets—which can be used for rewarding customers, contests, or employee incentives. These memorable experiences drive word-of-mouth and long-term loyalty. In fact, 85% of consumers say they are more likely to buy after participating in such experiences.
Supporting local sports builds shared community pride and identity. Fans begin to view the business as “one of us,” creating advocates who promote the brand organically.
Compared to traditional advertising, sponsorship is cost-effective. Many packages start in the hundreds, not thousands. Sponsors get sustained visibility across a season—not just a one-time ad impression.
In some countries, sponsorship is also tax-deductible as a business expense. For instance, in the UK, if done “wholly and exclusively” for business purposes, it can reduce taxable profits. This financial treatment further strengthens the business case.
Beyond tax savings, the return on investment can be significant. Nielsen research showed a 10% increase in purchase intent among fans exposed to sponsor messaging. These effects often turn initial sponsorships into long-term strategies, where small businesses grow with the sport—from local events to larger leagues as their budgets and brand equity increase.
Sports sponsorship offers small businesses a powerful tool to:
It’s a scalable, cost-effective strategy that delivers measurable results. Whether partnering with a grassroots event or targeting a niche in top-tier motorsport, SMEs that embrace sponsorship stand to gain marketing value that transcends budget constraints—connecting not just with customers, but with the culture they care about.
Experience the power and put your brand in front of millions with motorsport sponsorship. Whether it's Formula 1, MotoGP, NASCAR, IndyCar, or WEC, RTR Sports give your brand the opportunity to appear on television at the most prestigious race tracks in the world.
Sponsor a motorsport team today
A graduate in Public, Social and Political Communication from the University of Bologna, he has always been passionate about marketing, design and sport.
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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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