How much do sports sponsorships in F1, MotoGP, football and tennis cost?

A comparison of the minimum budget required to gain visibility.

Sports sponsorships can be worth from a few thousand euros to over a billion euros, as demonstrated by the partnership between Adidas and Real Madrid (1.1 billion euros) or LVMH’s recent sponsorship of F1 (1 billion euros). To give a sensible answer to the question “how much does sponsorship cost?”, we need to narrow the field down to activities and teams/athletes that are comparable in terms of prestige and audience.

The disciplines we will consider in this article are:

• Football
• Formula 1
• MotoGP
• Tennis

We will therefore refer only to teams and sports that guarantee a global audience, focusing on teams rather than events. Specifically, we will try to indicate the minimum entry level that will allow us to gain access and with what level of visibility. We will then try to answer several other questions. Is it better to sponsor a team sport or an individual sport? Is it better to sponsor a league or a team? Is it better to sponsor an athlete or a team? What are the possible undesirable side effects of the various disciplines? Are some sports more at risk than others? Is it possible, with careful planning, to mitigate some of these risks? Can we also protect ourselves contractually?

Let’s start with the costs we will have to match with the available budget, the basis of any business operation. Without a budget, we remain in the virtual world of hypotheses.

How much does sponsorship cost in football?

Given the vastness of the subject, we will limit ourselves to a few examples. Let’s start with the value of shirt partnerships in the Premier League for the 2024/2025 season in alphabetical order, where available, we also report the values of the Manica sponsor, which in some cases (Arsenal, Man City, United, Liverpool and Tottenham have significant values) (1).

Sponsorship in football 

The space on the right sleeve (the only one available) of the most important teams in the English Premier League is on offer at £100,000 per square centimetre…. This should give you a clear idea of the kind of budget you need if you want to stand out among the sponsors of this league (2).

I assume you are not interested in billboards and LED screens around the pitch: a tool we have discussed in the past that I do not like, which can be used for much smaller budgets but with little effect.

And in Italy? A couple of examples from our football

AS Roma 2025 sponsor

The shirt sponsor is worth €12.5 million per season and is Riyadh Season, plus €6 million from the back sponsor, Auberge Resort.

AC Milan 2025 sponsor

Fly Emirates, the main sponsor, is worth around €30 million, plus MSC Cruises, the sleeve sponsor for €5 million, and the back sponsor Bit Panda for a further €5 million.

If you do not want to appear on the shirts but want to take advantage of all the marketing rights of an official partner, we can estimate that €100,000 would be sufficient to access this type of package for second-tier teams in Serie A (i.e. no shirt visibility but website, backdrop and pitchside signage).

How much do Formula 1 sponsorships cost?

Sponsorships in F1 are going through a golden age. Here is an overview of what is happening in 2025 according to the BlackBook of motorsport.

The investment required to be part of an F1 team is significant, although, to be honest, there is a huge gap between title sponsors (worth tens of millions of dollars) and lower-tier partners (almost always around £1 million).

Below is the value attributed by experts to the title sponsors of F1 teams in 2025.

The investment that it takes to sponsor an F1 team is hugely varied –  title sponsors may be worth hundreds of millions of euro, whilst low-end partners are often around €100,000 (5).

As an example, we list below the sponsors and partners of Scuderia Ferrari, obviously one of the most prestigious teams in Formula 1.

Obviously, and as is easy to understand, significant costs are associated with impressive marketing benefits and extraordinary returns in terms of image. By clicking on this link, you can read about the benefits obtained by Petronas from its title sponsorship of the Mercedes F1 Team for an investment of approximately £40 million per year. According to the Mail, £1 million is the minimum required to place your brand on Lewis Hamilton‘s suit, as stated in this article.

How much does MotoGP sponsorship cost?

As already mentioned on several occasions on this blog, sponsoring MotoGP has a wide range of access. The market is very diverse, with small initial deals starting at £65,000 up to the largest title sponsorships reaching £10-15 million. There are no pre-set packages or prices, but let’s try to see what you can buy with what amount.

€65,000 – Partner

This is the entry level to the top class for some teams on the grid. You purchase marketing and communication rights that allow you to have a great story to tell. Visibility, on the other hand, is non-existent or minimal and may be limited to a small logo on transport or backdrops.

€70,000 – €150,000 Technical sponsor / official sponsor

At this price, you can start to have your brand on the bike or the rider’s suit, if we are talking about satellite teams or unofficial manufacturers.

The logo is also present on transport, the website and other team communication tools. This visibility, although limited, allows for some return in terms of image and generates brand awareness on digital and traditional media.

150,000 – 500,000 Official sponsor

This amount allows for ample space on satellite and unofficial teams and also makes it possible to approach top-tier official teams, albeit for smaller spaces. The possibilities for activation multiply, discussions about hospitality and B2B become relevant, and opportunities for the use of show bikes, rider appearances at corporate events and so on begin to appear in contracts. Although these are not huge sums, they require very clear initial strategic decisions, which require good planning upstream.

€500,000 – €2/3 million First-level Official Sponsor

This budget allows you to negotiate with any World Championship team for positions with good visibility: you will have extraordinary space on second-tier unofficial teams and interesting positions on teams that consistently score points. The strategy you want to pursue begins to be fundamental, bearing in mind that a larger space does not always correspond to greater marketing results. Finally, there is a wealth of communication rights and team support for all communication and B2B operations.

3 million – 5 million Euro – Main Sponsor

As is evident, at these levels we are already among the most important sponsors in the championship. Investing these amounts means not only gaining extraordinary image and brand awareness in all the territories covered by the championship, but also equipping your brand with an extraordinarily powerful communication tool. Imagine riders and motorcycles at your disposal for videos, communications, events, trade fairs and incentives, and a large number of passes for your best customers and sales force at all 19 stages of the world championship.

5 million – 12 million – Title Sponsor

At the top of the range is Title Sponsorship, the highest level of investment in sports sponsorship. In addition to the above, such figures allow you to name the team after your brand and decorate the bikes and riders’ suits with your colours and graphics. This means positioning yourself with great strength not only in the discipline, but in the entire world sporting landscape. Your name, your brand and your colours are displayed across the 207 territories where the World Championship is watched and during 28,000 hours of annual broadcasts. You have a communication tool that you can use all over the world, in all languages, while the team’s hospitality and vehicles, in your colours and shapes, welcome guests and special visitors to what has effectively become your home.

How much does sponsorship cost in tennis

Tennis is enjoying a period of great popularity, and the good fortune of having unrivalled champions such as Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic and many emerging young players has pushed tennis even higher in recent years… But how much does it cost to join the elite of the racquet? How visible are they? And how much do they play during the year?

The premise is that a top-ranked professional tennis player plays between 20 and 25 tournaments a year. In the case of Federer, who is at a different point in his career, there are 14 tournaments, which I have listed below for your interest: Hopman Cup, Australian Open, Rotterdam Open, Indian Wells Masters, Miami Open, Stuttgart Open, Halle Open, Wimbledon, Cincinnati Masters, US Open, Shanghai Masters, Swiss Indoors, Paris Masters, ATP Finals

Here are some guidelines on the budget required to appear on a tennis shirt. It should be noted that these are approximate figures.

• Men ranked between 100 and 50 sleeve visibility between 30 and 80K
• Men ranked between 50 and 20 sleeve visibility 80 – 180K
• Men ranked 20-10 sleeve visibility between 120 and 250K
• Men ranked 10-5 sleeve visibility between 250 and 600K
• Men in the top 5 between 2 and 3 million euros

So we have to consider that our athlete will play between 15 and 20 tournaments a year and that the visibility he will be able to guarantee us is directly linked to his performance… It is not enough to go to tournaments, you also have to advance and stay in front of the cameras (6).

TV list of television stations that broadcast F1, MotoGP, football, tennis and cycling

As mentioned above, we have chosen sports and events with a global audience. Below is a selection of the TV channels that broadcast them, which is not intended to be a complete list. It should be noted that, unlike other events that take place every four years (the Olympics and the World Cup), we wanted to favour events that take place every year and therefore allow you to give continuity to your communication campaigns with relative ease, in some cases providing you with a travelling promotional platform.

Premier League: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Premier_League_broadcasters

Serie A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Serie_A_broadcasters

MotoGP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MotoGP_broadcasters

MotoGP Broadcastershttps://www.motogp.com/en/broadcasters

F1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_broadcasters

Tennis: https://tv-sports-rights.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ATP_World_Tour_Masters_1000_Broadcasters

Now you have an idea of how much you need to invest to be visible in F1, MotoGP, tennis and football. You also have an idea of the number of channels that broadcast them. The calendars will help you decide whether it might be useful to leverage events taking place in territories other than your own.

You now need to check that the values of the sport and your brand are consistent, as we explain in this article , and then you can decide if, how and where to commit.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact us at info@rtrsports.com.