According to SportsPro’s inaugural report, the FIFA World Cup has been named as the most marketable sports property with the competition beating the likes of the NBA (third), the NFL (19th) and the UEFA Champions League (Seventh).

The ‘World’s 50 Most Marketable Properties powered by SponsorPulse’ report ranks global sports properties, which vary from leagues and teams to major events and governing bodys, using an ‘Opportunity Score’. Entities will be given scores around seven key metrics (engagement, intensity, momentum, passion, excitement, purchase consideration, and favourability) with the overall score being the average.  

Adam Mitchell, SponsorPulse’s global lead commented: “SponsorPulse provides sponsorship professionals with the insights they need at their fingertips, enabling data-driven sponsorship decisions to be made faster. Our service provides partners with the opportunity to assess the reach and impact potential of properties by geography, demographic, purchasing behaviour or digital usage behaviours, which leads to identifying targeted sponsorship opportunities and strengthening sponsorship returns.”

The FIFA World Cup recorded an opportunity score of 44 with the report highlighting the competition’s engagement and excitement, which both exceeded 50. Rounding out the top five was the Olympic Games on 38, the NBA on 36 , with Real Madrid and Barcelona receiving 34 and 33 respectively.

The rise of esports was highlighted in the report as Activison’s Call of Duty League (41st) and Riot Games’ League of Legends (12th)  also ranked in the top 50. Other entries which made the top 50 included the Winter Olympics (sixth), the NFL (19th), the UFC (40th) and Premier League (10th).

Michael Long, SportsPro’s editorial director added: “With marketing budgets being tightened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, spending on sports sponsorship is being more scrutinised than ever. Now, with the richer data sets and deeper insights provided by this year’s 50MM rankings, marketers working across all sports can easily identify where the real value lies in order to justify their spending decisions and maximise return on investment.”

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