Connect with us
https://yoursportsnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/call-to-1.png

NIL

Five ways Covid

Published

9 months ago

on

Five ways Covid


Several US sports leagues, including MLB and the National Hockey League (NHL), also opened up new inventory on team uniforms to help franchises rebuild their sponsorship revenue and offer further value to partners.
More pertinently, though, many sports realised that they were sitting on digital and social media assets that would enable their sponsors to engage with their fans in more innovative, creative ways while events either weren’t taking place or happening behind closed doors.
Get access to richer content, exclusive reports, unparalleled business intelligence, and community benefits to help you navigate the next frontier of sport and make more informed decisions with a SportsPro+ Premium membership. Discover more here.
If ‘force majeure’ was the most-searched term in sponsorship contracts during Covid-19, then ‘make good’ will have been among the most used in the industry.

1. An evolution of the rights holder-sponsor relationship

Some of those sectors remain more active than others, but few have made as big a splash in sports sponsorship than the cryptocurrency category. The industry was responsible for deals cumulatively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the years immediately after the pandemic, only for a large chunk of those to collapse when FTX slipped into bankruptcy.
Influencers might now feel like an accepted part of the sports ecosystem, but the role Covid played in thrusting them further into the limelight shouldn’t be underestimated.
Some influencers have launched their own brands which have used sports sponsorship to boost their awareness and grow credibility, while others continue to sell out huge venues for exhibition boxing bouts and soccer matches that have been watched by millions around the world.
“Some brands have maintained a strong commitment to purpose-driven initiatives, recognising the long-term brand equity they generate, while others have shifted focus back to performance-driven metrics and commercial objectives,” he continues.

According to Matt House, the chief executive of sports marketing agency SportQuake, what brands expect from their partnerships has therefore changed.
For example, Brazilian streamer Ibai Llanos launched the Fifa 20 LaLiga Santander Challenge, which was watched by more than one million viewers and won by then-Real Madrid player Marco Asensio.
Virtual competitions held in place of in-person events created some opportunities for new and existing sponsors, but months went by where only a handful of new deals were announced as brands waited for more certainty around when things would return to normal.
To that end, it’s been no surprise to see an increasing number of sports properties investing in fan data platforms or partnering with specialists who can enable them to show brands that they can reach their target audience by partnering with them.
While many brands chose to stand by their partners, perhaps wary of the optics of walking away from a sport in its hour of need, others spied an opportunity to make use of infamous ‘force majeure’ clauses, allow contracts to wind down quietly without renewing, or withhold payments if seasons were not completed.

2. Crypto headlines emerging digital-first sponsorship categories

From a marketing standpoint, brands swiftly realised that a pandemic wasn’t the time for them to be parading their products in front of consumers or making a lot of noise about their sponsorships.
By this point, event cancellations and suspensions were very much the norm, with the health crisis already putting domestic sports seasons, globe-trotting series and international tournaments on hold.
“Brands are exhibiting a heightened focus on measuring return on investment or return on objectives,” he explains. “There is an increased need to demonstrate tangible outcomes, such as increased brand awareness, purchase intent, and direct customer acquisition.
To illustrate just how much things have moved on, a recent study from Relo Metrics found that social media accounted for 54 per cent of Major League Soccer’s (MLS) sponsor media value in 2024, as well as 41 per cent for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and 32 per cent for the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Even as sport enters a new era of marketing, House believes there’s still room for a balance.
Perhaps emboldened by the success of those one-off events, a more recent trend has seen creators help launch new sports properties such as Kings League and Baller League. With influencers at the heart of the action, quirky rules, and streaming-first distribution, they have already been able to secure sponsorships from major brands seeking to engage with their youthful audience.
Instead, this was a time for sponsors to show that they were suffering with their consumers, and several launched charitable campaigns where they could organically contribute to their communities.
“It will be interesting to see what potential impact the Trump government stance might have on this type of spending, particularly in the key US sports market and beyond.”
House points out that sponsors now want “unique marketing rights” that help them stand out and deliver against their brand objectives. Today, in a world where more content is being distributed across streaming and social platforms and some younger audiences primarily engage with sports on apps like TikTok, rights holders are carving out packages containing assets better suited to their partners’ needs.
While already an emerging trend prior to Covid-19, influencer marketing became a crucial medium through which brands could engage with their consumers during the pandemic.
In sport, the shift to online formats gave internet personalities an opportunity to further boost their profile by collaborating with professional athletes.

3. ‘Make goods’ stand the test of time as Covid accelerates shift to digital activation

Faced with significant revenue holes to plug, sports rights holders swiftly turned to new categories both during and in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic in the hope of generating additional sponsorship income.
While the health crisis created significant challenges for companies in more traditional sponsorship sectors like travel, several digital-first brands were able to prosper because of their ability to meet the changing needs of consumers now living in lockdown.
As House puts it, crypto has experienced “a rollercoaster ride from boom to bust and back again”.
That format was recreated across multiple sports as fans became increasingly familiar with streaming platforms like Twitch and the individuals regularly broadcasting to hundreds of thousands of engaged followers.
Plus, with more digital-first and high-growth technology brands investing in sports sponsorship, activations have evolved and range from online content series and branded metaverse experiences to challenges around digital collectibles and trophies generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

Since then, things have been trending back in the right direction. A recent study from the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) and Nielsen Sports found that sponsorship spending in Europe reached a record €23.41 billion last year, up from just under €22 billion in 2023 and – crucially – the pre-pandemic high of €20.26 billion in 2019.

Half a decade later, SportsPro picks out five ways the pandemic reshaped the sector – and which trends have endured.

The pandemic, alongside the civil unrest in North America sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, meant consumers were now looking for brands to stand for something, which led to a rise in purpose-driven marketing as sponsors looked to partner with socially conscious sports which could help them tell their story.
“While traditional marketing rights and assets remain crucial, digital and social media have become more integral to sponsorship activations,” he adds. “Experiential activations, amplified by digital and social, are also enjoying a comeback, showcasing the power of hybrid engagement models – like Nike’s recent activation with the London Eye.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Fast forward to today and creators have only become more influential in sports marketing.
The Covid-19 pandemic decimated the revenues of sports rights holders unable to fulfil their contractual obligations. At the time, Two Circles predicted that global sports sponsorship rights fees would fall by US billion in 2020, a drop of 37 per cent compared to the previous year.

4. Online formats and the mainstreaming of influencers

Despite its challenges, crypto is now an established sponsorship category in sports (Image credit: Getty Images)
On this day five years ago, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the World Snooker Tour (WST) were among the sports organisations to postpone or cancel events in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
No events meant no exposure for sponsors. Sports properties were forced to think on their feet about how to deliver value to their partners. And, as time went on, it led to calls for a rethink of how the sports sponsorship and marketing industry operates.
If Covid taught sports properties anything, then, it was that they needed to be more flexible to accommodate the evolving requirements of their partners.
However, as the world moves on from the pandemic, purpose has become less of a priority for brands shifting back towards performance marketing, particularly against the backdrop of an increasingly fractured political landscape.
In August 2020, IEG reported that US billion in sponsorship value needed to be made up, equal to more than 50 per cent of rights fees paid for that year. Indeed, the pandemic forced rights holders to find other ways to compensate partners for lost exposure and engagement, including through visibility during hastily arranged esports tournaments and virtual fan events.

While that is undoubtedly positive, macroeconomic headwinds mean brands are likely being more selective about where they deploy their sponsorship and marketing budgets, meaning measurement can no longer be an afterthought for rights holders.

5. Purpose comes and goes as priorities shift

“Crypto’s intersection with financial services and digital marketing suggests it could become a scaled sponsorship category akin to online sports betting, which went from being non-existent in 2004 to one of the top five spenders in sports sponsorship by 2024,” he adds.
“However, its future growth will depend on mainstream adoption and regulatory landscapes.”
Some rights holders, like Major League Baseball (MLB), made the best of games being played behind closed doors by replacing empty seats with sponsor branding. In many cases, that was delivered through virtual advertising technology, which has achieved much wider adoption in the wake of the pandemic.
“One key shift has been the greater use of first-party data, allowing brands to drive more targeted and measurable acquisition strategies.”
FTX’s demise – and so-called ‘crypto winter’ periods marked by a downturn in currency values and trading activity – reset sport’s relationship with the category. But the industry has shown signs of recovery over the last 18 months, with SportQuake tracking 22 deals between crypto businesses and rights holders up to late February, compared to 18 in the same period last year.
Previously unheard-of online car marketplaces such as Cazoo and Cinch and food delivery services like Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Getir moved swiftly to cement their brands in the minds of sports fans. There was also a notable increase in activity from companies specialising in areas such as video conferencing, cybersecurity, health tech, cashless payments and ecommerce.
Covid accelerated the rise of already popular streamers like Ibai Llanos (pictured above, left), who is now a prominent figure in Gerard Pique’s Kings League (Image credit: Getty Images)

That isn’t to say that it has been forgotten altogether, but House notes that the priority level “varies by brand and region”.
9
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NIL

College Football TV Ratings: Army-Navy Game averages 7.84 million viewers

Published

11 minutes ago

on

December 17, 2025

By


Once again in its standalone window, America’s Game came down to the wire last week. Ultimately, Navy got a second straight victory over Army, and it became CBS’ most-watched college football game of the season.

An average of 7.84 million people watched as Navy came away with the victory at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. While it’s a 17% decrease from last year’s 9.4 million viewers – the best since at least 1990 – it’s still the second-best viewership for the game since 2018, according to Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp.

SUBSCRIBE to the On3 NIL and Sports Business Newsletter

Last year’s Army-Navy game topped the previous high mark of 8.45 million viewers in 1992. In addition, it tops CBS’ slate of games this year, beating out the 5.6 million viewers who watched Indiana at Oregon in Week 7, according to data compiled by On3.

This year’s Army-Navy game also marked the last for CBS analyst Gary Danielson in the booth. He has worked 17 matchups between the two programs and will get ready for retirement following the Sun Bowl later this month. Charles Davis is set to join Brad Nessler in CBS’ lead booth starting next season.

With the victory, Navy extended its advantage in the all-time series against Army, which dates back to 1890. The Midshipmen have an all-time 64-55-7 record against the Black Knights.

How it happened: Navy defeats Army

Navy struck first in the first quarter of last week’s game, taking a 7-0 lead on a Blake Horvath touchdown. But Army responded with 13 points in the second quarter, including a rushing touchdown from Cale Hellums, to take the lead into halftime.

The two teams traded field goals in the third quarter as Army took a 16-10 lead into the final 15 minutes. That’s when Navy completed the comeback as Eli Heidenreich caught the 8-yard touchdown pass from Horvath, putting the Midshipmen back on top, 17-16. That held as the final, giving Navy a second straight win over Army in the historic game.

Horvath led the charge for Navy, rushing for 107 yards and a touchdown on the ground while adding 82 passing yards to go with the touchdown pass to Heidenrich. On the Army side, Hellums had 100 rush yards and a touchdown to go with 82 passing yards.

Both Army and Navy are now getting ready for their respective bowl games. The Midshipmen will head to the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2, 2026 against Cincinnati while the Black Knights will square off against UConn in the Fenway Bowl on Dec. 27.



Link

0
Continue Reading

NIL

Ohio State QB Julian Sayin Announces NIL News Before College Football Playoff

Published

1 hour ago

on

December 17, 2025

By


Julian Sayin is looking to lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to the national title alongside several other stars like wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.

Ohio State heads into the College Football Playoff with one of the best rosters in the country, starring Sayin and Smith along with wide receiver Carnell Tate, safety Caleb Downs and linebacker Arvell Reese.

Advertisement

They’re heading into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed after losing to Indiana in the Big Ten title game. The Buckeyes will have a bye week to begin the CFP.

Other teams that will benefit from the bye week include Indiana, Texas Tech and Georgia.

During his time off, Sayin shared some exciting news off the field. The Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback has partnered with Wingstop and Dr Pepper in his latest NIL deal.

“Postseason calls for big plays with @drpepper and @wingstop, had to get the play card out,” Sayin posted.

Advertisement

Sayin committed to Ohio State after spending some time with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

While he was planning his college football career at Alabama, he made the move to the Big Ten and finished his first season as the starting quarterback as a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Sayin was ranked as the No. 1 quarterback and the No. 6 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class, per 247Sports.

Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin (10) Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Julian Sayin (10) Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Before signing his latest NIL deal and sharing the news with fans online, Julian Sayin had inked deals with The Foundation, Dick’s Sporting Goods and JLab Audio.

Advertisement

Related: Alabama Reacts to Ty Simpson News Before College Football Playoff

Related: SEC Program Fires Coach After College Football Season

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Dec 16, 2025, where it first appeared in the College section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.





Link

0
Continue Reading

NIL

Stars Stay, Others Head to Portal

Published

2 hours ago

on

December 17, 2025

By





College Football’s QB Carousel: Stars Stay, Others Head to Portal



































Link

1
Continue Reading

NIL

Texas A&M’s KC Concepcion has ‘not made a decision’ regarding future

Published

3 hours ago

on

December 17, 2025

By


Dec. 16, 2025, 5:06 a.m. CT

Texas A&M’s 2025 offense finished the regular season ranked 19th nationally, while starting quarterback Marcel Reed threw for a career high 2,932 yards and 25 touchdowns, with 13 going to star wide receivers KC Concepcion and Mario Craver, who completely rejuvenated a passing attack that failed to move the needle in key games down the stretch last season.

While Craver is expected to return next season for his all-important junior year, Concepcion has a choice to make regarding his future, choosing between a final year in College Station or declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft, where he is expected to be a first or second-round selection.

Whatever choice he makes is entirely up to him and his family, and while those of us in the media have written numerous articles about his draft standing, returning for his senior season could benefit his NFL future. Still, Concepcion is as mature as they come and is entirely focused on facing the Miami Hurricanes this Saturday during the first round of the College Football Playoff.





Link

2
Continue Reading

NIL

Josh Pate defends Joel Klatt amid G5 backlash, proposes second tier to College Football Playoff

Published

4 hours ago

on

December 17, 2025

By


FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt found himself in a social media firestorm after comments he made about the Group of Five on a podcast appearance on Next Round Live. Clips of that interview quickly went viral with short snippets of some of the quotes.

The gist of those snippets suggested that Klatt was anti-G5, to the point of wanting the G5 kicked out of the College Football Playoff. Klatt intimated that the only thing keeping the G5 in the playoff currently is the threat of litigation.

College football analyst Josh Pate had his own thoughts on Joel Klatt’s take. He mostly came to the defense of the suddenly targeted analyst.

Pate first played a couple clips from Klatt’s appearance in their entirety. That offered more full context.

“Some of that was insane, I’m going to grant you that,” Pate said of Klatt’s points. “I just want to say the foundation of it I at least understand. The foundation of it is sound. Not all the parts of it. The foundation of it is sound.

“Couple of quotes there. No. 1, the G5 is in the College Football Playoff to avoid litigation is basically true.”

Pate lambasted the use of quote edits in condensing Joel Klatt’s much larger point into a few soundbites. He tried to explain how that’s misleading to his viewers.

“You know sometimes how you see a snapshot or a small soundbite of something and you get outraged by it and then you go on to learn the context of it two weeks later and you’re like, ‘Wow, I probably shouldn’t have gotten as outraged as I did over that,’ Pate said. “That is what is happening to Klatt. Admittedly he brought a lot of this on himself. …

“Now, what you probably saw was you probably saw quote edits like this or quote graphics like this. And if you’re listening on podcast just imagine scrolling through your social feed and there’s a picture of Klatt, looks like he’s somewhere sunny and happy and there’s a quote at the top, and it says, quote, ‘We don’t want Cinderellas. We want the best teams playing each other at the end. It’s the dumbest tournament and the least fair tournament in all of sports.’”

That part from Joel Klatt, obviously, was what many detractors latched onto. But it doesn’t take away from Klatt’s overall point about the G5, Pate pointed out.

So all the moaning over James Madison being in the playoffs is for naught. That’s just the way the current structure is set up.

“They are present in the playoff, they’re granted an auto bid in the playoff because if they are not then lawsuits will be filed immediately,” Pate said. “So that part’s accurate.

“Now whether or not you think it’s morally sound that they’re included in the playoff, that’s your own opinion. He’s got his, I’ve got mine, you’ve got yours. But he is right. Because in no other merit-based world where we just judged these teams on a static scale of quality, of resources and therefore what you do with the resources, and the results on the field and strength of schedule, in no world would James Madison be in the playoff. But the parameters of the playoff right now are that we take the five highest-ranked conference champs. So by every current rule James Madison is in the playoff and should be in the playoff. I don’t disagree with that. Tulane is in the playoff and should be in the playoff. I don’t disagree with the structure. I don’t disagree with the body of the playoff this year based on the current rules.”

So what’s the solution? Well, Joel Klatt also offered an answer for that. It just didn’t happen to go viral with the other stuff.

Klatt believes the G5 should effectively break off from the power conferences and host its own playoff. It would be a playoff tier between the FCS and the FBS.

“That’s been the same point that’s been made on my show,” Pate said. “So you notice if you really hated the G5 you’d just say, ‘Piss on the G5.’ That’s not what he did, despite the fact that that part didn’t get shared widely and it’s not what I’ve ever done on this show.

“Any time you have a problem with something, you ought to have a solution for it. So if your problem is, ‘Man, it makes little sense that we’ve got 136 teams pretending to play the same caliber of the sport’ you need to have a solution. That solution he just presented is the same one we’ve shared on this show, and that is a G5 playoff.”



Link

1
Continue Reading

NIL

How NIL has transformed Ohio State’s recruiting from star-chasing to strategic roster building

Published

5 hours ago

on

December 17, 2025

By


COLUMBUS, Ohio — The days of simply collecting as many five-star talents as possible in college football recruiting are over.

In a revealing Buckeye Talk podcast episode, Ohio State analysts Stephen Means and Andrew Gillis detailed how the program has shifted to a more sophisticated “roster construction” approach that mirrors NFL team building more than traditional college recruiting.

“I think that because the financial aspect has come into this but also just logical roster building that has become more of a focal point than star, star, star, star, stars,” explained Stephen Means. “Because for a long time, college football was like, get as much talent as you humanly can, develop it, cuz you were living in a world where the top 1% of college football had all the talent. And that’s not true anymore.”

This fundamental shift in philosophy is perhaps most evident in how Gillis described Ohio State’s running back recruiting needs for the 2027 class. While five-star David Gabriel Georgees tops their board, the approach is more nuanced than just stacking elite talent.

“If they got three five stars running backs, the odds that we got on this podcast and said that’s actually probably not that good is higher than it might seem because we were saying why is your asset management this? Like because hey, look at your your receiver recruiting was down. You couldn’t have spent some of that money on a receiver,” Gillis explained.

The financial component of recruiting has transformed how Ohio State approaches each position group and recruiting class. It’s no longer just about who’s the best player available, but whether investing heavily in one position might shortchange another.

“It is a math equation. It is a money equation at this point. You’re not going to go get three five stars at running back in a single class,” Gillis emphasized.

Means further elaborated on how NIL money has forced this change: “You can’t pay a fivestar recruit, fivestar recruit money and then have the guy sitting on the bench because there’s another guy with there’s only so much money to go around.”

This strategic approach has Ohio State looking at players through different lenses: “ready to go” immediate contributors (typically five-stars and top-100 recruits), “developmental” prospects (usually ranked 200-350 nationally), and “depth” pieces who might be ranked lower but fill specific roles.

The analysts identified several instances where this approach is evident in Ohio State’s 2027 planning. At quarterback, they’re content with a developmental prospect in Brady Edmonds rather than chasing another five-star. At wide receiver, despite already having five-star Jir Brown committed, they believe Ohio State needs another elite receiver plus two depth pieces to properly structure the room.

“Now we are talking about roster construction,” Means said. “And the reason why we structured it this way is okay, they went and got a devel they have a developmental quarterback in 2027. They probably need a ready to go quarterback in 2028 and they probably need a depth quarterback in 2029. And the cycle continues, right?”

This staggered approach ensures Ohio State will have players at different stages of development at every position, creating a sustainable pipeline of talent ready to contribute when needed.

“Everybody everybody’s running the same race, but they can’t be running it at the same pace or you’re not going to have a team to field every single year,” Means added.

The conversation revealed how Ohio State’s recruiting approach now more closely resembles NFL roster management, with considerations for “salary cap” (NIL budget), positional value, and development timelines all factoring into decisions that previously might have been simply about collecting the highest-ranked players available.

As college football continues to evolve in the NIL era, this strategic roster construction philosophy may become the new standard for elite programs looking to maintain sustainable success.

Here’s the podcast for this week:



Link

0
Continue Reading

Most Viewed Posts

Trending