Bhavya DasThis article contains information regarding the organisations enjoying a strong branding presence across LaLiga’s physical and digital assets as its sponsors and partners for the 2022-23 season.
Also Read – LaLiga Sponsors 2023-204
MAIN SPONSORS
Banco Santander
Boadilla del Monte-headquartered Spanish financial services company Banco Santander has served as the title sponsor to LaLiga since 2016. The sponsorship also extends to the second and third Spanish tiers (respectively called Segunda División and Segunda División B), LaLiga Genuine, a league for players with intellectual disabilities, and LaLiga Promises, an U12 competition.
Santander and LaLiga also work together on the ProPlayer initiative, which offers soccer scholarships to Spanish youngsters for the American universities.
The two parties last renewed their deal in March 2019. In July 2022, it was announced that Banco Santander would no longer be the title sponsor of LaLiga starting with the 2023-24 season. It was also announced that, despite losing the title sponsorship, the bank would maintain a relationship with the league.
Also read: LaLiga inks Mediapro partnership renewal
GLOBAL PARTNERS
Puma
Puma is a German sportswear company with headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. It produces athletic and casual footwear, clothing and accessories. Prior to the 2019-20 season, Puma had signed sponsorship agreements with LaLiga clubs Girona and Valencia.
LaLiga confirmed a long-term partnership with Puma in April 2019. Puma paid €5 million (US$5.6 million) to take over from its predecessor, Nike. In May 2022, Puma unveiled the official LaLiga match ball for the 2022-23 season: the PUMA ORBITA LaLiga.
EA Sports
EA Sports FC is an upcoming football simulation video game series by EA Sports, the first instalment of which will be released in 2023, with FIFA 23 being the final game after termination of its deal with FIFA.
EA Sports FC and LaLiga entered into a multi-year agreement in August 2022, which will come in effect from the 2023-24 season. The deal is reportedly worth US$205 million over five years.
This deal will completely rebrand LaLiga, with EA Sports FC set to become the title sponsor of all LaLiga competitions. This new partnership will cover the first and second divisions of LaLiga, LaLiga Promises (the league’s annual youth tournament) and eLaLiga.
The rebrand of LaLiga also includes all logos, graphics, fonts and other visual elements while also delivering new in-game integration, broadcast highlights and joint commitments to support grassroots initiatives.
San Miguel
San Miguel is a Filipino pale lager produced by San Miguel Brewery.
Mahou San Miguel serves as LaLiga’s global beer partner. San Miguel has been with LaLiga for more than a decade and also enjoys international branding rights because of the most recent five-year agreement between the two.
BKT
BKT is an Indian off-highway tire manufacturer focusing on agricultural, construction and industrial machinery as well as earthmoving, port and mining, ATV and gardening vehicles. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company has subsidiaries in Italy, the USA and Canada.
BKT first partnered with LaLiga as a global sponsor in 2019. It then renewed its global sponsorship with LaLiga in May 2022 for a new three-year term which is currently set to run until the end of the 2024-25 season.
Sorare
Sorare was founded in 2018 as a fantasy video game, which now also combines NFT collectables with fantasy sports. The company’s hyper-growth has seen it partnering with various sports organisations and and athletes, including the Bundesliga, Major League Baseball (MLB) and most recently, French football star Kylian Mbappé.
Sorare announced a partnership with LaLiga in September 2021, to launch NFTs for all of its players, creating new revenue streams for LaLiga clubs via a new category of licenses. The partnership with LaLiga is a significant development as it moves into the NFT space for the first time, highlighting the global interest in the fast-growing NFT card space which has sold more than US$130 million in cards this year.
Socios.com
Socios.com uses blockchain technology and ??has partnered with more than 150 sports organisations across Europe, South America and the US.
LaLiga and Socios.com announced a partnership in September 2021. Together, Socios.com and LaLiga develop fresh ways for the league’s more-than-800-million global supporters to interact directly with the brand using cutting-edge blockchain technology solutions.
Dapper
Dapper Labs is a Vancouver-based blockchain company known for projects such as Cryptokitties, NBA Top Shot and Cheeze Wizards. The company’s platform is known as Flow.
In September 2021, Dapper announced a multi-year partnership with LaLiga to become an official partner of the league. In collaboration with LaLiga, Dapper unveiled “La Liga Golazos” — digital collectables capturing epic moments of league action.
Nissan
Nissan is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-Ku, Yokohama, Japan. LaLiga and Nissan have a collaboration agreement in place that links the league with Nissan’s e-POWER technology until June 2023. By virtue of this arrangement, the e-POWER technology is to play a significant role in LaLiga this season, tying its brand to various activations like players of the week and specific matches.
Nissan also plans to use LaLiga as a platform to promote its technology using actual instances of how the effectiveness, energy and acceleration of its technologies are also noticeable in the field.
Stats Perform
Stats Perform offers a comprehensive list of products and services designed to drive fan engagement, improve team performance, and enhance fantasy and betting solutions. The 1981-established company has been working in sports for multiple decades now.
LaLiga and Stats Perform agreed to a new five-year relationship in August 2022, which allows the latter to provide authentic Spanish soccer league data and live betting broadcasts to its clients across the world. More than 800 LaLiga matches are collected and managed by Stats Perform each season in terms of live data and player statistics as part of the renewed agreement. Global broadcasters, sponsors, publishers, fantasy suppliers, bookmakers and official league internet platforms all receive this information.
In addition to providing LaLiga viewers with a greater knowledge of the action, Stats Perform’s AI-powered statistics and predictions also try to enlighten gamblers on their bets.
ASSOCIATED BRAND
Microsoft
American global technology business Microsoft was established in 1975. In order to have an impact on societal digital transformation processes, Microsoft created the Global Sports Innovation Center under Microsoft Sports.
Microsoft and LaLiga have been working together since 2016 to sell services provided by La Liga Tech to international sports groups. The MotoGP motorcycle racing series and Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League have both used La Liga Tech’s anti-piracy capabilities in the past to shut down illicit streaming operations.
Gol-Ball
Gol-Ball signed with LaLiga in an attempt to bring fans closer to the game post the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The company has patented something that has not happened in any other league across the globe: Gol-Ball tracks the ball with which the goals were scored among the many balls used during a football match. The goal-scoring balls are delivered to fans to bring them closer to the game.
LaLiga ambassador Samuel Eto’o had this to say about the collectables’ revelation:
“Throughout my career as a footballer you would normally be given a ball only after scoring a hat-trick, but you were never sure it was the ball you actually scored any of the goals with. If we had been able to identify the goal scoring ball, my colleagues and I would have wanted all of them. If this is a historic moment for us, then imagine what it could mean for a fan to keep the ball.”
Panini America
The American division of the Modena-based Italian publishing company signed with LaLiga in 2023 in a rather unique deal, becoming the presenting partner of the eLaLiga US Challenge.
The deal is dubbed to be the largest partnership for LaLiga North America, reportedly generating around US$12 million in sponsorships for the league.
Legends
Legends and LaLiga partnered together to launch “Legends: The Home of Football” in Madrid, which is a football museum to educate people about the history of the game.
The museum is located in Puerta del Sol, with over 600 items and memorabilia on display for viewers. It also has various technological experiences to educate people about how the city of Madrid cemented its position as the epicentre of global football.
The museum also marks the largest collection of football memorabilia and items in world, while also offering a Metaverse Game Area, 4D Cinema, Robotic games, a room for football art and many more.
Along with this deal, LaLiga has acquired a 25% stake in Legends Europe and a 10% stake in Sports Legends and Collections, with an option to increase it to 25% later on.
