This article contains information regarding the organisations enjoying a strong branding presence across the Premier League’s physical and digital assets as its sponsors for the 2023–24 season.
MAIN NAME: THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE (EPL)
FOUNDED: 1992
EA Sports has held a license for the English topflight for its annually-released football simulation video games for many years in at least some capacity.
In 2014, ahead of the release of FIFA 15, EA Sports strengthened its ties with the Premier League with a first-of-its-kind partnership that granted the video game company access to integrate Premier League licensing within FIFA to an unprecedented level — with fully scanned stadia of all 20 Premier League teams of that time as well as head-scans for all major players from each club. The partnership has gone from strength to strength ever since.
EA Sports was announced as the Premier League’s Lead Partner in August 2016, ahead of the 2016-17 season, in a deal reportedly worth US$28.3 million per year. Apart from increased branding exposure, the expanded deal saw EA Sports become the sponsor of the league’s Player of the Month and Season awards as well as the Fantasy Premier League.
With its 2023 release, EA Sports’ football simulation video game series is set for a rebrand, with world football-governing body FIFA having walked away. Now known as EA Sports FC, the video game series—despite the rebrand—is set to continue its association with the Premier League, with the latest deal between the Premier League and EA Sports having been announced in July 2023 — a multi-year agreement.
The British financial services company has enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with the Premier League. Aside from having served as the league’s title sponsor between 2001 and 2016, Barclays continues to serve the Premier League as its Official Bank.
The two parties renewed their partnership in March 2019 to run until the end of the 2021-22 season in a deal worth £31.5 million. Later, in December 2021, the two again renewed their partnership, with the new agreement set to run until the end of the 2024–25 season.
Barclays also serves as the title sponsor to the topflight of professional women’s football in England — the FA Women’s Super League.
The AB InBev beer brand has served as the Official Beer to the Premier League since July 2019 in a deal that covers over 20 countries across five continents.
The partnership sees the two parties work on several fan engagement activities, with Budweiser also holding image rights for the Premier League players to feature in its promotional content.
The Pangbourne-headquartered British oil company was announced as the Premier League’s Official Engine Oil Partner in November 2021. The deal, reported by SportBusiness to be worth between £10 million and £12 million per year, kicked off in January 2022.
Apart from bringing rights, the deal entails Castrol engaging with Premier League fans not only in the UK but across the world, including China, the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, the Middle East and Europe. The deal also entails showcasing of Castrol products and service during Premier League events, with Castrol also sponsoring the Premier League Golden Awards programme.
Hublot replaced fellow Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer as the Official Timekeeper of the Premier League ahead of the 2020–21 season in September 2020.
The deal sees Hublot provide watches to the officials during Premier League matches as well as receive pitchside and broadcast advertising.
In February 2021, Hublot released a limited-edition, Premier League-themed Big Bang e connected watch.
Nike has served as the official match ball supplier to the Premier League since 2000. It also provides equipment for the league’s youth development programmes and supports the Primary Stars Kit and Equipment Scheme — a Premier League initiative to encourage school kids to play football by providing kits and equipment.
The two parties last extended their partnership in November 2018 to run until 2025. In July 2023, it was confirmed that, with the start of the 2025–26 season, Puma would be the official match ball supplier of the Premier League.
The Austin, Texas-headquartered American tech giant was announced as the Premier League’s Official Cloud Partner in May 2021.
As per the deal, Oracle implements its cloud infrastructure and machine learning models to deliver advanced data-driven football analytics. Most of these analytics feature as infographics in the league’s live broadcasts in real time, both on-screen and across its social media channels. Some of these new offerings include average formation, live win probability and momentum tracker.
The Manchester-based VR tech company signed a four-year partnership agreement with the Premier League in March 2024.
Apart from branding rights, the deal entails the two parties working on a VR game, with Rezzil software also integrated with the league’s match data to allow its clubs “to adapt the software to re-create match scenarios and replay them through a VR headset.”
The California-based global sportswear branding and labelling manufacturer has served as the Premier League’s official supplier to all teams for names, numbers and sleeve badges since June 2019.
Avery Dennison’s products are made in a low-carbon, landfill-free facility in Norway, where the plastics used in the process are re-used within the supply chain to ensure minimum waste generation in an environmentally-friendly process. Avery’s products also come with smart digital technology that offer bespoke fan experiences to customers.
Modena-based Italian publishing company Panini is the official sticker and trading card licensee of the Premier League.
The Panini Group and football go back a long way. For many decades, Panini has created trading cards and stickers based on football players, making “Panini” a very common word among many football-mad households.
Panini’s partnership with the Premier League gives the company image rights to the league’s players to feature in its trading cards collection.
The two parties last announced a renewal of their partnership in November 2021.
In May 2024, the Premier League announced that US-based licensed sportswear manufacturer and retailer Fanatics would become the Exclusive Provider of Premier League trading cards, trading card games, and stickers from June 2025 onwards.
Sorare is a blockchain-based digital collectibles and fantasy football platform developed by Saint-Mandé, Paris-headquartered French company SORARE SAS.
The Premier League announced a four-year deal with Sorare in January 2023, which grants the latter license for clubs and players from the league to feature in the free-to-play fantasy game.
Unlike in India, where Star Sports holds rights to broadcast each and every Premier League match via the league’s in-house Worldwide feed (Premier League Productions), broadcasting in the UK works differently.
Ideally, the UK observes a “3pm blackout” where no major football is broadcast live between 2:45 pm and 5:15 pm to encourage people to go to the stadiums. This was temporarily lifted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, but since the 2021–22 season the 3pm blackout has been in effect once again.
Instead, Premier League fixtures are spread across major British broadcasters throughout the season. Apart from that, companion shows such as BBC’s Match of the Day are also a staple of football consumption among the British people.
These are the major broadcasters that hold rights to show Premier League football within the UK:
Sky Sports, a London-headquartered, March 1990-founded group of subscription-based sports channels, is the official sports division of satellite pay-TV company Sky, which is owned by Philadelphia-based American telecommunications conglomerate Comcast.
Previously known as “BT Sport”, TNT Sports is a London-based, August 2013-founded pay-TV sports channel and is owned jointly by BT Group and Warner Bros Discovery Sports Europe.
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Launched in September 2006, Prime Video is Amazon’s OTT streaming offering, with the service based out of Seattle.
Founded in February 1988, BBC Sport is the sports division of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is headquartered in Salford, Greater Manchester.
In May 2021, the Premier League announced that it had “rolled over” its existing £5bn agreement with the aforementioned companies for its live and non-live broadcast partnership to cover the next broadcast cycle that covers the seasons 2022–23 to 2024–25.
Also Read – Brands That Have Partnered with the Premier League for 2018-2019
Radio-based consumption of football matches is also widespread in the UK. Here are the major radio stations that offer live commentary on Premier League matches:
Radio 5 Live is the BBC’s national radio service dedicated to sports. Operating since March 1994, the station is based in MediaCityUK in Salford and is part of the BBC North division.
Owned by News UK, talkSPORT is a 1995-founded sports radio station headquartered in London.
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