Tracking Sports Sponsorship in Nigeria - Which Right-Holders Are Most Valuable in 2020/21 [A Review of Tokyo Olympic Deals]

 

Sponsorship's Deals Tracker database can show you the biggest sponsors and sponsorship deals across Nigerian sports. 

 learn which rights holders generate the most value from sponsorship in Nigeria;  how their value has changed over the years, which brands generate the value, and benchmark Nigerian sports sponsorship against other key markets natiowide.

Nigeria sports sponsorship market isn't where it should be. We all know that. But it is actually making strides. Our analysis show there’s more to come to aid the growth and development of sports in the country, with the minister of sports Samuel Dare's transformation project. 

More than a week ago, I made a presentation at the monthly edition of the Sports Marketing Roundtable: "A Market Analysis of 'Post-Covid' Sports Sponsorship Spending in Nigeria - The Lesson from the Tokyo Olympics."

A session of  the roundtable also tried to look ahead of the upcoming Fifa World Cup year - Qatar 2022.

We used our Sponsorship Tracker to track and analyze current sponsorship deals across the sports landscape in Nigeria. And our findings were quiet interesting.

Polo and Golf

In our research, we discovered that polo has the highest number of sponsorship with fourteen (if not more) deals. The major sponsors GTBank Lagos city Polo tournament, First bank Kaduna tournament, Union bank Calabar tournament among other associate partners generated our NGN2 billion from 2020 till date. 

Golf on the other hand, got twelve number of deals stated in our analysis. Polaris bank sponsored Unity Golf Ikoyi,  First bank Sponsored OBJ God tournament, Dangote Golf Tournament Kaduna.., worth NGN1:3 billion. What we have on the sport however, are deals available in the media. Polo and golf have favourable leverage given the uniqueness of their audience: the upper class which have the purchasing power to make luxurious spending.

Adopt-An-Athlete for Tokyo Olympic Games

A new dimension of sponsorship where Corporate bodies and spirited individuals adopted-an-Athlete for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. This time, a good number of our medal hopefuls didn’t have to bother about funds. It had never been this good for Olympics preparations in the country

At the launch of the Adopt-An- Athlete campaign, Dare had pointed out that adopted foreign-based athletes with $20,000 while the home-based with $10,000.

Meanwhile, athletes like Joy Udo Gabriel and Praise Idamadudu were adopted by the Tunde Folawiyo Group while Halogen adopted Adekuoroye Odunayo.

Ruth Usoro was adopted by the chairman of Dakinda Football for Every Home Limited Mr. Emmanuel Akpakwu while Edo state Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu adopted Nwokocha Nzubechi.

Other adopted athletes are Enoch Goke, Amusan Tobi, Mercy Ita, Ese Brume, Favour Ofili, Blessing Oborududu, Raymond Okevwo, Adeniyi Aminat, Patience George Okon and Usheorise Itshekiri. A total adoption worth NGN100 million. 

In all, 15 athletes were adopted for the just concluded Olympics. But 10 of the Nigerian athletes were disqualified in Tokyo for not meeting the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 governing the National Anti-Doping Federation.

Medal hopeful and Jumper Ruth Usoro and sprinter Favour Ofili were disqualified. Others affected were Chioma Onyekwere (discus), Annette Echikunwoke (hammer), Chidi Okezie (4X400m mixed relays), Knowledge Omovoh (4x100m women), Rosemary Chukwuma (100m), Glory Patrick (4X400m mixed relays), Yinka Ajayi (4X400m mixed relays) and Tima Godless (4X100m relays). This disgraceful turn of events made the adoption or association with the athletes of non-effect. 

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Basketball

In face of increased attention Nigerian basketball community is growing to attract top brands in the country. Total E&P sign a sponsorship deal worth NGN150m to compliment the Zenith Bank sponsorship of the women Basketball League, have a deal which is worth about NGN120 million. 

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However, it was government that bankroll both the men and women national basketball teams to the Tokyo Olympic Games. With little support from Amstel Malta

Football

Football performs well below its popularity in the period under review, but is likely to catch up with polo and Golf as the Nigeria Football Federation is in an auspicious era to generate an increase in revenue through more sponsorships especially on the back of a positive performance from the Super Eagles qualification for Cameroon 2021™ African Cup of Nations scheduled for January 2022.

And  then, the world Cup qualifiers series going on. If Super Eagles eventually qualify for Qatar 2022, then we are likely to see associate sponsorship with the national team. 

The Aiteo 5 years sponsorship of Federations cup also ran this year. The package guaranteed a monetary reward for the best performing teams with the winners of men’s version Bayelsa United bagged N25million as prize money and N10million for Bayelsa Queens, thevwomen’s winner. Aiteo sponsorship spending is worth NGN500 million this year. 

Eunisell sponsorship of the Golden Boot Award for NPFL highest goal scorer. The package is Eunisell  rewards the winner with 200,000 Naira for each goal and this season 2020/21 was a tie that means Nassarawa United Silas Nwankwo and Akwa United Charles Atshimene were each take home 3.8 Million Naira as prize money.

NFF and NPFL had some deal with 1Xbet, but there's no data available to us to show that the partnership is still running and the value. 

Review of Corporate Sponsorship

The sum total of twenty-four sectors have brands actively involved in sports sponsorship. The energy sector (oil and gas) and banking have a combined total of sixteen (25%) firms as active sponsors. 

The lowest number of active companies per sector is one (4.1%) across ten economic sectors. The telecommunications industry, in recent times, has been an inactive player in the sponsorship market. The industry given its mass market services, has gained immense visibility. Nonetheless, sustained engagement and loyalty campaigns through sports sponsorship can ensure its key players retain positive perception among consumers who are also fans.

Over 10 billion Naira from over 62 deals is the annual sponsorship spend with more than half of that amount being the average annual spend by brands in Nigeria. The numbers are based on available deals and provided to our tracker.

. These figures point at a shift in paradigm towards sports financing as lower in brand sponsorship associated with professional sports, maybe due to the Covid debacle. Indeed most sponsorship of both professional and amateur sports as well as grassroots development were corporate social responsibility (CSR) in nature. 

Looking Ahead to the FIFA World Cup year in 2022.

FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest event on earth and in every world Cup year, more corporate bodies direct their funds toward football sponsorship. 

In the last world Cup year in 2018, NFF signed deals with Simba Group, Coca-Cola, Aiteo Group, 1Xber, Wapic Insurance, Nigerian Breweries and Cadbury over a 12 months period. We are likely to see the same kind of partnershio with Super Eagles, especially if the team also qualifies for the world Cup. .