EA will spend over $400m on sports sponsorships in 2024

For gaming companies operating in the Sports game genre, sponsoring professional sports plays a key role in raising interest and awareness among non-gamers, as well as creating a strong association between their brand and the rightsholder.

Ampere’s sports sponsorship product tracks 19,000 deals globally across 80 leagues and competitions and over 550 teams. From this, we found that in 2024, EA is the top sponsor in the gaming sector by both deal value and volume, spending over $400m on around 30 deals. Its highest value sponsorship was with the English Premier League, at $101m (2024 proportion of the total deal only).

EA has been the lead partner of the Premier League since the 2016/17 season, and its ongoing sponsorship has maintained in-game rights to the league for the latest instalment in its popular soccer simulation franchise: EA Sports FC 24. As a lead partner, EA is integrated in all on-screen branding of the League's global broadcasts - sponsoring the official Player of the Month and Season awards, and integrated in stadia pre-match.

Sega’s Football Manager partners with the Premier League as of the 2024/25 season

Until recently, EA Sports FC (previously FIFA) was the only gaming partner of the Premier League. However, as of the 2024/25 season, the league will also be sponsored by Sega’s Football Manager 2025, which will become the official management game of the Premier League, granting it license to use the use the official kits, logos and players of all Premier League clubs - although its integration on pitch will be less substantial than EA.

While Football Manager is the largest sports management franchise by average monthly active users (MAUs, of the top 100 Sports titles between July 2023 - June 2024 across PS, Xbox and Steam), sports management titles represent a small niche compared to other more mainstream sports games. Comparing average MAUs between July 2023 and June 2024, Football Manager 2024 averaged 450k users globally – which was 3% of the 15.1m that played EA Sports FC 2024.  

However, players of sports management games are some of the most dedicated Sports fans, with players seeking the teams and leagues they engage with in real life in-game. Obtaining the Premier League license will satisfy existing gamers, and increased sponsorship activity will raise brand awareness among non-gamers – which could aid in growing active users.

At the same time, simulation and management players seek different experiences from the Sports genre, and therefore engage distinct audiences. From the Premier League’s perspective, it is important to strengthen fan engagement and awareness among a broad range of gamers – as it is this that will indirectly improve the value of licenses and rights. From a sponsorship perspective, the two fill a different asset of the Premier League’s portfolio, with limited conflict of interest as they target and engage different audiences, despite operating in the same sector.