The recent 2022 European Sponsorship Association (ESA) ‘Sponsorship Market Overview,’ created in conjunction with ‘Nielsen Sports,’ has reported a 17.8% rise in Europe’s sponsorship market over the last twelve months.

Following the market’s 23% decline during 2020, 2021 saw the market rise to EUR €27.85 billion (AUD 40.14 billion) bringing its value back in line with 2017 figures.

Despite the growth, the 2021’s market value is still 9.3% lower than 2019’s pre-pandemic value of EUR €30.69 billion (AUD $44.23 billion).

The spread of the growth within Europe’s markets varied significantly between one and 32% due to differences between each individual country’s political and social responses to COVID-19.

Overall, Russia had the highest year on year (YoY) change, recording a 32% increase from 2020-2021.

This YoY growth reflects Russia’s 4.7% economic growth during 2021 however the current sanctions placed on Russia will likely see its sponsorship market decline again.

Other countries who posed successful sponsorship market growth was the UK and Italy who increased their markets by 20% and 19% respectively.

ESA chairmen, Andy Westlake, said the sponsorship sector’s bounce back is a huge relief to the sports industry.

“We know the sponsorship sector is resilient and we have seen how creative we are in times of change to prove to our sponsors that investment is still worthwhile,” Westlake said.

Nielson Sports managing international director, Marco Nazzari, said European businesses’ amped up recovery plans alongside the industry recognising changes in fan’s and business’ demands has and will continue to aid the market’s bounce back.

“Looking ahead to 2022, fandom has shifted from large audiences physically together to more remote yet more engaged behaviour through digital devices, impacting both sponsorship models and content distribution,” Nazzari said.

“Brands, sports rights holders and media owners must embrace this shift through marketing strategies to unlock revenue growth,” Nazzari added.

Westlake added, “Right holders need to keep pace with the current economic trends, and the ever-growing thirst of digital consumption from fans need to be understood by all for the green shoots of 2021 to flower in 2022 and beyond.”