Sport’s revenue is changing

For many years, International Federations have relied on broadcast revenue as one of the most important pillars of their business model. But that ground has become increasingly less fertile in recent times.

As the biggest sports continue to grow and hoover up larger portions of media rights value, smaller IFs are increasingly left competing for a smaller revenue pot. That changes the commercial equation. If broadcast revenue is becoming less reliable, then other revenue streams become much more important.

Sponsorship is becoming more valuable

With less money coming from broadcast revenue, sponsorship and other revenue streams are becoming a greater source of value for IFs, with that shift already beginning to play out.

PwC’s 2026 Global Sports Survey found executives expect sponsorship rights to grow at 6.9% annually over the next three to five years, ahead of media rights at 5.4%. The survey also suggests sponsorship, hospitality, direct-to-consumer engagement and experiential revenue are increasingly being seen as important counterbalances to softer broadcast growth.

Just as importantly, PwC also found 78% of executives expect investors to prioritise sports properties with more diversified revenue streams beyond traditional media rights.

That matters because it reinforces the scale of the opportunity. For IFs, sponsorship is no longer just an extra commercial line. It is becoming a more important growth lever at exactly the point many sports need one.

The reach challenge

Many IFs face the same challenge in attracting sponsorship as they do in broadcast: their audience numbers are often not big enough to compete with larger sports properties.

Put simply, most IFs are unlikely to win sponsorship by selling reach alone. If a sponsor wants mass visibility, there are bigger sports, entertainment brands and cultural platforms that can offer it more readily.

That means IFs need to look beyond visibility and become more creative in how they build sponsor value. Traditional assets like logo placement, venue branding and partner exposure still have a role to play, but on their own they are unlikely to create a strong enough proposition for brands to consider investing in sponsorship.

IFs therefore need to rethink how they package sponsorship to provide brands a different type of value.

Quality over quantity

If IFs cannot win on quantity, they need to win on quality.

Their value to sponsors needs to be built around what the sport represents, who it appeals to and the culture around it, rather than audience size alone. In essence, the opportunity lies in creating a strong fit between the sport, its community and the right brand.

As brands look for more integrated partnerships, IFs can use sponsorship to create meaningful engagement all year round, not just at major events. The key is making sure those activations offer genuine value to audiences.

World Championships, qualifiers and test events should remain peak moments for sponsor visibility, but they need to sit within a broader 365-day partnership built around storytelling, athlete-led content, community engagement and wider experiences between competitions.

For IFs that evolve early, the upside is clear: a stronger proposition for higher-tier partners, more value for sponsors, more engaging content for audiences and a more credible platform for opportunities around LA28 and beyond.

So how does an IF go about achieving this?

Understanding meaningful difference

It is all well and good to invest in immersive campaigns, experiential activations and integrated sponsorship models, but none of it matters without clear positioning.

If a sport cannot define what it wants to be known for, where it can authentically connect with culture and how it will reach beyond existing fans, then the gap is not just in its communications – it is in its wider strategy.

That is why meaningful difference matters. It is the emotional and cultural space a sport occupies in the minds of audiences – the reason people connect with it over another sport competing for the same attention.

The strongest sports understand who they want to serve, what makes them distinctive and how they want audiences to feel. Reaching that point means going back to the fundamentals of marketing strategy – diagnosis, segmentation, targeting and positioning – to define what you want your sport to be famous for and help more people discover it.

Without the clarity of clear positioning, sponsorship becomes fragmented. An IF may produce more content and reach more people, but if it is unclear what the sport stands for or why audiences should connect with it, there is little meaningful value for sponsors.

But strong positioning is only the first step.

Demonstrating effectiveness

The second step is showing that this distinctiveness can be turned into something genuinely valuable for sponsors. It is not enough to say a sport has a unique audience or culture – sponsors need to see how that can be brought to life and measured.

For IFs that cannot offer huge reach, their value lies in showing brands that they can create meaningful interaction with an audience, not just passive exposure. Sponsors need confidence that the sport has the infrastructure, creative thinking and resources to build activations that feel relevant, memorable and worth investing in.

If the proposition is going to work, the sport needs to demonstrate how a sponsor can become part of its story, community and experience.

That means looking beyond impressions and reach to measures such as brand awareness, sentiment, audience behaviour and direct responses to calls to action. The focus shifts from quantity of attention to quality of interaction. And to do that well, many IFs may need to rethink the architecture of their sponsorship offerings altogether.

Case Studies

Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI): building meaningful difference

FEI has a clear meaningful difference: the unique relationship between horse and human. That gives the sport a distinctive emotional and cultural space, helping it connect with audiences beyond competition and attract brands with a natural affinity to that world.

During Paris 2024, A Bond Like No Other brought that emotional truth to life on a much bigger stage, using the scale of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to introduce equestrian sport to wider audiences in a more culturally relevant way.

By making the sport’s distinctive qualities easier to understand and connect with, the campaign strengthened the FEI’s appeal to wider audiences and created a clear foundation for future commercial growth.

FEI and Longines: turning positioning into sponsor value

FEI’s work with Longines shows how that distinctive positioning can be activated for a sponsor.

Interactive experiences such as Horse O’Clock, My Dream Jump and Chasing Jumps made Longines feel like a natural part of the sport’s culture and community.

The impact went beyond reach: 87% of equestrian fans had a positive perception of Longines, while 83% associated the brand with elegance and 76% said they would recommend it.

Together, the examples show the full process: define what makes the sport meaningfully different, then turn that positioning into relevant, measurable sponsor value.