How football clubs can create new sponsorship revenue digitally

Aug 19, 2026 · 6 min

Informational

Discover more about digital revenue streams and how StandBased can help you achieve your commercial objectives.

Sponsorship has always played an important role in football.

From shirt sponsors and pitchside boards to programme advertising and hospitality, commercial partnerships provide clubs with valuable income while giving businesses access to a passionate and loyal audience.

But the way supporters interact with their clubs is changing.

Fans are spending more time on club websites, mobile apps, social media, email and other digital channels. For football clubs, that creates an opportunity to offer sponsors something beyond traditional matchday exposure.

By making better use of their digital platforms, clubs can create new sponsorship revenue while giving commercial partners greater visibility, more measurable results and new ways to engage directly with supporters.

Look beyond traditional sponsorship assets

Most clubs already have an established list of commercial opportunities.

There might be a main shirt sponsor, training wear partner, stadium sponsor, match sponsor or advertising boards around the ground.

Those assets remain important, but there is only a limited amount of physical inventory available.

Digital platforms are different.

A website, mobile app or email database can create numerous additional opportunities for commercial partners without taking anything away from the existing matchday experience.

A match centre could have a presenting partner. Team news could be sponsored. A weekly email could feature a commercial partner. A competition or fan poll could have its own sponsor.

By looking at every digital interaction as a potential commercial asset, clubs can begin to build completely new sponsorship packages.

Make your website work commercially

For many supporters, the club website is their first destination for news, fixtures, tickets and other information.

That audience has commercial value.

Rather than simply placing banner adverts across the site, clubs can build sponsorship into useful and engaging content.

A sponsor could be associated with match previews, player interviews, highlights, team news or a specific section of the website.

For example, a local car dealership might sponsor the club's Match Centre, while a restaurant could become the official partner of a weekly feature.

The best digital sponsorship does not need to interrupt the supporter experience. Instead, the sponsor becomes part of content that fans already want to consume.

That makes the partnership more natural and potentially more valuable.

Use your mobile app to create premium opportunities

A club mobile app creates another powerful platform for generating sponsorship revenue.

Supporters who download an app are often among a club's most engaged fans. They are actively choosing to keep the club on their phone and receive regular information from it.

That creates valuable opportunities for sponsors.

A business could sponsor live match updates, goal notifications, a predictor competition or exclusive video content. Clubs could also create sponsored offers that are delivered directly to supporters through push notifications.

The important thing is to keep the experience relevant.

Sending supporters endless advertising messages is unlikely to generate engagement. Offering genuinely useful discounts, competitions or exclusive opportunities from carefully selected club partners can be far more effective.

Turn competitions into valuable sponsored content

Fans love getting involved.

Predictor games, player-of-the-match votes, quizzes, polls and competitions all encourage supporters to interact with the club rather than simply consume content.

They can also provide excellent sponsorship opportunities.

Imagine a season-long score predictor sponsored by a local business, with a monthly prize for the leading supporter.

The sponsor receives regular visibility throughout the season, while the club gives fans another reason to return to its digital platforms.

The same approach can work with player-of-the-match voting, goal-of-the-month competitions or matchday quizzes.

Instead of selling a single advert, the club is creating an ongoing digital activation.

That can make the partnership more engaging for supporters and more valuable for sponsors.

Make better use of email

Email remains one of the most valuable communication channels available to football clubs.

Unlike social media, where algorithms can determine who sees a post, email allows clubs to communicate directly with supporters who have chosen to hear from them.

That also creates opportunities for commercial partners.

Regular club newsletters can include sponsored features, partner offers or branded sections.

Clubs can also work with sponsors to create targeted campaigns where appropriate.

A family-focused partner may be particularly relevant to supporters who regularly purchase junior tickets, while a hospitality partner could be promoted to supporters interested in premium matchday experiences.

The more relevant the offer, the more useful it becomes to both the supporter and the sponsor.

Give sponsors measurable results

One of the biggest advantages of digital sponsorship is measurement.

A pitchside advertising board provides important brand awareness, but measuring exactly how many people acted after seeing it can be difficult.

Digital channels provide far more information.

Clubs can measure impressions, clicks, competition entries, email engagement, app activity and conversions.

This means commercial teams can provide sponsors with clearer reporting on how a partnership is performing.

Instead of telling a partner that their logo appeared on the website, a club could demonstrate how many supporters viewed the sponsored content, clicked through to an offer or entered a branded competition.

Better reporting makes it easier to demonstrate value — and stronger evidence of value can help clubs retain sponsors and grow partnerships over time.

Build commercial partnerships rather than sell advertising

The biggest opportunity for clubs is to change the conversation.

Digital sponsorship should not simply be about finding more places to put a sponsor's logo.

The goal should be to create partnerships that benefit the club, the business and the supporter.

That might mean exclusive discounts for season-ticket holders, competitions through the club app, useful matchday content or experiences that supporters could not access elsewhere.

When a commercial partner genuinely adds something to the fan experience, sponsorship becomes much more powerful.

Create more value from the audience you already have

Football clubs do not necessarily need millions of followers to create meaningful digital sponsorship revenue.

What matters is having an engaged audience.

A local or regional business may find a highly engaged community of several thousand supporters far more valuable than a much larger but less relevant audience elsewhere.

By bringing websites, apps, CRM, eMarketing and other digital tools together, clubs can better understand that audience and create commercial opportunities around it.

Traditional sponsorship will always remain an important part of football.

But clubs now have something else to offer: direct digital access to a highly engaged community of supporters.

For clubs looking to increase sponsorship revenue, that creates opportunities that extend far beyond the advertising boards around the pitch.