Since the first corporate sponsorship deal in 1982 with the Milk Marketing Board, sponsorship and advertising for the Premier League and English Football League has become an integral part of the beautiful game.

Derek Dougan and the First Shirt Sponsorship

One of the most recognisable forms of advertising within football is kit sponsorship, which Sports 360 has a vast and varied history of brokering deals for over the years. Shirt sponsors are now commonplace within football, but it was Kettering Town that started the trend over 40 years ago in January 1976. Former football player Derek Dougan had recently become the CEO of Kettering Town Football Club, and in one of his first major acts in the role, he sealed a sponsorship deal between the club and local business, Kettering Tyres.

The deal was originally disliked by the Football Association, who ordered the logo to be removed from the shirts. However, the following years more football clubs applied for the right to have sponsored logos on their shirts, and the FA eventually granted them permission in 1977.

We’ve come a long way since then, with the Premier League earning over £200 million from shirt sponsorship deals alone this year.

To give you a better idea of the kind of money involved with the shirt sponsorship deals of the Premier League in recent years, we’ve put together this graph of the clubs involved and the amount their recent shirt sponsorship deals have been brokered for.

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Sky Sports and BT Sports

Back in 1992, Sky Sports made the very first five-year TV deal with the Premier League. This was worth a huge £191 million in domestic TV rights, and provided a lot of revenue to the clubs involved, averaging at £0.64 million per game.

However, nowadays that amount has skyrocketed, and the 2013-2016 deal with Sky and BT was worth over £3 billion, averaging at around £6.5 million per game.

It’s not just football…

But we all know it’s not just football that enjoys lucrative sponsorship deals with various companies. Sports 360 were delighted to broker the deal between the Rugby Super League and Betfred, who have taken over from First Utility as the league’s sponsor. The contract between First Utility and the Super League ended after the Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Here at Sports 360, we’re delighted to work with some incredible clubs and to broker some of the most iconic deals in the world of sport today. For more information on sports advertising and how it can gain you exposure, click here.