The Premier League could not have wished for a more high profile end to the current season with Leicester City attracting renewed interest from neutral fans and breathing new competitive life into the competition just at the time of switching from a single to a multi sponsor model.
This is the last year of Barclays long term title rights and the League has already secured five of what it planned to be a maximum seven partners in order to secure sponsorship income of £40 Million per season.
Carlsberg were yesterday unveiled as the official Beer Partner of the League, adding to their similar position with the UEFA Euro 2016 Finals this summer and of course the FAI here in Ireland.
“This is the perfect partnership for us as it represents a point of passion for our consumers, can deliver scale, and is befitting of a number one brand within its category,” said Carling UK Brand Manager Jim Shearer.
“Together with our large network of retailers and pubs, as well as the partnership we have with Sky, we’ll be finding ways to use our unique access to the Premier League to give Carling drinkers more reasons to get together and keep the stories going long after the final whistle has blown.”
The other partners to have been revealed so far include Barclays returning as the Official Banking Partner, Tag Heuer as Timing Partner, Nike in terms of balls and EA Sports as Technology Partner.
That leaves two more deals to go, on top of the new round of broadcast deals signed through to 2019, and still two rounds of games to go in this year’s competition.
It looks like the dominance of the Premier League will remain with us for some time yet to come.
What will be interesting is to see how each of the new partners, and the returning ones, will activate their association with the most consistently popular event in the global sporting calendar and how what they pay will rise or fall the next time around.
