Sports organisations are trusted messengers, making them appealing options for marketing campaigns. However, with this great power, comes responsibility. The world is in an unhealthy place and sport has the power to change the scoreboard. Historically though, sport has championed industries which harm people and the planet, so a shift in the organisations sports partner with, and the types of activations in the partnerships, is needed.
In this article, Sport Impact surmises how the EU Directive on Green Claims might shift the global sporting partnership landscape, explains how sports organisations can shift their business models to benefit people and the planet, and analyses if this is having an impact beyond Europe through assessing how the latest edition of the IPL is engaging with impact-led partnerships.
EU Green Directive on Green Claims
Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainability credentials from products and services they use, which has led to organisations adding sustainability elements to their business. However, in some instances, organisations overplay how sustainable their product/service is in marketing campaigns, which is known as greenwashing.
In 2024, the EU Directive of Green Claims was passed, which aims to prevent misleading environmental claims. This has implications for sport; for example, British Cycling’s partnership with Shell featured claims about how Shell was driving forward the Net Zero transition for British Cycling, when in reality, Shell’s Net Zero investments only make up a fraction of their energy portfolio, most of which is centred around planet-burning fossil fuels. Were this partnership to occur in the EU after the Directive of Green Claims had come in, the partnership announcement may have fallen foul of the law. As national and international laws increasingly tighten around sustainability, sport must stay ahead of the curve and lead the charge to transition to more sustainable and impactful partnerships.
Where Can Sport Go from Here?
To transition to more sustainable and impactful partnerships, sport can engage in more ‘impact-driven partnerships’ – which Sport Impact defines as partnerships which promote organisations / products / services which are genuinely beneficial for people and/or the planet. These partnerships have a much higher chance of complying with international sustainability laws.
At the 2024 Sport Impact Summit, Magda Pozzo (of Udinese CF and Watford FC) highlighted during the ‘Moneyball’ panel how the growth in sustainability-related organisations can lead to new forms of sponsorship, as these organisations look to upset the traditional sports partnership paradigm.
In the short-term, this can look like adding new categories to expand the number of partnerships possible, and in the long-term, these new impact-led sponsors might replace the traditional sponsors, as these become increasingly untenable. Sport Impact hopes that the sports industry seizes this opportunity to redefine sponsorships so that they lead to a healthier world for people and the planet.
Sport Beyond the EU – IPL 2025 Case Study
Sports marketing and sponsorship in the EU must adapt to the new laws, but what does this mean for sport outside of Europe?
The 2025 version of the IPL – the most viewed cricket league in the world – is projected to achieve $132m in sponsorship for the franchises, which is a 10% increase versus 2024. What is becoming apparent is that with more sponsors and a higher value in those sponsorships, simple logos on shirts are no longer sufficient, and high-impact fan engagement is emerging as the primary sponsorship driver.
Analysis of the partners of all teams shows that there were a combined 231 partnerships, ranging from a minimum of 17 to a maximum of 41 for each team. However, of these 231 partnerships, less than 10% (only 21) were impact-driven partnerships.
Clearly, impact-led partnerships are far from being mainstream in the IPL, suggesting that the EU Green Claims Directive is yet to see effects beyond Europe. However, the Sport Impact Summit showed that impact-led partnerships can lead to increased revenue, and crucially, benefit people and the planet, so the time is now to start to align with organisations who are creating a better future.