Sports advertising is the biggest spend in 2024. Amid rising viewership numbers for last year’s Olympic Games, global spending on sports-related advertising rose to $60.9 billion, according to WARC.
But sports marketing isn’t just about chasing the biggest audience. In 2025 online marketers are aiming to find an audience with niche, unusual gaming opportunities. Interest among the public in areas such as padel, pickleball and darts is on the rise – and in recent months, online retailers have moved into the game as it emerges.
Best Buy, for example, is signing on this winter as one of the main sponsors of TGL, a televised golf tournament. The new league, which will start on ESPN (including ESPN +) from January 7, also counts So-Fi and Samsung among its brand partners.
The big box brand is no stranger to sports — it has a long-standing relationship with the NFL. But CMO Jennie Weber told Digiday that the tech and gaming “niche” leagues have given the electronics retailer a niche for gamers.
“Even though it’s unknown, it feels like the right place for us to come forward and be part of what I think will be a cultural conversation,” he said. Weber declined to share financial details of the sponsorship deal.
Best Buy isn’t the only one looking for alternatives to sports fans.
The watch sales platform Bezel, sponsor of the padel team of New York Atlantics, presented watches in different sports in the 2024 sports season. And last year Target released a limited collection of pickleball products under the Prince’s tennis brand, the first bid to appeal to its growing, diverse audience.
Research specialist Forrester predicts that one in five brands will focus on sponsorships and sports teams by 2025. A 2024 study by the firm found that young viewers were interested in sports unusual ones like pickleball or padel. Sponsors of the Pro Padel League currently include Adidas and Spanish brewer Estrella Damm.
20% of millennial and Generation Z adults said they are interested in watching Major League Pickleball, versus just 8% of Generation Xers. As a result, the Q3 survey of CMOs estimated that 22% of American sales managers who are already using games, plan to market around MLP. 21% thought Major League Cricket – not the best offer in India, Australia or the UK, but very low in America Both matches are shown on ESPN+ in the US.
In the UK, there is interest in darts with Sky Sports reportedly blocking Netflix and Amazon from holding on to broadcast rights to the PDC World Darts Championship. According to The Telegraph, the chairman of the sports governing body, Barry Hearn, estimates that the rights are worth 45 million pounds ($57 million).
Although the Forrester report suggested that broadcast advertising will be the main way brands want to promote padel, pickleball or cricket, it is not the only way.
Samsung’s sale of TGL, for example, will put its products and technology front and center at Florida’s So-Fi League Stadium. The site will host a 600-square-foot “wall” above its main entrance, according to a press release.
In each case, retailers who support sponsorships, partnerships or the use of streaming advertising are willing to integrate their products into these games as they grow. “I actually think it will produce [golf] to a whole new generation,” said Best Buy’s Weber, referring to TGL.
In terms of spending money in the NFL or NBA, the sports advertising activity advertised next to padel or pickleball involves very little investment.
It is clear that they are growing and growing. But as an investment opportunity now, it’s still a good one,” said Alex Brown, head of sports and entertainment at EssenceMediacom., it’s still a potentially useful way to reach customers, especially for sellers looking for a “first chance,” he said.
The goal is to eventually be what Rolex and Wilson are to tennis, pickleball, padel or simulator golf. “You can be there when it starts growing,” added Brown.
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