Sponsorship industry identifies AI, emerging sports and new venue infrastructure as catalysts for growth

A new survey undertaken by sponsorship consultancy ONSIDE in collaboration with Sport for Business members highlights opportunities in Artificial Intelligence, an appetite for emerging sports, and new sporting infrastructure as opportunities in sponsorship in Ireland.

While 7 in 10 industry experts see a lot of opportunities in the use of AI in their organisation, 56% are concerned about AI and data privacy.

This voiced concern, in light of recent high-profile data breaches, reflects the hesitation in rapidly adopting AI tools, and apprehension around a new kind of security risk for businesses.

However, industry professionals also identify the increasingly important role of AI in their industry with 33% seeing AI as a tool to differentiate within the sports industry - a significant opportunity as 65% of professionals agree that it is becoming more difficult for brands to stand out in the growing sponsorship marketplace in Ireland and 1 in 3 noting increasing clutter in the marketplace as an issue for their organisation.

Meanwhile, 56% of Sport for Business members see a lot of opportunities in the use of AI in sports sponsorship, with 50% of practitioners already investing in the use of AI within their organisation.

ONSIDE’s Director of Intelligence and Insight, Kim Kirwan explains: “The AI balancing act remains a hurdle for what is a sizable level of optimism around the use of the technology in sponsorship. With challenges around standing out in the industry, those who unlock the use of AI effectively and securely will be well set for the future.”

Rugby, GAA and Olympics are ranked as the top three sporting properties in terms of attractiveness by the industry, while gymnastics, motor racing and padel emerge as the top sporting properties experiencing the strongest growth in appeal. The rising interest amongst both public and professionals in emerging sports is underscored by the 62% of industry practitioners in agreement that sponsorship of emerging sports such as American Football, padel, ice hockey and esports is a good way to connect with new audiences, while 59% agree that sponsorship of emerging sports is a good way to stand out in a cluttered sponsorship landscape.

Significantly, over 9 in 10 of members agree that new sporting infrastructure will improve Ireland’s ability to attract and host high-profile events, with 89% agreeing that sponsors play an important role in improving fan experiences at sporting events.

The research identifies a buoyant industry with twice as many organisations entering into new sponsorships as have dropped out of them since the start of 2025 and 85% are optimistic about how the industry will perform in the next two years.

Rob Hartnett, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sport for Business said: “We’re measuring a strong appetite for future AI implementation, particularly when it comes to developing fan insights and measuring performance metrics, as mentioned by over 3 in 5 industry professionals.”

“We’re also seeing tremendous enthusiasm around the prospect of new sporting infrastructure in Ireland. This sentiment is likely in part driven by the recent unveiling of Ireland’s first dedicated winter sports and entertainment arena in Cherrywood, south Dublin.

The industry will no doubt be watching to see how a dedicated arena could influence the growth of that sporting category domestically and what impact that has on the sponsorship landscape in Ireland”.

This is the eighth wave of the ONSIDE Sports Impact Monitor that was first launched during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. All respondents are members of the Sport for Business community with the survey undertaken in June 2025.

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Irish Sponsorship Predicted to Reach €236M in 2025: ONSIDE Fanflare Report

Understanding fandom the key to sponsorship success for rightsholders and brand

The Irish sponsorship market, valued at €225 million in 2024, is projected to grow by 5% to €236 million in 2025, according to the 19th annual ONSIDE Irish Sponsorship Industry Survey. This growth, while positive, represents a slight cooling compared to previous years and is attributed to a levelling off of demand and reduced macroeconomic inflation. The report, titled "Fanflare," examines the evolving landscape of Irish sponsorship, highlighting both opportunities and challenges presented by a new wave of fandom. Specific properties, and even sponsorships, will flare up more quickly but in an increasingly competitive market - a sequence of poor performances or an underwhelming event may have more rapid consequences.

While overall sponsorship spend softened in 2024, with 43% of sponsors increasing budgets compared to 56% in 2023, the volume of deals actually rose by 22%, suggesting a trend towards smaller, more targeted sponsorships. Looking ahead, 34% of sponsors plan to increase their investment in 2025, while 23% are considering exiting current sponsorships, the lowest churn rate in a decade. This dynamic creates both challenges and opportunities for rights holders.

"The sponsorship landscape is evolving rapidly," says Kim Kirwan, Director of Intelligence & Insight at ONSIDE. "While established properties like rugby remain strong, emerging areas like women's sport and non-alcoholic beverages are gaining significant traction. The key to success in this environment for both rights holders and brands investing in sponsorship is understanding the nuances of fan engagement and leveraging data-driven insights to create authentic and impactful partnerships."

Key Trends Shaping the Future of Sponsorship:

• What Sponsors Want: Brand awareness remains the key driver for sponsorship investment (47%), but brand loyalty is growing in importance (44%), reflecting a desire for deeper, more meaningful connections with consumers. Showcasing community/social responsibility (32%) grew 10% since last year, as brands increasingly seek to align with causes that resonate with their target audiences.

• Gen Z Embraces Traditional Passions, with a Twist: While Gen Z has distinct consumption habits, they are receptive to sponsorship absorbing many of the same passions as their predecessors, particularly in the context of live experiences. This presents a unique opportunity for sponsors to connect with this demographic through a blend of established platforms and innovative activations.

• Rise of Women's Sport: Women's sport continues its ascent as a prime sponsorship opportunity, with 20% of sponsors identifying it as the single biggest opportunity in 2025. This aligns with growing public interest, with 23% of Irish adults reporting increased engagement with women's sports.

• The Power of Personalities: Brand ambassadors are identified as a key area of opportunity, with Rhasidat Adeleke voted the most marketable personality for 2025, highlighting the increasing influence of individual athletes in connecting brands with consumers.

• Digital Engagement and Personalisation: Rights holders are prioritising digital content creation (85%) and collaboration with sponsors (77%) to identify and activate new assets, with personalised fan targeting (86%) becoming increasingly crucial.

• Cautious Exploration of AI: While interest in AI is growing, the industry is taking a measured approach, with experimentation focused primarily on content creation (30%) and data analysis (21%).

Looking ahead, the ONSIDE Fanflare Report predicts a vibrant but increasingly complex sponsorship landscape. Success will belong to those who embrace data-driven strategies, prioritise authentic partnerships, and understand the evolving needs and preferences of a new generation of fans.

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Tubridy and Bono top ONSIDE’s most admired entertainment stars lists

Ryan Tubridy has retained his position as Ireland’s most admired TV/radio personality while Hozier narrowly missed out on ending Bono’s five-year rein as the top music and entertainment star, according to a study undertaken by sponsorship advisors ONSIDE.

Tubridy – who joined Virgin Radio in 2024 - tops the TV/radio list for the 11th year in a row, followed by his Late Late show successor Patrick Kielty and fellow RTÉ Presenter Claire Byrne.

ONSIDE’s Director of Intelligence and Insight, Kim Kirwan explains: “Tubridy remains top of the list in 2024 as the most admired TV/radio personality but at lower levels than previous years due to his absence from Irish television. Kielty is the biggest climber in this year’s list, up seven spots from 2023, while Claire Byrne is the only female in the top 10, ranking as the most popular of all amongst over 65 year olds.”

Bono is Ireland’s most admired music star for the fifth year in a row, but Hozier has run him closer than ever, rising to second spot for the first time in his career. Folk legend Christy Moore is in third place in an all-male top five that also includes Daniel O’Donnell and Dermot Kennedy.

Kirwan adds: “Hozier’s score in 2024 is higher than any artist except Bono since we started tracking musicians in 2020 meaning we can start to talk about him being one of the ‘big two’ in Irish music. The three female artists in the Top 10 are Sinead O’Connor, Imelda May and Enya.”

Hozier is one of only three artists in the Top 10 most admired musicians in his 30’s, the others being Kennedy and Niall Horan. When it comes to younger audiences, the picture is quite different. For Ireland’s 18-24 year olds, Hozier is comfortably ahead of Bono as the most admired musician and contemporary artists such as Jazzy and Kneecap feature in their top five.

Taylor and Harrington top ONSIDE’s most admired sports stars list

Katie Taylor has bounced back to the top of Ireland’s most admired sports stars list according to an annual study undertaken by sponsorship advisors ONSIDE.

Taylor’s return to the summit in 2024 coincides with her record-breaking bout against Amanda Serrano in Texas and means 2023 is the only year since 2017 that she has failed to top the chart.

It’s a boxing one-two in the standings with Kellie Harrington claiming second place in the year she secured a second Olympic gold medal in Paris. The third most admired sports star amongst the Irish public in 2024 is the retired footballer Roy Keane.

ONSIDE’s Director of Intelligence and Insight, Kim Kirwan explains: “Ireland is unique in having two female boxers as the most admired sports personalities in the country. Taylor continues to be popular across demographics, especially females and those aged between 35 to 54 while the levels of admiration for Harrington are higher in 2024 than they were after her first gold medal in 2021.”

Last year’s most admired sports star was retiring rugby captain Johnny Sexton who remains the most admired rugby player in fourth position on the overall sports list and continues to be particularly popular amongst young people. He is one of three retired rugby players inside the top 10 along with Brian O’Driscoll (6th) and Paul O’Connell (10th).

Kirwan adds: “With six players in the top 20 most admired sports stars, rugby is comfortably ahead of golf (3), soccer (3) and GAA (1) as the most prominent sport but we have yet to see a breakout star emerge from within the current men’s or women’s squad. Bundee Aki (11th) and Peter O’Mahoney (16th) are the only currently active players inside the top 20 with La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara (20th) completing the list.”

Fifth spot in the sports list and this year’s highest climber is sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke who enjoys strong support from the nation’s youth and was second to Taylor amongst the 25-34 age group.

The top 10 is rounded out by golfers Shane Lowry (7th) and Rory McIlroy (8th) with the triple Olympic medallist Paul O’Donovan in 9th spot.  

ONSIDE Industry Report Survey 2025

Sponsorship perceptions of athletics on the rise as Olympics gets underway

A new survey undertaken by sponsorship consultancy ONSIDE and Sport for Business has identified rugby, athletics, and golf as the three Olympic sports most attractive to sponsors in Ireland.

While the popularity of rugby and golf are driven by the year-round schedule of competition, a pre-Opening Ceremony kick off for Sevens and a high-profile Irish golf team will help both sports consolidate their position at the top.

It is athletics, however, that has had a breakthrough 18 months leading into Paris 2024 due a string of achievements on the track, most notably from Rhasidat Adeleke and her relay colleagues.

ONSIDE’s 2024 Sports Impact Monitor found 6 in 10 members of the influential Sport for Business community have changed their perception of athletics for the better over the past six months with over 8 in 10 now highlighting it as an attractive property for sponsors.

This places it over 20 percentage points ahead of the next Olympic sport on the list, rowing, which is narrowly ahead of swimming. While rowing’s position has remained steady from 2023 to 2024, swimming has climbed significantly off the back of strong performances from Daniel Wiffen, overtaking both basketball and hockey.

As well as being a showcase for 32 sports, the Olympics will be a shop window for the next generation of Irish athletes.

ONSIDE’s Director of Intelligence and Insight, Kim Kirwan explains: “Over 90% of industry experts believe the use of sports personalities to endorse a brand or company is an effective form of sponsorship with over 50% interested in aligning with a brand ambassador in the next 1-2 years.”

“We tracked an increase in brand ambassador deals leading into the Olympics and Paralympics and - based on what we saw after the Tokyo games - there will be two or three star performers able to strike even bigger deals post-Paris,” adds Kirwan.

Almost four times as many organisations have entered new sponsorships as have dropped out of them since the start of 2024 and 80% are optimistic about the how the industry will perform in the next two years.

Rob Hartnett, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sport for Business said: “The industry is buoyant and positive heading into the Olympics and Paralympics but there are notes of caution as well, particularly as we look to the next generation.”

“Three quarters of respondents said sport needs to do more to engage younger audiences and 87% of respondents said that sponsors should invest in the grassroots aspect of the sports they support.”

This was the second time the usage of Artificial Intelligence in sport and sponsorship in Ireland has been tracked in the study and its usage is growing rapidly. In 2024, half of respondents said AI will be an important part of their company’s activation strategy in the next 1-2 years, more than double the number from 2023.

This is the seventh wave of the ONSIDE Sports Impact Monitor that was first launched during the pandemic in 2020. All respondents are members of the Sport for Business community with the survey undertaken in June-July 2024.

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RUGBY SPONSORSHIP DELIVERS POSITIVE OUTCOMES FOR GUINNESS AND TELCOS ACROSS THE UK

The men’s and women’s Guinness Six Nations competitions have helped some of rugby’s biggest sponsors hit new heights in the UK according to a new consumer study from ONSIDE.

The tournament title sponsor, Guinness, is joined by Vodafone, O2 and BT, who all invest in national rugby team sponsorships, amongst the most admired sponsors of sport according to ONSIDE’s latest UK Quarterly Sponsorship Review.

It is the fourth year in a row that the title sponsorship has propelled Guinness up the rankings in ONSIDE’s Q1 analysis of UK consumers. The brand performed particularly well in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, topping the standings in the latter two markets.

Results for the telcos fluctuated across the different parts of the UK with Vodafone, the main sponsor of both Ireland and Wales, leading the way in these markets while O2, sponsor of the England team, was narrowly ahead of the pack in England and BT the highest performing of the three in Scotland. 

While still a prominent sponsor of Scottish Rugby, BT is the only one of these telco brands not to feature on the front of the shirt of a national rugby team. The current front of shirt partner for Scotland, Peter Vardy, didn’t feature at all in the unprompted consumer responses.

ONSIDE’s Managing Director, UK and Middle East, Jon Long explains: “The Guinness Six Nations benefits from excellent scheduling and broad media reach across both the men’s and women’s competitions. 

“This doesn’t guarantee that sponsors will cut through with consumers but several brands, including Guinness, Vodafone and O2, have got into a good rhythm of capitalising on this during the first part of the year and these are the best results we have seen for rugby sponsors in the UK since we began our tracking in 2021.”

Jon Long - Managing Director, ONSIDE (UK & Middle East)

Even though it was a record-breaking quarter for rugby sponsors, they continue to be out-performed by Nike, Adidas and Barclay’s, three brands that have used football in particular to dominate their sectors in the UK. 

There are no other apparel brands or banks in the UK-wide list of the top 20 sports sponsors but Bank of Ireland and RBS perform well in Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively.

Lucozade has joined Red Bull, Coca Cola and Pepsi back in the top 20 for the first time since 2022. Just over three months out from the start of the Paris Olympics, Aldi is the best performing of the British Olympic Association’s local partners.

The same three telcos also feature in the top 20 most admired non-sports sponsors, as does EE, with O2 leading the way on the back of its extensive venues and music sponsorship portfolio.

ONSIDE’s Quarterly Sponsorship Review has been running since 2016 in Ireland and since 2021 in the UK, serving as a barometer of consumer interest in sport and non-sport sponsorship

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WORLD CUP MOMENTUM CONTINUES INTO 2024 AS RUGBY SPONSORS DOMINATE IRISH SPORTS SECTOR

Rugby continues to dominate the sports sponsorship landscape in Ireland with new research from ONSIDE revealing seven out of the top 10 most admired sponsors have prominent partnerships in the sport.

Following on from Ireland’s men successfully retaining their Guinness Six Nations title and ahead of potential record-breaking fixtures for Ireland’s women against Scotland and Leinster’s men in the Investec Champions Cup, ONSIDE’s latest Quarterly Sponsorship Review has highlighted the broad strength of rugby as a sponsorship platform for consumer-facing brands.

Leading IRFU sponsors including Vodafone, Guinness and Aldi all feature prominently within the top sports sponsors while Bank of Ireland – which recently renewed sponsorships of all four provinces and also has a partnership with the IRFU – is joined in the top 10 for the first time by another sponsor of provincial rugby, Laya Healthcare.

ONSIDE Director of Intelligence and Insight, Kim Kirwan explains: “The major rugby sponsorships are really cutting through with consumers in Ireland so it’s no surprise that we’ve seen several key long-term renewals in recent months.”

Kim Kirwan - Director of Intelligence & Insight

The start of 2024 was buoyant for sponsorship in Ireland with the number of deals from January to March up 15% on the same period in 2023. A growing portion of these focused on women’s sport, up from 1 in 5 during the same period last year to 1 in 4 this time around.

Kirwan adds: “We’ve seen notable deals involving female talent in the first quarter of 2024. KPMG have joined Allianz as a sponsor of Rhasidat Adeleke while both Aer Lingus and Lucozade Sport have signed up female rugby stars as brand ambassadors.

The leading non-sports sponsors in the same ONSIDE Ireland Quarterly Sponsorship Review were Three and Electric Ireland, unchanged from Q4 2023, with supermarkets retaining their place as the dominant sector in non-sports sponsorship.

ONSIDE’s Quarterly Sponsorship Review has been running since 2016 in Ireland and since 2021 in the UK, serving as a barometer of consumer interest in sport and non-sport sponsorship. 

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IFAF appoints ONSIDE to support commercial development of Flag Football

ONSIDE has been appointed by the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) to develop the bidding and commercial programmes for its 2026 Flag Football World Championship.

The joint men’s and women’s event in 2026 will be the first Flag Football World Championship to feature qualifying slots for the Olympic Games following confirmation of the sport’s inclusion on the programme for Los Angeles 2028.

IFAF President Pierre Trochet said: “Flag football is growing rapidly around the world as both a participation and spectator sport. This year will see a record-breaking edition of the IFAF Flag Football World Championships in Finland, concluding the biggest ever cycle of IFAF Continental competitions, involving 65 international representative teams.

“This rapid growth trajectory is predicted to continue, with the 2026 World Championships set to be on a different scale to anything we’ve staged in the past.”

“As well as building out the commercial model for this event, ONSIDE are helping us to develop a bidding process for interested hosts and a legal framework for the event.”

Flag football is a five-a-side non-contact discipline of American Football in which women’s and men’s World Championship events have been contested since 2002. The current holders of both titles are the USA while previous winners of the women’s event include Canada, France, Mexico, Panama and Sweden and the men’s competition has been won in the past by Austria, Canada and France.

Jon Long - Managing Director, UK and Middle East

ONSIDE’s Managing Director, UK and Middle East, Jon Long said: “We are delighted to be supporting IFAF at this inflection point for both the organisation and flag football around the world.

“The positive momentum around flag football has been building for some time and its inclusion on the programme of LA 2028 looks set to increase interest in the World Championship and pathway events.”

This appointment enhances a growing portfolio of international clients and projects for the Dublin-headquartered sports and entertainment consultancy that also includes Cricket West Indies, USA Cricket, British Triathlon, England Hockey, Table Tennis England and World Squash.

ONSIDE founder John Trainor passes away

It is with massive, heartbreaking sadness that we post the news that ONSIDE’s founder and Chief Executive, John Trainor, has passed away.

After battling illness with characteristic resilience and strength over a considerable period of time – and turning up in enthusiastic good spirits, positivity and health to our WWSS event in late November in the Aviva Stadium - he was unexpectedly taken sick in January and passed away on the evening of Monday 5 February 2024.

We are all in shock. Our thoughts and condolences are with John’s wife Eithne and his three boys at this tragic time.

As a mark of respect, the ONSIDE offices will be closed for the remainder of this week.

For further information, please contact Jon Long (jon.long@onside.ie) or Kim Kirwan (kim.kirwan@onside.ie)