The Top Global Sports Sponsorship Voices to Follow in 2027
Behind The Play is celebrating the 20 sports sponsorship voices worth following in 2027.
These are thought leaders who share the why behind what happened — why deals worked, activation didn't, or people changed their minds. Follow them and you'll get sharper at three things: choosing the right sponsorship, activating it so it converts, and proving the returns.
The Rise of Sports Sponsorship
Google Trends shows the rising popularity of sports sponsorship since 2024.
Three key drivers for this are billion-dollar deals in pro leagues, a boom in women's sports, and tech startups taking an active interest in being a part of such events.
$181B
Projected market by 2034, up from $99 billion today.
76%
Of B2C marketing execs investing in sports sponsorship struggle to calculate its ROI.
<1%
Of sponsorship spend goes to measurement, against roughly 3% in other marketing channels.
Here's how that plays out.
Neither the brand nor the rights holder decide what the deal is actually for. So nobody owns measuring it. So there's no evidence worth discussing. So there's nothing to say between the signature and the renewal date.
Which is why renewals fail. Not because the campaigns didn't perform, but because the silence led to the decision months ago.
The Methods Behind The Madness
What the industry needs is people who teach.
Practitioners whom both brands and rights holders can keep returning to for aligning KPIs before the ink dries, building activations that convert, and measuring and reporting outcomes in the language a CFO accepts.
Such names are present, and this list that we're building spotlights a few among them.
We want to make our selection process 100% transparent. So here are the six criteria we applied to choose the top sports sponsorship voices:
- 01
Proof of work. Led sponsorships or activations with a result they can point to. Not 20 years in the industry.
- 02
Original thinkers. They write, speak, or podcast their own view. Not reposted agency announcements.
- 03
They teach. They share numbers, frameworks, and the failures other people learn from.
- 04
Category movers. They did something first that others copied — a measurement approach, a deal structure, an activation format.
- 05
Active now. Not just in social media feeds or on the record somewhere, but also on the field. No dormant legends.
- 06
Gap fillers. Spread deliberately across brands, rights holders, agencies, sponsortech, measurement and regions. This offers perspective from every side of the table.
How Can I Nominate Sponsorship Voices For This List?
If you know someone who belongs on this list, you can mention them here.
We also accept nominations for:
- Head of Sponsorship or Partnerships
- Commercial Director
- Head of Activation
- Partnership Services or Account Director — the people who actually hold renewals together
…and any other function involved in sports sponsorship and activation.
Want the full list of 20 Global Sports Sponsorship Voices as they're announced? Click here to get them by email
Activating emotions, not just logo-slaps
Sports sponsorship is much more than CPM-based media buying.
Media buying rents attention. Sports sponsorship borrows someone else's connection: a club, a driver, a rivalry fans have cared about since they were eight.
Get that wrong and you've bought logo placement which could turn into a dead end. But nail it and you become a part of something fans passionately defend.
28%
Retention uplift brands see early in a partnership.
42%
Retention uplift once the partnership passes four years.
The latter is what compounds: brands see retention uplift of around 28% early in a partnership, rising to 42% once it passes four years.
Which is the real argument for fixing the alignment problem. Not because measurement is expected, but because deals that compound are the ones where both sides agreed on what they were measuring from Day 1.
That's what these global sponsorship experts can teach you.
Nominate someone: here.
About Behind The Play
Behind The Play is an email agency built for sports sponsorship.
We help you build an email ecosystem that you own. Through it, the awareness you're building translates into an authentic reputation, deeper industry relations, and, eventually, increased revenue.
For agencies, we attract the brands and rights holders you want, rather than pitching for them. For brands, we turn the emails that your sponsorship collects into customers. For rights holders, we build funnels that answer what fans and prospective sponsors want to know.
Want the full list of 20 Global Sports Sponsorship Voices as they're announced?
Get them by entering your email address below.