Brazil is the country with the most soccer teams sponsored by bookmakers, survey shows

A survey conducted by the Bolavip Brasil website and shared by O Globo newspaper revealed that Brazil is the country with the most teams receiving sponsorship from bookmakers in the top division. There are 15 Serie A clubs, equivalent to 75% of all teams participating in the championship, with such sponsorship agreements.

The comparison took into account the world's top leagues. The sponsorships of 234 teams from 12 countries were analyzed: Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Spain, France, Holland, England, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Turkey.

In second place was Portugal, with 13 first-division clubs (72%) having a bookmaker as a sponsor. Mexico is in third place, with eight teams (44%). Three countries, however, do not have betting companies as main sponsors of first-division teams: Spain, Italy, and Turkey.

Overall, the betting sector leads in sponsorship among the 234 teams analyzed: its presence is 27%, while financial institutions account for 15%.

"The possibility of strengthening ties with soccer clubs and their legion of fans is a great opportunity for any company, particularly for bookmakers, whose synergy in offering services will be directly intertwined with soccer," said Darwin Henrique da Silva Filho, CEO of the bookmaker Esportes da Sorte, in an interview with the newspaper O Globo.

According to the executive, Brazil's leadership in this ranking is explained by the characteristics of the sector in the country.

"The dominance in Brazil is more remarkable due to the lack of maturity of the market and the consequent lack of rational prices. The betting market has raised sponsorship values to indecent figures. In jurisdictions where the industry is more mature, these values tend to be in line with the overall advertising market, thus allowing for greater diversification across industries and sectors," he said.

For his part, Bruno Maia, a specialist in new sports and entertainment technologies, pointed to 2020 as a turning point in the expansion of betting companies among Brazilian clubs.

"Nobody paid attention to this when this phenomenon started in Brazil. I mean, no clubs did. Now, everyone wants to participate because we have reached an absurd level of dependency. It was a sponsorship market that was already falling in 2018 and 2019, but in 2020 it began to turn around just because of this betting segment," he stated to O Globo.