The FCA regulated CFD broker, Plus500 Ltd. (LON:PLUS), just announced that it has entered into a sponsorship agreement with La Liga's champions, Atlético Madrid, to be an official sponsor for the remainder of the 2014/15 football season.
The timing of the broker's public statement is not incidental, as tonight the team will battle against the city rival Real Madrid in Vicente Calderon stadium, a high profile venue for the launch of the newly branded outfit.
The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed, but several industry sources has estimated the deal at € 1-1.5 million. If both sides are indeed "actively considering extending and expanding the relationship for further seasons", the compensation by the publicly-listed broker may be considerably higher.
The current strategic partner of the team, the Republic of Azerbaijan, has reportedly paid a whopping €20 million for various services and marketing endeavors featuring the Rojiblancos, including opening a summer football clinic in Baku.
Atletico Madrid players, Gabi and Koke, display the new club shirt with the Plus500 logo (Photo Credit: Business Wire)
Beyond the Branding on the Shirt
As part of this new agreement, the Plus500 logo will feature as the Official Sponsor on the back of the home and away Atlético Madrid shirts for national matches. The company cites additional benefits, however.
"The package will come with other rights like access to database and digital media rights so it won’t just be about branding on the tieback of the shirts," says Stephen Pearson, CEO of Sports Media Gaming, a specialist sports marketing agency.
Over the past years we have seen more brokers focus on partnerships with sports teams as a way of raising their brand. 2015 is now starting to look as the year of Forex in football, as only yesterday the Chelsea Football Club kicked off the season with a promotional deal with Leverate’s CWM FX.
Gal Haber, CEO, Plus500
Gal Haber, Chief Executive Officer of Plus500, said: “Atlético Madrid is a natural fit for us as Europe is our largest customer base, and we share with them a passion for striving for success whilst having an ethos of transparency and respect for our customers, fans, partners and employees."
Plus500 has been the top performer among the publicly-listed Retail Trading brokers in 2014, with an amazing stock price rise of 88.9% over the year. This high profile endorsement deal will further expand its brand recognition, and allow the Israeli company to position itself as one of the top financial firms globally in 2015.
