The thrill of sports has been known to throw rays of passion and excitement on to the Forex market. Indeed, the forex industry is no stranger to sports sponsorship. 2017 saw a sponsorship deal between FCA and ASIC -licensed Aetos Capital Group and Sydney Football club. Swissquote also pursued a sponsorship deal with Manchester United on the concept of “Wins are Decisions”.
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Last year saw FXTM partner with Sahara Force India Formula One Team, with whom they “shared synergies”. It appears the verdict is out: the ROI of sports sponsorship is overwhelmingly positive.
For many forex brokers, the sports arena effectively represents the collective gathering of a demographic that aligns with their target audience. Sport sponsorship deals have enabled forex brokers to market their brands in front of an amassed global audience. In this sense, they can effectively address their target audience, which is predominantly male, located internationally, and has shared interests in sports, trading, and gambling.
Research pointing to targeted audience
Market research has gone on to show that the average forex trader can be tapped most effectively through Premier League football. While the league has a growing female fan base, the audience is still predominantly male. Furthermore, research has shown that football league audiences tend to be competitive and less risk adverse than the general population.
These characteristics have made sponsorship deals popular not just with forex brokerages, but also online gaming and poker sites, such as Betfair, 888.com, and BWIN, all of who have a long history of attaching their brands to matches.
Football is not the only sport to be targeted by forex retail brokers. CFD brokerage, MIG Bank and Swiss FX have been long-term partners of Mercedes Formula One, while FXDD sponsored Red Bull Racing. Again, the target audience of motor sports is male, but it has the added appeal of a demographic that tends to be wealthier, making the high net worth audience the ideal target for a forex brokerage.
Olga Rybalkina
Olga Rybalkina, CEO of FXTM, confirmed in an interview that her company has had considerable success with sports sponsorships in the past, which led them to sign their sponsorship agreement with India’s F1 Team, Sahara Force.
The company's main criteria in selecting a partner was to find a group with whom they “shared synergies” and “expressed similar values”. For FXTM, this saw both the broker and the F1 Team experience international success in a relatively short period of time, accomplishing this with fewer resources than their respective competitors.
The decision to go with Formula One was due to the sheer mass market that the motor racing sport attracts. The sport is extremely popular, attracting over 400 million followers, and the brokerage was keen to have the prestige of the sport rub off on the general perception of its brand.
For Rybalkina, the cost of sports sponsorship, which can run into the millions of dollars, is justified because it can achieve things that more conservative methods of communication simply cannot: “Sports sponsorship cuts through the clutter and exposes the brand to far more people than a publication or even above the line advertising. People love sport and by default, any company that sponsors a popular team or individual is going to get attention.”
