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News
Guinness to sponsor Premier League in £40m deal, reports claim
The English Premier League has agreed a deal with Diageo-owned Guinness to become the league’s football sponsor, according to reports.
Sky News‘s Mark Kleinman has reported that although the partnership is year to be signed, the Premier League has informed the 20 clubs of the competition that it is supporting an approximately £10m per year agreement, which will commence from the 2024-2025 season.
According to the outlet, one “Premier League club executive” said the deal was valued at more than £41m for the four year duration of the contract.
In addition, the cash is a significant uplift on the previous deal that existed with AB InBev-owned Budweiser.
Bud has been a partner with the league, which is England’s top division football tournament, since 2019, when it also inked a deal with the Spanish equivalent, LaLiga.
In 2023, it announced that it wouldn’t be renewing its five-year deal, which followed its decision to also downgrade its contract with the English Football Association (FA), while retaining England football team deals and Wembley for its Bud Light brand.
Heineken
It follows the news from the same outlet last week that Guinness and Heineken were fighting for the rights to be the league’s official beer partner.
Guinness also has a large footprint in rugby union, including a reported £15m deal for the Six Nations.
It’s not the first time that Guinness have tried to land a deal for football, with reports back in 2015 that the Diageo brand wanted to take naming rights from Barclay’s for the Premier League, in a punchy £100m+ deal.
It was reportedly turned down due to clubs having other separate deals with beer brands at the time, and it remains to be seen if a similar issue could arise again.
According to Kleinman last week, Guinness proposed a deal with Heineken then also putting forward an offer, and the clubs are aware of the offers.
Performance
The news also comes as Guinness continues to be a powerhouse growth brand for Diageo.
In its results in January, net sales of the group’s beer division including Guinness grew by 14% with strong increases in all regions except Asia Pacific. Volumes increased by 3%.
Nuno Teles, the managing director of Diageo’s GB arm, said that the 9% increase in six-month sales in the UK had been led by demand for Guinness, whose net sales grew by
24%.
Guinness, he said, was now the best-selling beer in the on-trade and off-trade combined. He said the stout was “broadening its consumer base” with women especially taking to the brand.
Sales to females grew by 24% while uptake among the 18 to 24 age group overall was growing the most rapidly — a development the Premier League deal could assist in growing further.