AI companies have set their sights on sports. The Premier League already has competition-wide AI deals with Microsoft and Adobe, and recently Chelsea FC cut a front of shirt deal with industrial AI company IFS.
These firms are in an extraordinary period of growth, and they have deep pockets to elevate their brands. They know the value that sport plays in building brand equity and being at the forefront of the cultural conversation.
With 11 Premier League clubs carrying front-of-shirt betting sponsors in the 2024/25 season, a significant shift is coming. From 2026/27, clubs have agreed to withdraw gambling brands from the front of matchday shirts, removing a major source of commercial income.
That creates a funding gap estimated at around £100m across the league. It also means a sizeable block of premium inventory is about to open up. The Chelsea deal with IFS could be an early signal of what fills that space.
Clubs are still signing bookies to other sponsorship properties – just take Newcastle United’s deal with X8Bet in January. Until the government makes these sponsorships illegal some clubs will likely keep that door open.
AI fundamentals
What is interesting though is that these deals are fundamentally very different. Betting brands pay for visibility while AI brands are pitching digital transformation in exchange for brand visibility.
The Premier League’s agreements with Microsoft and Adobe aren’t just sponsorships; those companies are being asked to help build tech roadmaps. Chelsea’s IFS deal sits in that same territory. Yes, it’s shirt inventory. But it’s also about operations, data, infrastructure and fan engagement.
It isn’t just AI companies, though. There is also a raft of management services coming into sport as well. It’s gone from the more household-name brands with a B2C focus to new organisations putting B2B and their service play at the very heart of the deals.
One of the latest examples would be Arsenal’s partnership with the payroll and HR company Deel. The North London club has plans to make use of the platform to streamline its workforce operations on top of giving sleeve badging rights.
This is the evolution: more and more rights holders, teams and events looking to use sponsorship not just as a revenue and commercial play but also as a vehicle to elevate their businesses through gaining advanced services and tech that can also help give them the edge.
But one has to ask how these B2B deals will be dressed up and packaged to fans?
How can marketers make AI SaaS – Software as a Service – compelling enough to a football fan to give equity back to the brand?
The blueprint
Formula 1 has the blueprint. The sport already has so many technology partners that it has split AI into different sponsorship categories to appeal to more customers and make sure there aren’t overlapping interests.
With a strong history of partnering with B2B companies, F1 is showing how creative an AI partnership can be – Claude being one of the latest brands to partner the sport with their “Official Thinking Partner” designation that you would expect to run across other partnerships in the future.
Rights holders should be considering not just how to capitalise on the digital transformation piece but also how to bring fans along with them and make these sponsorships creative enough to get people excited.
As for the AI brands, they need to recognise they’re entering an already crowded space. All sponsors, whether they are household names or B2B players, are all facing the same challenge: how to cut through the noise of sport.
If they begin to flood football and replace bookmakers, they’ll need clear strategies to stand out from the competition. They’ll need standout creative work to break through – otherwise, how does a football fan distinguish one AI brand from another?
Jamie Wynne-Morgan is Founding Partner at MSQ Sport + Entertainment
