Cycling

Research by Sports Sponsorship Insider into road cycling sponsorships across 27 UCI World Tour teams, the three Grand Tour events, 37 UCI World Tour events and UCI central properties, values the market at €397m per year.

Japanese car manufacturer Honda has agreed a second consecutive one-year deal with cycling’s Giro d’Italia, having enjoyed strong sales in the country last year, following four years of poor sales.

For 2017, we have researched over 800 deals, 41 sports and 11 selected markets to map out the sponsorship landscape of international federations and national governing bodies.

Dubai-based airline Emirates has made its first sponsorship investment in professional cycling by signing a four-year deal as co-title sponsor of the WorldTour cycling team formerly known as Lampre-Merida.

Financial services company HSBC will aim to “bring cycling to every family in the UK” under its new main sponsor agreement with British Cycling, the brand’s first major deal outside of golf, rugby union and tennis.

Swiss watchmaker Tissot has become the first brand to sign up to the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) fledgling World Cycling Partner programme but the federation will look outside its portfolio to fill the remaining slots.

French financial services company Cofidis last month re-committed to a cycling-only portfolio for the next three years after renewing its second-tier agreement with La Vuelta a España and its title sponsorship of the Team Cofidis UCI Continental Tour team.

Kinesiology tape market leader KT Tape is looking to use the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio as a platform to sustain its dominance of the US market, Greg Venner, Chief Executive of KT Tape, told Sports Sponsorship Insider.

Trek Factory Racing's search for a co-title sponsor was “far more challenging than [the team] had anticipated” but the organisation believes its three-year agreement with coffee brand Segafredo Zanetti will take it to the next competitive level.

South African technology company Dimension Data has bolstered its presence in professional cycling in a title deal with the team currently known as MTN-Qhubeka.

Belgian pay-television broadcaster Telenet has signed this month as a sponsor of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in 2015-16 and as the event’s title sponsor, from 2016-17 to 2019-20, in a deal that gives Telenet extensive broadcast rights to the series.

German caffeine shampoo brand Alpecin measures the success of its cycling and football-based sponsorship portfolio solely in terms of unit sales.

Operating budgets for the professional cycling teams that compete on the UCI World Tour average out at between €12m to €15m with teams typically funding much of that total from title sponsors or co-title sponsors.

The marketing team behind insurance company Aviva will continue to “test the waters” as title sponsor of cycling’s Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour. The brand assumed the rights from its subsidiary financial services company Friends Life, which served as title sponsor to both in 2014.

South-Africa based IT solutions and services provider, Dimension Data, this month, struck its biggest sponsorship to date when it signed a five-year Official Technology Partner deal, from 2015 to 2019, with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), owners of the Tour de France and other cycling events.