Beach Volleyball
It is now played by more than 800 million people in 230 countries and beach volleyball is now classed as one of the top three most popular sports at the Olympic games, which it has been a part of since 1996, alongside favorites like athletics and swimming.
Awareness of beach volleyball is growing within the UK and as a result, a lot of sponsorship opportunities are opening up within the sport. Becoming an early sponsor of beach volleyball comes with a lot of advantages, to gain from a wonderful opportunity, benefitting greatly without having a massive cost outlay. This is very true when compared to other types of sports sponsorship and the accepted levels of spending that we see today.
It is possible now from beach volleyball, for companies to gain maximum return on their investments, through the use of effective marketing within volleyball, more corporate opportunities and raised awareness and PR. In fact, more and more volleyball events are now attracting larger audiences and more media coverage, making them much more attractive to sponsors.
The biggest beach volleyball event in the world is the World Series of Beach Volleyball which takes place every 2 years, in different locations throughout the world. This competition attracted many major sponsors last year, such as Asics, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Subaru, ESPN and iHeartRADIO.
Many people might just associate beach volleyball with countries such as Brazil and the United States, but these aren’t the only places the sport has become very popular. It has high participation levels and increased audiences now in countries such as China and Russia. Also, since 1996, annual beach volleyball tournaments have been held in Lake Worthersee, Austria.
The first tournament in 1996 saw only 27 people turn up to watch the men’s final, but in 2015 the event had a massive budget of 4.2 million euros and saw 135,000 of the 150,000 fans attending the tournament stay in the region! This just shows how much beach volleyball has grown and the opportunities in relation to the sport, in particular sponsorship. The general admission to the tournaments is free of charge and the tournament is funded by the 20% host city fee that is charged; as well as through sponsorships and VIP ticket sales.
Maybe sponsoring this event in its early years wouldn’t have been very fruitful, but that really isn’t the case anymore and audiences and viewing figures are just continuing to increase every year.
Sponsors of volleyball tournaments were originally interested in just having their brand present within the actual stadiums during the tournaments, however, this is no longer the case. Now, sponsors want to be mentioned on social media platforms and also the vendor villages outside of the actual stadiums are now a very popular way for sponsors to advertise.
The 2018 World Beach Volleyball Tour has 47 international tournaments, with a total prize pool of more than $7 million, which is up on the $3.3 million from last year. This really brings to the fore just how far the game has come in a short space of time, and it seems to be a trend that is set to increase even more for years to come.
