Companies profiting from sponsoring the 2026 World Cup… Aramco is the first
In the summer of 1930, when the first FIFA World Cup tournament was held in Uruguay, advertising platforms could dream of nothing more than wooden signs surrounding the ends of clay courts.
Today, this scene has turned into a huge financial and investment theater, where large international companies fight to maintain their positions, not only to show their slogans in front of millions of followers, but also to achieve economic profits that can change their market and institutional value.
Data from Brand Finance, which specializes in the valuation of brands based on the institutional value and trademark modeling of 21 official sponsor companies listed on financial markets, shows that the return on investment was not just a marketing phenomenon, but a structural increase in corporate assets, establishing the tournament as one of the most sporting assets capable of direct economic and direct financial flows..
What is the concept of corporate value and brand value in research?
Enterprise value represents the total economic value of a company, including its market value and the size of its operating assets (the total value of the company’s business operations).
Brand value is defined as the net economic benefits that a company can achieve by licensing its brand in the open market (material and moral values arising from brand awareness and consumer impressions).
How much financial income will the sponsors of the 2026 World Cup achieve?
Official sponsors included in the analysis generated an institutional return of $61 billion on $2.8 billion in investments, equivalent to 22 times. invested capital.
The 21 companies included in the study added a total of $7.2 billion… market value of their brands During the World Cup tournament.
What conditions and criteria are based on the analysis?
The study required official FIFA partner status.
The analysis required that the parent company be floated on public stock exchanges with measurable market data and enterprise value.
Which companies had the biggest dollar increase in brand value?
The list of companies with the highest absolute growth was topped by Aramco, which is worth about $1.1 billion, bringing its value to about $48.4 billion.
Verizon came in second with more than a billion dollars in value growth, followed by Hyundai with $836 million and Coca-Cola with $733 million.
Which brands posted the highest percentage growth?
Lenovo led a percentage increase of +4.2% ($295 million increase), beating the overall average increase of 1.6%.
“Kia” took the second and third place with +3.5% and “Hyundai” with +3.4%.
How do Asian and Middle Eastern companies outperform their Western counterparts?
Asian and Middle Eastern brands such as Aramco, Lenovo, Kia and Hyundai have shown relatively high growth rates thanks to using the tournament to reach new global markets.
These results reflect the continued strong growth of non-Western brands compared to Western companies.
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Achievements of commercial and corporate value of some sponsors of the 2026 World Cup
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rating
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brand
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Brand value in billions of dollars
(January 2026)
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Increase in brand value in million dollars
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Brand Value Growth (%)
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The economic value that sponsorship adds to institutional value
($1 million)
|
|
|
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1
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Aramco
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47.3
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1080
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%2.30
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26142
|
|
|
|
2
|
Verizon
|
73.0
|
1028
|
%1.40
|
4519
|
|
|
|
3
|
Hyundai
|
24.8
|
836
|
%3.40
|
4788
|
|
|
|
4
|
Coca Cola
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46.1
|
733
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%1.60
|
3135
|
|
|
|
5
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Bank of America
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47.6
|
631
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%1.30
|
4880
|
|
|
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6
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visa
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44.0
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532
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%1.20
|
7780
|
|
|
|
7
|
main depot
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73.4
|
402
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%0.50
|
2315
|
|
|
|
8
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what
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10.4
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365
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%3.50
|
669
|
|
|
|
9
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McDonald’s
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42.6
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309
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%0.70
|
2002
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|
|
|
10
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Lenovo
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7.0
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295
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4.20%
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769
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Have our second-tier sponsors performed beyond expectations?
Second-tier sponsors such as Hisense (+2.1%) and DoorDash (+1.7%) outperformed sponsors’ average business value growth of 1.6%.
The results showed that the flexibility of marketing activation and identifying the target audience is more important to achieve revenue than simply transferring large amounts of money as major partners.
Why did travel and airline companies record the lowest percentage growth?
American Airlines and Marriott had the lowest percentage growth of all sponsors included in the analysis at +0.5%.
This relative decline is due to weaker hotel demand and direct travel compared to host cities Initial expectations of the tournament.
What is the reason for Visa’s relative decline in growth?
Visa posted the lowest percentage growth among Tier 1 sponsors (+1.2%), despite achieving a significant enterprise contribution of $7.78 billion.
This is because the brand is reaching a stage of global saturation, where the real value of the sponsorship lies in eliminating direct competitor MasterCard, rather than achieving increased reach.
What is the market value of the FIFA brand itself?
Brand Finance estimated the brand value of the 2026 World Cup tournament at $5.2 billion.
Commercial sponsorship revenue accounts for the largest portion of the tournament’s total value at $1.9 billionFIFA wins. in advance This transfers the implementation and marketing risks directly to the sponsoring companies.
final
Current data confirms that the World Cup commercial model remains the world’s most efficient in converting spreads into real financial values.
And it stays Exclusivity and preemption of competitors It is emerging as a strategic driver that is as important as the direct growth numbers of large companies.
The question remains as to how high the capacity of sports tournaments to bring in more sponsors without affecting the return on investment.
Sources: Brand Finance – Visual Capitalist