The African continent is not only seen as a diamond in the rough with natural resources that would make our local governments millions, but with many sports sponsorship opportunities waiting for the next big crypto-brand to invest, we need to remind ourselves that with every investment comes risk.
We’ve seen athletes over the last decade go from the highest point in their careers to crashing to the lowest, from cycling to golf, tennis to athletics, it’s happened across the board, as reported by Carlswell Gould. The same can be said for global sports brands, including one of England’s top premier league clubs, West Bromwich Albion who saw Zoopla halt their sponsorship midway in 2014. There are risks associated with plastering your brand alongside another, and sometimes the success outweighs the risks at hand.
What could these risks be that brands should be on the lookout for?
It's all good to do the deal between club and brand but the brand's value with these deals lies with the activations around it. If the activations aren't good enough I feel the brand awareness exercise in most cases doesn't suffice.
Name changes of specific teams could leave a sour taste in supporters' mouths.
Poor performance from team/player/s
Association with disreputable behaviour
There are benefits, but we’ll cover those in our next chapter. For now, keep following us as we continue to cover Africa’s crypto sports investment.