All to Play For: What the IPA and SEF’s Landmark Sports Sponsorship Report Means for Irish Brands

The most significant challenge facing sports sponsorship is not the size of the market. It is the failure to prove that sponsorship delivers commercial results. Research published by the IPA and Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum on 7 October 2026, covered by Campaign UK, finds that six in ten sports marketing practitioners lack confidence in their sponsorships’ ability to drive positive business outcomes. The report, titled All to Play for: How Three Fundamentals Can Transform Sports Sponsorship Effectiveness, surveyed 143 agencies, brands and rights holders across the UK, Europe, MENA, the US and Canada. For Irish sponsorship professionals, its findings are diagnostic and directional.

The confidence gap is striking. Only 40% of respondents said they were mostly or very confident that sports sponsorship delivered business results such as sales, profit and market share. The picture is broadly consistent: brands returned 45%, rights holders 41% and agencies 35%. The gap exists not because sports sponsorship fails but because most practitioners are not following the three fundamentals the report identifies as essential to demonstrating that it works.

The IPA and SEF are precise about what those fundamentals are. First, organisations must set clear commercial objectives aligned to their wider business strategy before committing. Second, they must measure the commercial impact throughout the partnership’s lifecycle. Third, they must integrate sponsorship activities with the brand’s broader marketing communications. The report found only 17% of respondents consistently practise all three. Those that do are almost six times more likely to be confident their sponsorships deliver commercial results. That is a compelling sponsorship ROI case for what amounts to a commitment to planning and measurement, not additional budget.

For Irish sponsorship professionals, the implication is direct. ONSIDE projects the Irish sponsorship market at €247 million in 2026. Within a market of that scale, the absence of rigorous sponsorship strategy and commercial measurement means investment is being renewed or cancelled on instinct rather than evidence. Rights holders lose commercial partnerships they could have retained had the case been clearly built and tracked. Brands exit sponsorship marketing arrangements that were working because they cannot demonstrate the return. The IPA and SEF research frames this as a solvable problem, not a structural weakness of the channel.

Three action points stand out for Irish C-suites. Commercial objectives must be set at the point of agreement, not at the point of renewal. Measurement frameworks should be agreed jointly by brands and rights holders before activation begins. And the industry should build toward the common measurement standards that 43% of respondents identified as the most important change the sector could make.

All to Play for is not a critique of sports sponsorship. It is the clearest roadmap yet for making its commercial value undeniable.