Sports Marketing Trends 2027

The sports marketing calendar for 2027 is already filling up. A 32 team Women’s World Cup kicks off in Brazil on 24 June 2027 and runs to 25 July [1]. HYROX will bring two million athletes to 107 race weekends, three of them in the UK [2]. Padel has passed a million players in Britain [3]. And the audience is watching all of it on a phone, vertically, often through an athlete’s own account rather than a club’s.

If you plan budgets in the autumn, this is the moment to think about where sports marketing is heading. Here are the seven trends we think will shape 2027, and what to do about each one.

1. Athletes are the media now

The biggest shift is that fans follow people, not badges. Athletes now generate around 26% of total brand sponsorship value on social media, worth an estimated $1.8 billion in ad value from branded athlete posts [4]. Nearly half of millennials say they are more likely to buy a product endorsed by their favourite athlete [4]. In women’s sport the effect is even stronger, with 72% of social engagement driven by individual athletes rather than teams or leagues [4].

For clubs and brands, the answer is not to compete with athletes but to make content with them. Documentary style access, behind the scenes days and athlete led series build connection in a way a polished ad never will. We explored this in why documentary style content outperforms traditional sports ads and in our piece on athlete documentary content and building fans.

Two part chart. Left, a column chart showing annual growth in social media engagement over the last five years of 17.8 percent for women's sport and 9 percent for men's sport. Right, a bar showing that 72 percent of women's sport social engagement is driven by individual athletes and 28 percent by teams and leagues. Source: NIL Network citing Kore Software and NFLPA data. — Athletes drive engagement, especially in women’s sport. Source: NIL Network [4].

2. Women’s sport moves from growth story to core strategy

Deloitte’s 2026 outlook describes commercial revenue in women’s sport growing at double digit rates [5]. Engagement with women’s sports content has risen 17.8% a year over the last five years, almost double the rate for men’s sport [4]. With the Women’s World Cup landing in the summer of 2027 across eight Brazilian host cities [1], this is the year to have a women’s sport plan rather than a women’s sport post.

The lesson from recent tournaments is that the content that travels is the human stuff: the player’s hometown, the family in the stands, the journey to the squad. Start filming it now, not in June.

3. Vertical first, not vertical as an afterthought

Short form is no longer the trailer for the long form. It is the main event for most fans under 30, and the long piece is what they go looking for once they are hooked. The right approach is to shoot with both in mind from day one, so the hero film and the twenty reels come from the same shoot day. We go into the trade offs in short form vs long form video in sports marketing and the planning side in our sports video content strategy guide.

4. Challenger sports are the best value in the market

Padel went from 15,000 players in Britain in 2019 to one million in May 2026, with 1,825 courts across 551 venues and £3 million of government funding committed for covered facilities in 2026/27 [3]. HYROX grew from 1.5 million athletes in 2025/26 to an expected two million this season, with Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff all hosting multi day events in 2027 [2].

These sports have passionate communities, hungry venues and very little polished content. Sponsorship and partnership costs are a fraction of football or rugby, and the audience is young, affluent and sociable. If you want a foothold in sport in 2027, this is where to look first.

Padel has gone from 15,000 players to one million in seven years. Source: LTA Padel [3].

Infographic with four statistics on challenger sports: one million padel players in Britain up from 15,000 in 2019, 1,825 padel courts across 551 venues, two million athletes expected at HYROX events in the 2026/27 season, and 107 HYROX race weekends worldwide with three in the UK. Sources: LTA Padel May 2026 and HYROX 2026/27 season announcement. — Padel and HYROX in numbers. Sources: LTA Padel [3], BOXROX [2].

Sportive woman pushing bogie in gym. Horizontal indoors shot

5. AI handles the volume, humans handle the meaning

Deloitte expects AI to take on repetitive production tasks and to power personalised highlight reels and real time analytics in broadcast [5]. That is good news for anyone who has ever logged three days of match footage by hand. But the thing that makes sports content land, the choice of which moment matters and why, is still a creative decision. Expect 2027 to be the year clubs use AI to clip faster and spend the time saved on fewer, better stories.

6. Events are content engines, not just events

A race, a tournament or a club open day is a one day shoot that can fuel months of marketing if it is planned properly. That means a shot list built around the content you need afterwards, not just a highlight reel. Our guides on how to film a sports event, drone filming for sports events and how to promote and capture your sports event cover the practical side. Our work with Batch LDN and Fan Decor shows how one well planned shoot can carry a whole campaign.

7. Purpose is now table stakes

Sustainability and community impact have moved from a nice to have to something sponsors and fans expect. The Premier League’s own environmental commitments, which we covered in environmental sustainability in the Premier League and sustainability in football, set a tone that filters down through the pyramid. The brands that tell those stories well, honestly and without greenwash will have an edge in every partnership conversation in 2027.

What to do before January

Pick two athletes or ambassadors and plan a year of content with them. Put a women’s sport moment in the calendar for June and July. Look at one challenger sport. Plan every event as a shoot. And make sure your big story of the year is already in production by spring. If you would like help with any of that, our sports marketing agency and sports videographer pages explain how we work, and our storytelling in sport piece explains why we work that way.