Sponsorship of sports events has been a strategy in place for decades, however with the rise of digital marketing some marketers think event sponsorship is outdated - not the case! Sponsorship of sports events is more relevant, alive and effective as ever, thanks to a big need for brands to directly connect with their customers; get their products into the hands of customers and win trust and loyalty. 

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jason Severiano Lampkin - that's me in the picture above - and I'm one of the new interns here at OpenSponsorship. Though many - if not all of you - will never have even heard of me, there once was a time when people thought the world would never forget my name. Instead, I became the man that many never even get the chance to know.

Last week, we helped one of our brands (Trago) work with one of our athletes (Amanda Ruller) for an amazing social media post.

Manchester City's 2007/08 season started with new owner Thaksin Shinawatra splurging £30 million by adding eight relatively high-profile players to the first team squad. The main source of the funds? The Thai billionaire businessman's bulging wallet. Sure, the teams sponsorship agreements helped, but secondary shirt sleeve sponsorship, which would have added another stream of income, hadn't even been considered. In fact, the idea hadn't even been considered in the entire soccersphere.

Looking to make a quick buck? All you have to do is create a sport, and have it become America’s greatest past time. Sounds easy right? The MLB as a whole is thriving when it comes to sponsorship revenues. In 2016 it was estimated that sponsorship dollars from the top 9 companies involved with the MLB would reach $360-400 million. This number is solely league revenue and does not include individual team and stadium/property sponsorship. When adding those categories to the grand total, it is estimated sponsorship revenues would reach nearly $800 million by the end of the 2016 season.

Don’t have a budget to work with professional athletes? Don’t have a marketing budget, period? This is where micro-influencer marketing comes in handy. Let’s get you the most bang for your buck with athlete sponsorships. Sounds too good to be true or confused how we do so? Let me explain.

Twitter is one of, if not the most popular way for fans and players alike to engage with each other. As a work week wrap-up, we're going to give you a look at some funny tweets our athletes have had with OpenSponsorship's Twitter MVP's of the Week.

In highly competitive markets such as fitness apparel, having your brand or business stand out against your competitors is a major key.

Our 5 Best Sports Moments of 2016

These our 5 best athletes and teams sports moments of 2016