EMEA non-alcoholic beverage sponsorship is heavily concentrated in soccer, reflecting its unmatched, year-round audience scale and strong conversion potential that make it the sector’s primary driver of value. Soccer accounted for more than three times the value of the next-largest sport, motor racing in 2025, reveals GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

GlobalData’s latest report, “Sponsorship Sector Report – Non-Alcoholic Beverages – EMEA 2025,” reveals that despite motor racing only accounting for 14 deals across the region, the sport’s average deal value is $7.4 million, considerably higher than soccer’s $0.92 million.

Energy drink brands within the sector, including Red Bull and Monster Energy, command the highest average value across the region. In 2025, Europe leads EMEA in deal volume and value due to its mature market, deep sports culture, and concentration of major multinational brands.

Olivia Snooks, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Unlike soccer, where sponsorship opportunities are fragmented across hundreds of clubs, leagues, and tiers, creating a long tail of smaller, locally priced agreements, top-level motor racing, namely Formula 1, is concentrated in a small number of global properties, meaning a limited supply of top-tier assets and stronger pricing power per deal. F1’s association with performance, technology, precision, and endurance provides a credible narrative for product claims around energy, hydration, and recovery, enabling differentiated storytelling that is harder to execute in other sports.”

Red Bull is the region’s biggest non-alcoholic sports sponsor, investing $205.74 million, which is more than double Coca-Cola’s spending. With just 38 deals versus Coca-Cola’s 120, Red Bull is prioritising fewer, higher value partnerships over a high-volume strategy. This results in a higher average spend per deal, indicating a focus on marquee properties and premium rights that deliver maximum visibility and strong brand association with elite properties.

Snooks continues: “This strategy aligns with Red Bull’s global marketing position at the intersection of high energy sport, exclusivity, and youth culture. This premium strategy boosts impact in key EMEA markets, strengthening Red Bull’s aspirational lifestyle positioning and supporting stronger return of investment through a smaller number of deals.”

The UEFA Champions League partnership with PepsiCo offers the widest and most consistent international reach. It delivers prime-time audiences, strong digital distribution, and multiple activation opportunities throughout a long tournament. This explains why UEFA-linked rights command some of the largest fees, as sponsors are buying scale, brand safety, and repeatable visibility in high-stakes matches that regularly capture attention.

Snooks Concludes: “A key trend in the biggest deals is Red Bull’s prominence across multiple entries, reflecting a highly non-traditional approach. It effectively buys and operates the teams themselves in several cases. Rather than backing one flagship partnership, it invests across soccer and motorsport teams and individual stars like Max Verstappen, creating a consistent narrative around elite performance, and youth culture.”

No one understands the importance of proper hydration quite like the global soccer icon, Lionel Messi. He searched for a hydration beverage and found drinks that had healthy ingredients but lacked flavour. Others tasted great but had lots of sugar and calories. He didn’t want to choose between the two. He believed a drink with better ingredients and amazing taste could inspire everyone to take better care of themselves. So, Messi went to work on a drink of his own.

Today, he is finally introducing a drink like no other: Más+ by Messi, a Next-Generation Hydration Beverage. He calls it “Positive Hydration”: a balanced blend of electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals, and amazing taste in four sensational flavours he loves, with natural flavours, no artificial sweeteners or colours, and no caffeine.

More than a name on the label, Messi is a founder of Más+ by Messi and The Más+ Next Generation Beverage Co., along with flavour innovators from The Mark Anthony Group.

Messi chose the name Más+ from about 450 names, because it resonated with his career and the way he lives his life, always finding more to give. Más+ has more of the flavours he loves, more quality ingredients. The + stands for an extra boost of positivity, inspiration for you to enjoy more music, laughter, friends, and family and to get more out of life. Unlike others, Más+ is not made for any one moment related to sports or limited to elite athletes. It’s about getting and staying healthy in any part of your life. A core component of that is what you drink, proper hydration.

“Hydration is essential to overall wellbeing. I believe everyone deserves a drink with amazing ingredients and taste,” said Lionel Messi, Founder, Más+ by Messi. “Más+ is a drink I’m proud to share with family and friends. Because everyone deserves to feel like a champion in every part of their life.”

The global rollout of Más+ starts close to home for Messi — at a local neighborhood store in Miami where, on June 13, lucky fans will become the first in the world to score some of the first bottles and try Más+ for themselves before the drink is available anywhere else.

Más+ by Messi will be available in four flavours in 16.9 oz bottles and soon after in four-flavour variety 12-packs of cans.

With 10 calories and 1 g of cane sugar per 16.9 oz bottle, and 7 calories and less than 1 g of cane sugar per 12 oz can, Más+ offers quality ingredients without compromising on flavour or taste. The new drink comes in four vibrant flavours, loved by Messi, and named after inspirational milestones in his life:

• Más+ by Messi Miami Punch: Inspired by the city where Messi and his family live, home of Messi’s current and next chapter, Miami Punch has a balanced blend of berry flavours with a hint of pineapple for a refreshing fruit punch taste.
• Más+ by Messi Orange d’Or: Orange d’Or has a refreshing orange flavour with hints of tangerine flavour for a balanced citrus taste. It’s inspired by Messi’s record eight wins of the Ballon d’Or (“Golden Ball” in French) Trophy.
• Más+ by Messi Berry Copa Crush: Inspired by Messi’s seven Copa del Rey titles with Barcelona and his Copa America win with Argentina, Berry Copa Crush has a refreshing blend of sweet and luscious berry and cherry flavours.
• Más+ by Messi Limón Lime League: Limón Lime League balances refreshingly sweet, fruity flavour and zesty citrus taste. It honors the time Messi spent playing in the UEFA Champions League, a cup he won three times.