Clubs in the Premier League are missing out on UK£1 million (US$1.2 million) in sponsorship every game because of piracy, according to a new study, reports reports, www.sportspromedia.com/.
The first-of-its-kind report, carried out by digital piracy authority MUSO in partnership with sponsorship valuation firm GumGum Sports, was based on an analysis of eight matches during the 2018/19 season, which on average drew an illegal audience of 7.1 million fans across up to 149 countries.
The UK£1 million-per-match figure is based on what the total legal and illegal audience would mean for sponsorship income. A total of seven deal placements were analysed, with the majority of value derived from pitchside LED advertising and front-of-shirt sponsorships.
The methodology saw MUSO identify the size of the global digital piracy audience. GumGum then analysed on-screen exposure and duration for sponsorship placements, before calculating a media value for each nation.
Commissioned by an unnamed club in English soccer's top flight, the study found that the largest pirate audience was in China, where more than one million fans watched an illegal stream of each game.
Vietnam, Kenya, India and Nigeria completed the top five largest illegal audiences, while the US and the UK ranked tenth and 11th for the most digital piracy views, respectively.
