Sponsorship Applications in Digital Sports Marketing

The dizzying pace of technology is causing radical changes in the sports industry. Sponsorship applications are also one of the areas where these great changes are experienced. Because of the digitalization of sponsorship practices, rights holders and sponsor brands need support from technology and software companies to communicate with the changing fan profile. Technology and software companies are involved in next-generation sports sponsorship in two ways. The first is to provide technical support to the rights holders and sponsor brands, and the second is to establish a sponsorship structure in which they are included. This research aims to determine the sponsorship practices of tech- nology and software companies in the sports sector. The working group of the research consists of seven employees of the technology and software company which has an office in Istanbul. Content analysis technique has been used to analyse the data of the research. In line with the answers obtained from the content analysis, the themes of strategy, brand development and sponsorship, and sub-themes of these themes have been created. It has been concluded that technology and software companies collect useful data and create value by interacting with fans through sports sponsorship activities, they increase brand awareness among fans, they reach large audiences including fans and non-fans consumers by working with beneficiaries and co-sponsors, and they carry out digital marketing activities.