Club's jersey sleeves have become a high-profile asset in pro soccer across the pond. Discover how these partnerships stack up in the two most-watched leagues in the English Football League: Premier League and EFL Championship.

All 20 PL clubs have jersey sleeve patch partners, eight of which are new this season, filling vacancies left by departing sponsors. Meanwhile, 19 of the 24 EFL Championship clubs currently partner with a sleeve sponsor (versus 18 at the end of last season) after Watford announced its new partnership with University of Hertfordshire in June.

Across both leagues, sleeve sponsorships serve as a stable and bankable asset for clubs. In the PL, all 17 remaining teams from the 2023–24 season retained a sleeve sponsor for 2024–25. Of these, seven are new, reflecting a mix of single and multiyear deals. Of the 18 EFL Championship teams that were neither promoted nor relegated this season, just Millwall lacks a sleeve sponsor. 

Technology and financial services lead the list of the PL’s most active categories with five deals each, followed by transportation and government (with two club deals each). In the EFL Championship, the technology and construction and industrial sectors share the #1 spot with three deals each, followed by retail, healthcare, and government, all with two partnerships.

Emerging sponsorship categories in the PL include financial services (which added two deals this season) and apparel and accessories, government, technology, retail, real estate, and hotel, restaurant, leisure (all with one new sleeve deal this season). Among the EFL Championship clubs, technology (added three deals), construction and industrial (added two deals), and healthcare (also added two) lead the list of notable emerging categories, with additional new deals in QSR, telecom, and education.

Brands typically bundle secondary sponsorship assets in sleeve patch partnerships to enhance their reach. The most popular secondary assets this season include press/interview backdrop, ground level wall: rotating billboard, co-branded content, website presented by, and event-based backdrop banner (in that order).

The Premier League’s Crystal Palace is presently the only club across both leagues with a betting brand jersey sleeve partnership—but likely not for long. The PL has announced it will ban front-of-shirt betting sponsorships starting with the 2026–27 season—which means we can expect to see a shift in betting brands' sponsorship assets, as they move from the front of the jersey (they currently comprise 55% of these marquee sponsors) to the sleeve. The ban will likely drive up the value of already lucrative sleeve sponsorships, as clubs anticipate demand from deep-pocketed betting brands seeking new visibility options.

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