Nielsen, a world-renowned market monitoring agency: Crypto sports sponsorship will reach $5 billion in 5 years

Nielsen is a nearly century-old company with a strong reputation in statistics and market measurement, especially in areas related to television and media ratings.

In Nielsen's latest report, fans are changing the sports industry. The public company predicts that by 2026, sports sponsorships by blockchain and Crypto companies will reach more than $5 billion.

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Nielsen's sports industry report is divided into four parts: consumer and behavioral shifts, impact on sponsorship models, impact on sports media and content distribution, and significant impact on brands and sports rights holders.

OTT (OTT refers to Internet companies that go beyond operators to develop various video and data service businesses based on the open Internet) distribution (such as Netflix, DAZN, Amazon Prime, etc.) and its social adoption is the beginning of the report on consumer transformation.

Gen Z consumers are more likely to multitask while watching sports than their predecessors, and fans are increasingly turning to social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Twitch for sports content.

The report states that sports sponsorships account for a sizable percentage of trusted advertising, and that sports sponsorships imply more trust than simple TV ads, online video ads, and social media ads.

Additionally, OTT has helped make sports a "must" TV show, even though many linear stations still see their sports as life.

How are these societal changes changing the way sports sponsorship is created? Nielsen points out that there is a clear correlation between visible sponsorship information and buying behavior, an area Crypto is rapidly entering.

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Having experienced tremendous growth in the “Crypto/Blockchain/NFT” category over the past two years, Nielsen predicts that its sports sponsorship spending will continue to perform strongly.

The company's forecast for 2026 includes single-digit growth in traditional sports sponsorship categories such as automotive, retail and energy. While the “IT Software/Hardware” category will see double-digit growth and see huge growth, the blockchain industry could even see a massive 778% increase in sports-related sponsorships.

Nielsen's findings are somewhat surprising, but not surprisingly, the increased awareness and interest in Crypto, both among eSports fans and traditional sports fans. This is surprising to a certain extent, since in gaming and sports, many people are against NFTs and Crypto.

Nonetheless, fans of the sports industry are an easy audience for tech-forward thinking, so these fans are leading the way in terms of awareness and interest in the Crypto space. Last year was a record-breaking year for sports sponsorship deals, with FTX, Coinbase and many other top players in the Crypto space taking part.