Sportfive
Sportfive is a German based international sports marketing agency with offices around the world. The agency operates in sports consulting, partnership sales, marketing and sponsorship activation. Its headquarters are located in Hamburg, Germany. Sportfive employs around 1,200 people and markets over 30 different sports disciplines, including football, American football, baseball, basketball, esports & gaming, golf, handball and motorsport. Since 2020, Sportfive has been part of US private equity firm H.I.G. Capital.
History
In 1987, UFA first secured the rights to broadcast Bundesliga games in a deal with German Football Association, as well as the rights to broadcast the Wimbledon Championships. This led to the development of the sports rights marketing business under UFA Sports.Sportfive was formed in 2001, after the acquisition of joint control of the French sports rights agency Groupe Jean-Claude Darmon SA by Canal+ and RTL Group had been cleared by the European Commission. As part of the deal, Canal+ and RTL merged their sports rights agencies, respectively Sport+ and UFA Sports, to become Sportfive.
The newly formed agency was one of the first in Germany to implement naming rights sponsoring and has been supporting companies in the procurement of stadium names since 2001. For example, Sportfive brokered the deal that led to the Hamburger SV's Volksparkstadion becoming the AOL Arena. In 2001, Sportfive became marketing agent for Arminia Bielefeld, as well as Atalanta BC.
In 2003, Sportfive took over its Munich-based competitor ISPR, which had been marketing Bundesliga rights abroad. One year later, RTL Group and Canal+ sold their shares in Sportfive to the private equity firm Advent International. As part of the takeover, a new company was founded in which the RTL Group held a 25% stake once again. Two years later, in November 2006, Sportfive was taken over by the French conglomerate Lagardère for an estimated €865 million. In 2008, Lagardère Sports acquired around 70% of the voting rights and capital of Seamus O'Brien's World Sport Group, a sports marketing, event management and media company in Asia, with a roster of golf, association football and cricket events.
In 2005, Sportfive was commissioned by the City of Hamburg to coordinate the city's marketing activities for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Subsequently, the agency marketed television rights for the 2008 UEFA Euro Football Championships and organized the sale of the official hospitality program for the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup in South Africa in continental Europe. Additionally, Sportfive marketed the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin and was appointed by the International Olympic Committee as its official media rights agent for the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics. In August 2012, Sportfive organized the friendly game between Dinamo Bucharest and FC Barcelona at the Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania. Further, Sportfive launched the channel Sportdigital in cooperation with the German handball, basketball and volleyball Bundesliga. At the time, Sportfive's clients included more than 270 sports clubs and athletes. The clients came from various disciplines such as handball, basketball, rugby and motorsport, as well as boxing.
In 2015, following the acquisition of the remaining shares of WSG by the Lagardère Group, all sports marketing agencies within the group, including Sportfive, WSG, IEC in Sports, Sports Marketing and Management and Lagardère Unlimited Inc. were integrated into Lagardère Sports and Entertainment and renamed Lagardère Sports S.A.S.
In May 2020, the agency was rebranded back to Sportfive following its takeover by H.I.G. Europe, an arm of the international private equity and asset management firm H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. acquired a 75.1% stake in the business in April 2020, and the remaining shares in July 2021. The rebranding to Sportfive followed the restructuring of the agency's global leadership team. The executive committee included Stefan Felsing, Philipp Hasenbein, and Robert Müller von Vultejus, respectively former executives at Sportfive and Lagardère Sports. That same year, Sportfive founded its own esports division. Since 2022, there has been a cooperation with the global esports organization Gen.G. Following this, Sportfive signed a cooperation deal with Ampverse, as well as being appointed as the official sales agency of Fnatic for global partnerships.
In Spring 2022, Sportfive launched its own creator collective called SQVAD with a focus on esports and gaming, but also other lifestyle themes like fashion and music. Among the subsidiaries of SQVAD are the event management company Event Knowledge Services, the creative agency Brave and the German-based esports agency Build a Rocket, which Sportfive had previously acquired in 2021.
In May 2022, Sportfive announced the acquisition of brand-focused marketing agency Wolfe Solutions. As part of the acquisition, Wolfe Solutions was rebranded under the Sportfive banner and integrated into the organization, in addition to Sportfive expanding its operations in the US by retaining Wolfe Solutions' Columbia and South Carolina offices.
In March 2023, Sportfive was tapped by Concacaf to lead their digital marketing services for national teams competitions, including the Gold Cup, W Gold Cup, Nations League, and more.
In 2023, Sportfive appointed former CEO of WSG O’Brien as president of the agency's Asia–Pacific division. The same year, Sportfive and Dojo founded the joint venture Dravt, an agency for pop culture in the sports business. In November 2023, CONMEBOL brought on Sportfive to handle Copa América's digital marketing across all languages and iterations of the tournament.
In 2024, Sportfive, together with football advisor Marc Kosicke, founded the agency ProjectFive, which publicly represents athletes and sports personalities such as Jürgen Klopp. Over the course of 2025, Sportfive expanded its business into Italy and Switzerland.
Business operations
Sportfive markets over 30 sports. In addition to football, these include predominantly American football, basketball, handball, motor sports like Formula One, golf, baseball and esports & gaming. Other sports include cycling, endurance sports, field hockey, horse racing, rugby, sailing, swimming, surfing, table tennis, weightlifting and winter sports.The agency markets campaigns and endorsement agreements for a variety of clients in the sports sector, as well as representing individual international athletes. These include services for rights holders and companies, such as distribution strategies, internationalization, A-boards and stadium advertising, jersey sponsorship, international media rights, athlete marketing, hospitality programs, travel services, creative sponsorship campaigns as well as digital services such as apps and product innovations. Further, the agency supports realization of those concepts with teams based at the respective club.
The agency is also a broker for sporting events such as Olympics & multi-sport events. For example, the Australian Commonwealth Games entered into a long-term partnership with Sportfive during the preparations for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Further, the agency also arranged for the Bank of America to become the presenting partner of the Boston Marathon in 2022. In the field of Twenty20 cricket, Sportfive is involved as a marketing partner in the newly established 2025 cricket tournament, the International Masters League.
The agency works with various national and international brands and companies such as Trivago, Jeep, Nike, BMW, Emirates, Red Bull or Kellogg's and media companies such as Sky Group and DAZN.
American Football
Sportfive supports the Kansas City Chiefs with their international strategy, asset development and commercial marketing such as expanding its presence and marketing in Germany. The New York Jets have also partnered with Sportfive to support their market presence in the UK.Baseball
Sportfive works with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is responsible for finding a field presenting partner for the Dodgers Stadium and securing the first jersey partnership for Major League Baseball.Basketball
In the US, Sportfive has partnerships with the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls. The collaboration with the Los Angeles Lakers began in 2020 and resulted in the first global partnership for the Lakers with bibigo, a Korean food company. Sportfive was also responsible for the Lakers' partnership with the asset management company DWS as a global investment sponsor. The DWS logo can be seen on the Crypto.com Arena at home games. The same year, Sportfive started to support the Chicago Bulls in the development of a worldwide distribution network, for example to further expand the fan base in France. The New York Knicks hired Sportfive in 2023 to search for a new jersey partner.Sportfive works with FC Bayern Basketball and is responsible for sponsor and partner acquisition, team and project management for the club as well as marketing its esports team. Further, the agency also initiated the partnership between Kellogg's and the German Basketball Association, specifically with youth and women's basketball teams, featuring the Kellogg's logo on all U15 to U19 national teams' jerseys. In addition, Kellogg's is featured on A-boards at all international home matches and in other content formats.