The Two Circles agency has been identified as the winning bidder for global broadcast and sponsorship rights to the Uefa Women’s Champions League, SportBusiness understands.
Uefa has been moving through its request for proposal (RFP) process in recent months and has now opted to award the commercial rights sales mandate to Two Circles, according to multiple sources.
The RFP launched on January 25 called for bids over five seasons, from 2025-26 to 2029-30, with sponsorship rights to women’s national team events over the same period also offered. A shortlist of two bidders was drawn up before the Two Circles proposal was chosen.
Two Circles is the incumbent sponsorship sales agency to Uefa women’s competitions but does not have a strong background in media rights trading. A deal for the Women’s Champions League – as and when a long-form agreement is signed off – is expected to be a launchpad for an arm of the business Two Circles is looking to grow.
The completion of an agency agreement with Two Circles would also spell the end of DAZN’s direct hold over the UWCL media rights globally (excluding China and the Middle East and North Africa) from 2025-26 onwards.
In opting for Two Circles, Uefa will be aligning again with a partner that has driven strong sponsorship sales results. Many of the brands to have signed up were existing sponsors of the men’s Uefa club competitions. In 2020, Two Circles acquired TRM Partners, appointed as Uefa’s sponsorship sales agency in the wake of the governing body’s decision to unbundle its women’s football sponsorship rights from the men’s game.
YouTube audiences for the UWCL on DAZN have, according to most industry observers, served to underline that the competition’s strongest commercial model is a significant free-to-air footprint to maximise sponsorship revenues. DAZN announced in November that all of the 2023-24 UWCL group-stage fixtures up until matchday four would be shown free on YouTube, scrapping its plan to move matches behind a paywall. Thereafter, the free coverage shifted to the DAZN app.
In order to increase exposure for the 2022-23 UWCL final between Barcelona and VfL Wolfsburg, DAZN sold on free-to-air rights to the European Broadcasting Union in 12 markets. EBU members in the Netherlands (NOS), Norway (NRK), Serbia (RTS), Spain (RTVE) and Sweden (SVT) acquired rights to the recent 2023-24 final between Barcelona and Lyon.
Two Circles’ media strategy is led by former IMG executive Jonathan Kilmartin. The company recently continued its US market push under new owners Charterhouse Capital Partners, the private equity firm, with the creation of a business vertical to help maximise the value of college sports athletes’ name, image and likeness (NIL) rights.
Revenue mix
During its first season of centralisation in 2021-22, the UWCL generated €15.2m ($16.4m) in revenue.
Over half – €8.1m – stemmed from media rights following the international deal with DAZN, an agreement in the Mena region with beIN Sports and rights sales in China. Only €6.8m came from sponsorship rights sales in season one but that number has since swollen following high-profile additions to the Uefa Women’s Football Partner programme.
Uefa set out to generate more than €70m in women’s football sponsorship revenue during the 2021-25 cycle and deals with Amazon and PlayStation signed off early last year put it on its way to achieving that target. Uefa’s roster of official global sponsors for the women’s game also includes Adidas, Euronics, Electronic Arts, Grifols, Heineken, Hublot, Just Eat, Lay’s and Visa.
The €24m distributed by Uefa among 2023-24 UWCL teams stemmed from the tournament’s net revenue, ticket sales at the final, investment from Uefa and €10m in cross-financing from Uefa men’s club competitions.