Banning Controversial Sponsors: Understanding Equilibrium Outcomes When Sports Sponsorships Are Viewed as Two-Sided Matches

• Published in: Journal of marketing research Vol. 52; no. 5; pp. 593 - 615
• Main Authors: YANG, YUPIN, GOLDFARB, AVI
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago American Marketing Association 01.10.2015; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Attendance; Bans; Corporate sponsorship; Professional soccer; Sponsors; Sports & recreation clubs; Sports marketing; Studies; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0022-2437; 1547-7193
• DOI: 10.1509/jmr.14.0225

This article applies a two-sided matching model to investigate the consequences of banning controversial sponsors. Using a data set containing the shirt sponsorships from 43 English football clubs between 1990 and 2010, the authors' estimates suggest assortative matching between a club's attendance and a sponsor's revenue. In addition, sponsorships become less valuable as the distance between the club and the sponsor's head office grows, particularly for low-performing clubs and smaller domestic sponsors. The authors use these estimates to simulate the consequences of banning alcohol and gambling sponsors. Their estimates of counterfactual outcomes suggest that such bans may not have the largest impact on the clubs (particularly the relatively successful clubs) that currently have alcohol and gambling sponsors. Instead, clubs with low attendance and clubs in low-income areas will be most affected by a ban. More generally, the results demonstrate that when marketing relationships are viewed as the result of a matching process, actions that affect only some marketers may have substantial indirect effects on a variety of players in the market.