GB Olympians set for sponsorship boost

Heptathlete Ennis already earns about £1m from sponsorship deals from brands such as Adidas, Aviva and P&G and her performance at the London 2012 Olympics could see this rise to at least £2m over the next two years, sponsorship experts say.

Already dubbed the ‘poster girl’ of the Games, the Sheffield-born athlete has been congratulated by several adverts from Olympic sponsors including BP and Olay.

Elsewhere, 10,000m runner Farah and long-jumper Rutherford are also expected to see a significant uplift in earnings from sponsors. Some athletes can can double their on-track earnings with the amount they earn with sponsorships.

Farah is likely to see his brand value rise significantly internationally given that he trained in the US and has already appeared in Nike’s ‘Make it Count’ advertising campaign this year.

Meanwhile, relative unknown Rutherford who is sponsored by Nike, Maximuscle, Bullerwell and Co and Bedford Rotary can expect to see his earnings increase “ten-times” given his new found status as one of Britain’s most high-profile athletes.

Rupert Pratt, managing director of sponsorship agency Generate, says: “Rutherford had a very low profile going into the Games but this could increase by ten times at least because he’s probably not got that many personal sponsors, whereas Ennis was pretty much tied-up to every single commercial partner.

He adds: “The focus needs to shift to look at increasing the commercial income into UK sport now. Every board room in the country has seen what hosting a major games can do in terms of uniting the nation and for the first time everybody has been exposed to the potential sponsorship opportunity of hosting a major event.”