In 2020, we represented Monkey Knife Fight, the irreverent fantasy sports brand, and then the third-largest daily fantasy platform in North America behind FanDuel and DraftKings. CEO Bill Asher’s strategy was to gain market share and brand affinity by forming strong partnerships with sports teams in states where sports betting was not yet legal. During that time, Monkey Knife Fight signed partnerships with teams such as the Los Angeles Kings, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Miami Dolphins, among others. All the partnerships were tailored to the team and market, but each included elements of charitable giving to support the team’s local COVID-19 outreach efforts. When asked by reporters why he was investing in team partnerships while many sports were shut down, Asher was extremely transparent. Paraphrasing, his key messages included:
In every interview Asher gave, he clearly articulated his mission and intentions with the reasoning behind the partnership. In January 2021, Monkey Knife Fight was sold for $90 million to Bally’s.
The point of this case study is not to highlight the sale; but to showcase a unique strategy that amplified the importance of sponsorships, which led to the sale. Brands do not sponsor teams, events, or tournaments out of the goodness of their hearts. Instead, they sponsor for some level of ROI. Asher’s mission was to grow Monkey Knife Fight. These strategic partnerships were a means to create awareness and acquire customers. However, he knew he couldn’t grow the company strategically, without investing additional capital into strategic storytelling to signal to the market his deals, partnerships, and company’s growth. It obviously obtained the attention of Bally’s.
But not every brand is this strategic about promoting or activating its partnerships. I interviewed several sports brand partnership executives about the percentage of their sponsorship portfolio that effectively invests additional capital, beyond the cost of the partnership, to promote or activate them. The average number of brands who actively do this was only 30%. That leaves a vast majority of brands sponsoring a team, event, or tournament, for mostly logo activation. At the end of the day, if your brand sponsors something and nobody knows why, does it really matter? Brands are spending a lot of money to leave an incredible amount of potential brand equity on the table. A new calculus must be set.
I asked those same sports partnership executives how much a brand should conservatively spend beyond the cost of the partnership to promote or activate it properly. All respondents polled stated that there is no industry standard, but in their ideal world, they would ask their partners to budget an additional 15% to 30% of the initial spend.
Monkey Knife Fight is an outlier in terms of a brand that invested strategic capital to properly activate and promote the brand story and vision through its sponsorships. There are others, but you may only remember a few. For instance, you may see the beautiful Rolex or Omega clocks on the first tee of golf tournaments or remember that Grey Goose is the vodka in those $23 Honey Deuces at the US Open. Even during college football’s bowl season, a month of constant football games that feature a whack-a-mole of random brand sponsorships, the average person may only be able to recall the brand sponsorships that are authentic or go viral, like the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando or the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte. However, the reason those brands are able to gain so much attention beyond the virality of an edible mascot or mayo-eating relay, is that they are actively discussing the “why” behind their partnerships.
These brands are targeting sports fans who understand why those companies are activating and rewarding them for doing so. Look at Pop-Tarts. According to The Athletic, the brand sold 21 million more units in the eight weeks following the game than in the eight weeks prior. That is true alpha. Forbes reported Pop-Tarts generated more than $26.1 million in earned media value in 2025. This year, Pop-Tarts is upping its game by featuring six edible mascots vs. one.
You may be thinking, “Yes, that’s great, but my budget can only service the cost of the initial sponsorship. Why spend the extra 15-30%?” The answer is that you almost can’t afford not to. Every organization is scrutinizing its costs. There is no CFO saying to spend freely. The question in every P&L meeting is “What value are we deriving for this cost?”
The accepted answer may be as simple as the sponsorship offers us preferred parking, a suite for our clients to use, and an advertising read during halftime. However, there will be more scrupulous decision-making executives who want to see a business return on investment. How do we know the community understands the importance of our partnership? Has our partnership directly led to new customers? Do our investors and potential investors understand the business drivers behind why we’re spending this capital? Can we correlate our sponsorship in this team, event or tournament to an increase in affinity, loyalty, or sales? Why is another brand that sponsors the same team, event, or tournament obtaining so much more attention than we are?
Extra investment into activation and storytelling may not be what breaks your brand into sports sponsorship; however, it will be an important approach that often secures your budgets long-term. At the end of the day, your brand leaders need to ask themselves -- does it want to stand still in anonymity or truly differentiate from the competition, like Grey Goose, Pop-Tarts, and Dukes? I know Bill Asher has 90 million reasons why that extra 15-30% activation spend made all the difference for him and Monkey Knife Fight.
