Pusulabet’s global sponsorship drive

iGaming Business reported that online gaming brand Pusulabet is building an international sports sponsorship portfolio spanning Italy, Sweden and the US, set against changing advertising rules in Great Britain, Italy and Australia.

What happened

Pusulabet has accelerated a broad set of sponsorships across football and esports. In Italy, the operator partnered with Torino FC, a long-standing Serie A club with seven league titles and five Coppa Italia wins in its history. Branding appears on virtual perimeter boards during match broadcasts, but only in territories where such activity is permitted.

In football media, Pusulabet collaborated with Fabrizio Romano, who publishes transfer updates in English, Spanish and Italian to a vast social audience (over 50 million followers on Instagram and more than 100 million across platforms). The tie-in delivered exclusive player-facing updates during the transfer window. The company also aligned with former Brazil internationals Mario Jardel and André Santos, using ambassador content to package football stories around their experiences.

The esports push began in July 2025 with Swedish organisation 9INE and expanded in October to Los Angeles-based NRG. Under these deals, both Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) teams compete as 9INE Pusulabet and NRG Pusulabet through to January 2028, with front-of-jersey branding and naming rights. Activations run across FACEIT, Twitch streams and in-game CS2 integrations. Pusulabet says the goal is to grow international brand recognition, create content for eligible adult audiences and align with a highly engaged community.

Internally, the brand positions sponsorships as part of a wider digital strategy. The head of marketing, Adrien Arden, characterises sponsorship and digital channels as "complementary rather than competing". The company evaluates these partnerships by tracking brand visibility, audience reach, content engagement and awareness, using digital analytics to connect sponsorship exposure to broader performance. Over the next 12 months, it plans to develop exclusive gaming content, deepen existing partnerships and explore new market opportunities in football, esports and ambassador work.

Why it matters

Globally, sponsorship remains a potent route to reach sports audiences, but the mix is shifting. The report cites Two Circles data showing overall sports sponsorship spend grew 42% from 2019 to 2024. Yet the share of total brand budgets aimed at sports audiences that goes to sponsorship dropped from 29% in 2014 to 19% in 2024, with media now accounting for 81% as digital keeps rising. Pusulabet’s approach echoes this pivot by building sponsorship assets that also feed digital channels, content and community engagement.

The regulatory backdrop is in flux. Great Britain liberalised gambling advertising via the Gambling Act 2005, which helped fuel sports tie-ups, while the English Premier League began a voluntary front-of-shirt ban for gambling sponsors in 2026–27. Italy brought in far-reaching advertising and promotional restrictions in 2018–2019. Australia will introduce stricter gambling marketing rules in the new year, and the US saw a wave of sportsbook partnerships following the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling. In this climate, Pusulabet’s use of regional virtual advertising, social-first collaborations and esports content shows how brands may adapt placements and activation tactics to local rules.

For UK readers, the story may indicate how sponsorship could evolve under domestic constraints. Virtual signage targeted to permitted territories, off-shirt assets, social media-led football content and esports integrations could become more common, particularly where front-of-shirt inventory is limited. The balance between brand building and measurable digital outcomes may also gain importance as operators seek long-term engagement rather than short-term acquisition spikes.

What to watch

1. Measurement discipline: The emphasis on awareness, reach and content engagement suggests sponsorship returns may be tracked more like digital campaigns. Expect more focus on cross-channel analytics to justify spend.
2. Esports safeguards: With esports audiences skewing younger, adherence to age targeting, audience demographics and local regulations will remain central to any betting-related activations.
3. Regionalisation: Virtual advertising in territories where allowed points to increasingly granular, market-by-market execution—potentially a template for navigating divergent rules across Europe and beyond.
4. Content as glue: Transfer-window updates, ambassador storytelling and live-stream activations may continue to bind sponsorships to digital retention strategies, not just acquisition.

Further reading

• Guide to sports betting basics: /sports-betting
• Manage your bankroll with our tool: /tools/bankroll-manager
• Responsible gambling advice and tools: /responsible-gambling

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• [Bonus Types](/bonus-types)

Source

This article is based on the report "Serie A clubs, transfer gurus and esports teams: Pusulabet forging connections through sponsorship" published by iGaming Business on 10 November 2026.

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