How Sponsorship Patches Help Players Earn More Money

Novak Djokovic has earned nearly $200 million in career prize money and was the highest-paid tennis player in 2024. Yet, even the GOAT wears extra cash on his sleeve. The patches you see popping up on player’s outfits represent a subtle but significant shift in tennis sponsorship opportunities.

Tennis players haven’t reached NASCAR sponsorship levels, where drivers, their cars and crew teams are covered in logos. However more tennis players are wearing sponsorship patches.

A patch is more than a “one off” way to market, said Kevin Smith, who teaches Sports & Entertainment Marketing at Texas Christian University. A patch on a player is usually part of a larger marketing campaign, helping a brand tell its story.

“It’s more about the impact and return (on investment). What the brand side wants and what can I help deliver for you?” said Smith.

How Patches Generate Money For Players

As players push for higher earnings, tennis officials are finding new ways to generate revenue. Whether through Saudi Arabia’s sports investments or creative sponsorship deals, there’s more money to be made in tennis, said Jay Prasad, CEO of Relo Metrics, an AI-powered sponsorship analytics platform that measures media exposure and ROI across broadcast, streaming and social media. Relo Metrics tracks sponsorship performance on jersey (uniform) patches.

In 2023, Relo’s data identified a relatively high media value performance (MVP) score of MLB jersey patches. The MLB patches were larger and easier for fans to identify. They are now part of a team’s uniform.

Japanese e-commerce site Rakuten inked a three-year $60 million deal with the Golden State Warriors. The parties renewed the agreement in 2022.

“People were like,” Who the hell? What the hell is Rakuten? But like, you know what? People in the Bay Area, because it’s on the Warriors, know what Rakuten is,” said Prasad. “Jersey patches matter.”

In soccer, jersey patches are so prominent that they are often larger than the team’s name.

“The fans love it. They associate that brand with their team, with the stadium, and it’s a part of the identity of what they love,” said Prasad. “So it has crossed that chasm. It’s not an advertisement. It’s a part of the fan experience.”

But that’s the team sports experience. In tennis, a sport steeped in tradition where etiquette is an integral part of the game, the patches serve as supplemental branding.

Top players like Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz or Coco Gauff can command $3 million or more from a single annual patch deal, according to Sportico. Players consistently in the Top Ten, like Taylor Fritz, can earn an extra $250,000 per year.

Sometimes called micro sponsorships, temporary patch deals can earn players an extra $10,000 to $20,000 per match.

“If you’re not a top player, you’re really struggling,” said Prasad. “You’re living like a minor league baseball player. And so there’s more money to be gotten into the sport.”

Patches also offer brands a lower-tier entry into big-time sports marketing. Blue Owl Capital is an asset management firm that targets lower-ranked players in high-profile matches. Blue Owl doesn’t have a JP Morgan Chase marketing budget. Instead of chasing one or two marquee players, like Alcaraz or Djokovic, Blue Owl opted to back players who face a top player, becoming the exclusive financial services partner in a player patch program.

“You know the importance of strong narrative that connects brand values and the essence of the sponsorship. Blue Owl, they’re kind of an alternative brand in the finance world. So they’re looking for those challenger mindsets,” said Smith.

One of the most unusual patch sponsorship deals occurred at the 2024 U.S. Open when the Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac and Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic wore a patch promoting the Ben Crump law firm. Crumb is best known as a civil rights attorney who represented the families of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin.

Surely, Crumb is not seeking clients in Serbia and the Czech Republic. However, those patches got his law firm air time on ESPN for a fraction of what it would cost him to run a national television ad. His patch also showed up in highlights on YouTube, Social Media posts and sports news websites.

Although a temporary patch can generate extra income for a lower-ranked player, cashing in can’t be a player’s focus, said Yury Bettoni, former Italian-American professional tennis player and founder of GOSYMBA, an athletic apparel brand.

“So it’s not about thinking, Oh, I hit the jackpot, because I’ll be on TV,” said Bettoni. “When you start thinking like, that is the beginning of the end.”

However, agents and brands can’t ignore the opportunity to maximize exposure at minimal cost.

“Everybody has the phone with a camera, and everything gets recorded,” said Bettoni. “So a small patch on the shoulder of a player that, let’s say, is No. 150 in the world and plays against a Top 10 player, he makes a difference. It makes a difference.”

The Evolution Of Sponsorship Patches In Tennis

During the 1970s and 1980s players like Bjorn Borg began wearing prominent patches. The trend received backlash from the tennis establishment, which worried the patches interfered with the sport’s prim and proper aesthetic. Even those who embraced the growth of the game rejected the idea of players looking like billboards.

During the 1990s, patch restrictions tightened until Nike’s sponsorship deal with Li Na.

Li became the first Asian player, male or female, to win a Grand Slam. Her popularity sparked a surge in interest in tennis across a massive Asian market. Nike restricted its ambassadors, including Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Rafael Nadal from wearing other logos.

Li’s agent, Max Eisenbud, brokered a deal with Nike that allowed her to wear the Mercedes Benz logo on her sleeve. Well, that opened the floodgates.

Now everybody’s wearing patches. Gauff wore a red Barilla patch on her white Wimbledon outfit last year. Jasmine Paolini has Amazfit and Dove logos incorporated in her Asics dress. Fritz is wearing a Chipotle patch on one sleeve and a Motorola logo on the other, on his Hugo Boss shirt.

“If I’m the player, I don’t want to be logo soup,” said Smith. “I mean, ideally, I’d love to be, you know, the Coco (Gauff) with one brand and New Balance, and off I go.”

Even at Wimbledon, the Grand Slam with the most restrictive dress code, more patches are popping up. Fabio Fognini was on a 10-match losing streak heading into Wimbledon and thought about retiring. His first-round opponent? Alcaraz on Centre Court. Fognini, in possibly his last appearance on Centre Court, wore Blue Owl and Astonish patches.

Last year, in the fourth round at Wimbledon, LuLu Sun faced popular British player Emma Raducanu. Sun wore patches for Neilson Beach Clubs and Astonish that looked like they were slapped on her Lacoste top at the last minute.

Why Tennis Will Never Look Like NASCAR

Sponsorship logos in NASCAR fuel that sport. That works on a race car. However, despite advancements in racket and string technology, electronic line calls, and retractable roofs, tennis remains restrained when it comes to attire.

Some upscale sponsors, like Rolex, may not want to share real estate with brands that don’t align with their image. As tennis sponsorships evolve, so will the balance between generating revenue and preserving the game’s classy character.