Olivier Verot is the founder and CEO of GMA, a marketing agency based in Shanghai since 2012. He has spent over a decade helping foreign brands and athletes build visibility in China.
China has 1.4 billion people online. For a long time, football was not part of the picture. Ask a kid what they wanted to become and the answer used to be basketball player, or professional gamer. Football came later, pushed hard by government policy.
By 2026, the picture has shifted again. Chinese brands now spend heavily across basketball, football, esports, and winter sports, not just one of them. Some of the money that used to flow into football moved elsewhere. If you are a foreign athlete, an agent, or a brand looking at China, you need to know where sponsorship money is actually going this year, not where it went five years ago.
How Chinese sponsorship actually works
The model has not changed much since President Xi Jinping made football a national priority: import proven foreign talent, mix it with young Chinese players, and let big companies pay for the exposure. In 2016, Chinese football clubs spent over 260 million euros on foreign players in a single year. The Chinese Super League still requires at least three foreign players in every starting eleven.
That approach did not stay inside football. Basketball, esports, and winter sports brands copied the same logic: bring in a recognizable foreign face, put them in front of Chinese fans, and use the deal to sell product. Where the money concentrates now is different from 2020, and that is the part most foreign athletes and their agents get wrong.
Basketball draws the biggest foreign deals in 2026
Basketball is where foreign athlete sponsorship money concentrates right now. Chinese fans never lost interest in the NBA, even during the years when NBA games were hard to watch on Chinese television after the 2019 political dispute. Domestic sportswear brands read that fandom correctly and moved fast.
In June 2026, Stephen Curry signed an endorsement deal with Li-Ning. The same month, Kyrie Irving and Anta launched “The Return,” a world tour that opened in Shanghai and stopped in Chengdu and Shenzhen before continuing to Indonesia and the United States. Irving has served as Anta Basketball’s chief creative officer since 2023. These are not one-off appearance fees. Anta and Li-Ning use these athletes for retail activations, livestream product drops, and grassroots basketball events, not just a face on a billboard.
The domestic Chinese Basketball League, the CBA, still imports foreign players every season, but the bigger sponsorship money now sits with global NBA names who have never set foot on a CBA court. A brand can reach more Chinese consumers through one NBA star’s Weibo account than through most CBA rosters combined. If you play anywhere near NBA visibility, China’s sportswear brands are actively looking for you.
Football’s sponsorship math changed
Football sponsorship in China looks different in 2026 than it did five years ago. The men’s national team missed the World Cup again, its sixth straight absence, and the effect on sponsorship was immediate. Chinese advertisers reportedly cut World Cup ad budgets by 40 to 60 percent for the 2026 tournament, and broadcast rights talks between CCTV and FIFA stalled over price for months.
Chinese companies still show up as major sponsors, just fewer of them, spending more per brand. Lenovo and Hisense each committed close to 150 million US dollars to global partner and official sponsor status for the 2026 World Cup, with Mengniu not far behind. Total Chinese brand sponsorship for the tournament reached roughly 500 million US dollars, about a fifth of FIFA’s confirmed sponsorship revenue, even as the number of Chinese sponsor brands dropped by roughly two-thirds compared to the previous cycle. Chinese logos are still visible across the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Serie A, and firms like Wanda, Vivo, Hisense, Mengniu, and Alibaba remain among FIFA’s biggest partners.
What this means for a foreign player: the era of a mid-table European club picking up a random Chinese sponsor just because football was trending is over. The brands still spending want a genuine global star, a personal following that translates onto Chinese platforms, or both.
Esports is the fastest growing sponsorship lane
Esports sponsorship is growing quietly while football and basketball get the headlines. China had 165 registered esports clubs by the end of 2025, concentrated in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Chongqing. Tencent and NetEase dominate the game publishing side, while Huya, Douyu, and Bilibili compete for streaming audiences.
The sponsorship model is shifting too. Brands used to pay simply for logo placement on team jerseys, a plain business-to-business deal. The newer approach pays for direct fan engagement: livestream integrations, in-game brand events, and player-hosted content that sells product straight to viewers. For a foreign player or streamer with a following, that shift favors personal brand deals over generic team sponsorship.
Chinese sports and electronics brands sponsoring esports are not chasing football-style reach anymore. They want engagement numbers, and a foreign player with an existing Twitch or YouTube audience only needs to prove that audience carries over to Douyin or Bilibili.
Winter sports sponsorship outlasted the 2022 Olympics
Beijing hosted the Winter Olympics in 2022, and most outside observers assumed sponsorship interest in winter sports would fade once the Games left China. It did not, at least not for athletes who built a real following.
Eileen Gu, the American-born freestyle skier who competes for China, earned an estimated 23 million US dollars in endorsements in 2025 alone, more than any other athlete heading into the 2026 Winter Olympics. Her deals span sportswear, luxury, and consumer electronics brands, well outside the ski industry itself. That is the clearest proof that winter sports sponsorship in China was never really about skiing. It was about an athlete Chinese consumers wanted to follow.
Brands building outdoor and winter sports lines in China, including domestic players expanding into skiing and snowboarding gear, are still signing foreign athletes to build early credibility with the wave of Chinese consumers who took up winter sports after 2022.
What foreign athletes can expect, whatever the sport
- Recognition well beyond your home market
- Bonus and appearance income on top of your playing or competition contract
- Product endorsement deals, sometimes several at once
- Key Opinion Leader status, meaning brands pay for your content, not only your name
- Real purchasing power once endorsement income compounds with playing income
The tools you actually need
China blocks Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. None of your existing following on those platforms transfers automatically. You need a presence built on Chinese platforms, often starting from close to zero:
- Weibo, the closest match to Twitter/X, still gets over 500 million daily active users
- WeChat, the default app for messaging and payments, close to 900 million monthly users
- Douyin, the short video platform international audiences know as TikTok, now central to brand livestreams and product drops
- Youku, a video platform still useful for longer interviews and match highlights
An athlete who is not already a global superstar has a real advantage here. Chinese fans often show more enthusiasm for an accessible foreign athlete who engages with them directly than for a superstar who never bothers to post in Chinese. Read more about celebrity athlete endorsement in China.
A case we worked on
One case involved a European power forward who had spent two seasons at a mid-table CBA club, unknown outside basketball circles. He had no Weibo account and a small following back home. We opened Weibo and Douyin accounts for him, cut his existing match highlights into short Douyin clips posted after every game, and set up short weekly Q&A livestreams in basic Mandarin with a translator on screen.
Within eight months his Weibo following passed 400,000, mostly Chinese basketball fans who liked that he answered comments himself. A domestic sports nutrition brand approached him for a one-year regional endorsement deal, paid in a mix of cash and product, tied to matchday content rather than a single campaign shoot. His agent later used the Weibo following as proof of reach in renewal talks with the club, which had not previously placed any value on his off-court profile. Related read: why brands are entering China’s sports nutrition market.
Finding sponsors in China is not easy, but it is realistic
If you already play in a top European league, a major American league, or a national team most Chinese sports fans recognize, some brands already know your name. If you do not, plan on being unknown here, no matter how well known you are at home. That is normal, not a rejection.
The approach that works: post consistently, answer comments yourself when you can, and give Chinese fans content they cannot get anywhere else, translated highlight clips, training footage, short interviews. Chinese audiences are selective. Generic reposted content from your home-market accounts does not perform well here. Content made for them does. See also: how brands without official World Cup rights still won attention in China and our work with football clubs in China.
Frequently asked questions
Which sport gets the most sponsorship attention from Chinese brands in 2026?
Basketball currently draws the most foreign athlete sponsorship spending, driven by NBA fandom that never depended on games being broadcast in China. Football sponsorship remains large in absolute dollars around events like the World Cup, but it is now concentrated in fewer, bigger deals rather than spread across many players. Esports and winter sports are growing fastest in percentage terms.
Do I need to already be famous to get a sponsorship deal in China?
No. Chinese fans respond well to foreign athletes who are not superstars at home but who engage directly on Chinese platforms. A consistent Weibo or Douyin presence, translated content, and real interaction with fans often matter more than global fame. Several sponsorship deals we have seen involved athletes with modest followings back home.
How long does it take to attract sponsorship interest after starting on Chinese social media?
Expect six months to a year of consistent posting before brands start reaching out on their own. Faster results are possible with paid promotion or an agency actively pitching your profile to brands, but organic growth alone usually needs sustained content and real fan interaction over several months.
Can esports players and streamers get sponsorship deals the same way athletes do?
Yes, and the model fits esports particularly well. Brands sponsoring esports now pay for engagement, livestream integrations, and player-hosted content rather than jersey logos alone. A foreign streamer with an existing following on Twitch or YouTube who rebuilds that audience on Douyin or Bilibili is a strong sponsorship candidate.
Does China’s national football team missing the World Cup affect football sponsorship for foreign players?
Yes. Chinese advertisers cut World Cup ad budgets significantly for the 2026 tournament, partly because the men’s national team missed qualification again. That does not remove football sponsorship from China, but it concentrates the remaining budget on fewer, higher-profile deals rather than broad sponsorship of mid-table foreign players.
We are GMA.
GMA has helped foreign athletes, agents, and sports brands build real visibility in China since 2012, across football, basketball, esports, and outdoor sports.
We set up and run Weibo and Douyin accounts, translate and localize content, and connect athletes directly with Chinese brands looking for sponsorship partners.
Contact us for a free 30-minute call about your sponsorship strategy in China.
Sources: Sportico on Eileen Gu’s 2025 endorsement earnings, HoopsHype on the Kyrie Irving and Anta 2026 world tour, and 36Kr on the World Cup’s reduced profile in the Chinese market.
