How to get sponsors and negotiate better contracts

Getting sponsors is one of the simplest questions to answer in ELDT, because the offers come to you. What is not so simple is which one to accept, how much to ask for and when to say no. A good sponsor deal is money coming in every week without you lifting a finger, so it is worth understanding how the sponsor market works before signing the first thing that pops up.

How to get sponsors: three stands, three contracts

Your stadium has three stands, Popular, Platea and VIP, and each one can have its own sponsor at the same time. They are three separate markets: signing one stand does not affect the other two.

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They do not all pay the same. Based on your division's sponsor level, VIP is worth the most, then Platea, then Popular. Filling all three brings in a lot more than having just one.

If you have signed at least one stand, the ones still without a contract still collect their share of a basic sponsor for your division every week, split across the three according to the weight of each stand. So signing never leaves you worse off than not signing. And if you have not signed any, the club collects that basic sponsor once a month, at the end of the first week. But basic is basic: a good negotiated offer usually pays more.

The offers come to you

You do not need to go looking for brands. The game generates offers for each stand without a contract, up to 3 open offers per stand, and lets you know with a notification when they arrive. You can see them all in the Sponsors section.

A few market rules:

• Each offer lasts one week: if you do not reply in time, it expires.
• A brand you have already seen will not appear again, on any stand.
• If you reject an offer, new ones for that stand take 3 days to arrive. It stops you rejecting everything until the best one comes along.
• When a contract ends, you are notified and that stand goes back on the market.

The three brand personalities

Each brand has a personality that shapes how it offers and negotiates:

• Conservative: starts a little below the base, signs for longer (between 12 and 20 weeks) and has very little room to improve. Safe money for many weeks.
• Ambitious: starts with the highest opening offer, signs for a medium term (10 to 16 weeks) and has some room if you push.
• Opportunist: starts lower, signs for a short time (6 to 10 weeks), but is the one with the biggest room for improvement.

There is no single best one. A Conservative gives you peace of mind for a long time. A well-negotiated Opportunist can pay more per week, but the contract ends sooner and you have to go back to the market.

How to negotiate: two rounds

Before signing you can negotiate up to 2 rounds, asking for a higher amount. Each brand has a hidden ceiling, which depends on its personality. What happens depends on how much you ask for:

• If you ask for something within its margin, the brand accepts your figure.
• If you ask above its ceiling in the first round, it makes a counter-offer halfway.
• If in the second round you ask for too much again, it gives you its final offer, which is its ceiling.
• If you ask for something wildly unrealistic, it snaps back, improves nothing and the round is spent anyway.

Think about what that means: asking a little above what is reasonable does not punish you, because the counter-offer and final offer both go up. But asking for a ridiculous figure makes you waste a round without gaining anything.

A sensible strategy is to ask for a moderate improvement in the first round and see what comes back. There is usually more room with Opportunists; with Conservatives, not much.

Your manager's fame improves the offers

The amount of each offer depends on your division's base and your manager fame. Fame multiplies offers from x1,00 up to a maximum of x1,40. A manager with a lot of fame receives offers up to 40% higher than someone just starting out in the same division.

You build fame by playing: results, achievements, cups, season goals and some prestige projects at the club paid from the club's funds. It cannot be bought with real money. If you are interested in that, you can read why ELDT is not pay to win.

The division matters too

The sponsor base depends on your club's division. Going up a division raises the base of all future offers. So if you are close to promotion, sometimes it is worth not tying yourself to a very long contract at the current division's amount. On the other hand, if the season is going badly, securing a long contract can give you peace of mind.

Common sponsor mistakes

1. Leaving stands without a contract for months and settling for the basic sponsor.
2. Rejecting offers one after another while waiting for something better: every rejection slows that stand down for 3 days.
3. Asking for absurd amounts and burning the rounds.
4. Ignoring duration: a high amount for a few weeks does not always beat a slightly lower one over a long spell.
5. Forgetting that the contract ends: when it expires, the stand goes back on the market and you have to sign again.

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Sponsors in the finances

Signed contracts are paid every week, in the Monday financial close. They are one of the club's few fixed income streams, along with TV money from each match. To see how they fit in with wages and the rest of the costs, have a look at how to manage a football club's finances.

You can find more detail in the finances and sponsors help and on the stadium and finances page.

Create your club and sign your first sponsor →