‘We’re not pushing water uphill’: Inside Guinness’ bid for Premier League belonging

In January, Guinness did something that it hadn’t done for 40 years.

Queens Park Rangers supporters will remember the beer brand appearing on the front of their team’s red and black strips during the 1986/87 campaign, which was the last time Guinness was the front-of-shirt sponsor of an English soccer team.

It has now returned to that space through a partnership with Women’s Super League 2 (WSL2) side Bristol City, whose shirts will feature the company’s non-alcoholic Guinness 0.0 branding for the remainder of the season. The deal is the latest in a series of partnerships which have seen Guinness make a concerted push into soccer as part of a broader ambition to become the most-consumed drink during the sports-watching moment.

That renewed interest in soccer started in 2024, when Guinness committed a reported UK£52 million to become the official beer and official non-alcoholic beer of the Premier League globally. In addition to Bristol City, it has grown its portfolio to include top-flight clubs Arsenal, Aston Villa and Newcastle United, giving it national reach, access to stadium inventory and pouring rights, and a presence across the men’s and women’s game.

Guinness’ return to the soccer has sparked plenty of inbound interest, according to Jamie Brooks, the brand’s sports partnerships lead, who tells SportsPro that the company has to be “really tight and choiceful” about the deals it pursues.

“It’s very easy to become distracted and get a bit trigger happy,” he adds. “When we go into a partnership, we want to make sure that we go in with an intent to really make a difference and invest time, energy, and ultimately money into making a real success of that, rather than spreading ourselves too thin.”

Bridging the rugby-soccer divide

As an Irish stout, Guinness perhaps wasn’t the most obvious replacement for AB InBev-owned Budweiser, which had taken over the Premier League’s beer category from Carling, another lager brand, in 2019.

Indeed, Guinness has long been synonymous with rugby union and is best known for its association with the Six Nations, which it first partnered with in 2007 before upgrading to title sponsor of the men’s tournament in 2019. It has held those rights for the women’s competition since 2024 and also has longstanding partnerships with several unions.

However, the company has been enjoying a period of growth headlined by the brand cementing its status as the UK’s most popular pint and delivering consecutive years of double-digit global sales growth. Diageo previously claimed that one in ten beers sold in London is a Guinness and surging demand has even led to periodic shortages in pubs, where the art of ‘splitting the G’ has almost become its own form of competitive sport.

In that context, Guinness’ investment in soccer seems a natural next step for a brand looking to capitalise on its evolution from a left-field option to the beer of choice through further international growth.

“It gives us a slightly different audience,” says Brooks, when asked why the brand sponsored the Premier League. “It also gives us a regular drum beat as well. The Six Nations is massive for five, six weeks, it’s a global international tournament, it’s a World Cup of European rugby. And this gives us a 39-week always-on activation platform and ability to speak to fans on a more consistent basis.”

At the same time, Brooks adds that Guinness’ push into soccer is “in no way a reflection on us moving out of rugby”, noting that the company remains “very committed” to its partnerships in the sport. That said, given some of the cultural differences between the two, he admits that treading carefully into soccer was “definitely a consideration” for the brand as it looked to integrate itself within the game.

Brooks also points out that the move was made easier by the fact that many soccer fans were consumers of the brand already. Data released by YouGov in 2024 revealed that 44 per cent of Guinness drinkers described the Premier League as a top interest compared to 36 per cent of beer drinkers in general, while 42 per cent of fans said they had a positive impression of the stout – more than any of its competitors.

“The success within football will be how we replicate some of that real association between Guinness and rugby in a sport that we’re relatively new to,” Brooks continues. “The great thing is, within the pubs, if they’re not watching a football game, our audience is already drinking Guinness.

“It’s had such a golden period that it’s a soft push. It’s not like we’re not pushing water uphill here.”

Using Guinness 0.0 to reach new audiences through sponsorship

Guinness was once viewed as a winter beer predominantly consumed by older men. However, Brooks says there has been a “concerted effort” at the company to change that perception and build “cultural cachet” for the brand, which has helped to diversify its audience.

Central to that has been the rise of its 0.0 product, which Diageo said in its 2025 financial report is the number one non-alcoholic beer in the UK and the fastest growing in Europe.

Other major brewers like Heineken and AB InBev, along with a cast of upstart competitors, have been launching their own alcohol-free alternatives, making the non-alcoholic category an increasingly competitive one among beer companies looking to appeal to a younger generation of non-drinkers and others who err on the side of moderation.

It would be fair to assume that the growing popularity of 0.0 has had a positive impact on the original beer too, but Brooks says the main reason for making the alcohol-free brand the face of deals with the likes of Bristol City is about “providing a product for everyone”.

Guinness is using its sponsorship of Bristol City Women to promote its 0.0 brand (Image credit: Bristol City)

As a result, Brooks says Guinness’ sponsorships have played their part in pushing the company towards a younger consumer base, while also helping the brand reach more women, who represent one of the company’s “largest and fastest-growing audience groups”.

Crucially, some of those female consumers are engaging with the brand through 0.0, which has a higher market share of total Guinness sales during England women’s games at Twickenham compared with the men’s matches.

“It’s a reflection on a few things,” Brooks adds. “As a society, there is obviously a surging demand for non-alcoholic or low-alcoholic options, but with the female audience that’s an even more popular choice. So whether it’s across rugby or football, or anywhere else that we show up, it’s about making sure that there is that availability to meet that demand.”

‘Why would we be missed if we were gone?’

The soccer sponsorship market has evolved significantly since Guinness and its competitors adorned the shirts of some of England’s most recognisable teams. While no Premier League clubs currently have a beer brand as their main sponsor, many alcohol companies still gain access to the assets they need through official partner-level deals.

In-stadium sales are just one way that Guinness measures the success of its partnerships, but Brooks says a key consideration when evaluating its investment in soccer is being seen as “a brand that belongs in football”. And that objective has influenced how the company has activated its partnerships in the sport.

Guinness kicked off its Premier League sponsorship with its biggest-ever global campaign, activating the partnership in more than 80 markets during the first season. The competition’s record goalscorer and pundit Alan Shearer was enlisted to unveil branded tankers for all top-flight teams, while there have also been viewing parties and other events to engage with fans of both the league and the brand’s partner teams in key overseas markets.

The company has further leant into its storytelling prowess for the second year of the partnership through a series of short films celebrating the different matchday experiences of fans across the 20 clubs.

Guinness launched its Premier League partnership with its biggest global campaign ever (Image credit: Guinness)

And even though Guinness’ agreement with Bristol City includes front-of-shirt visibility, a big driver of the partnership was access to Ashton Gate, which was one of the venues chosen by the WSL for its in-seat alcohol trial and hosts more than 70 events a year across soccer, rugby and other forms of entertainment. Guinness is also donating the tickets included in its contract to female-owned pubs and bars in and around Bristol to use as either sales or staff incentives, strengthening its relationships with on-trades at what is a challenging time for the industry.

The scale and assets may therefore vary, but each partnership is designed to embed Guinness within matchday rituals and build a lasting emotional connection with fans. For Brooks, that also means contributing to the experience in a way that leaves the sport “in a slightly better place than we found it”.

“We don’t have an awareness problem as a brand,” Brooks says. “But what we do want to ensure, what we are able to do, and where we want to build a platform is in driving real, meaningful connections with fans and consumers.

“When we’re assessing an opportunity, one of the key things that we look for is, is there something that we can do here together that’s going to leave the sport in a better place? What is it that we can activate through the rights that we have that is actually going to make a fan’s day out superior to what it would have been if we weren’t there, or if we were to end the deal for whatever reason? Why would we be missed?”