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As the EOC builds commercial momentum towards the 4th European Games, senior figures at German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) and the British Olympic Association (BOA) say the shift from exposure-led to purpose-driven partnership is already underway, and Istanbul represents a pivotal proving ground.
Otto Fricke, the CEO of the DOSB, describes the role of a commercial partner in Olympic sport as being increasingly defined by storytelling.
“We don’t remember numbers,” he says. “What we remember is stories. If you can combine emotionally filled stories with a brand, a company, then you’ve fulfilled what you need to do with your partners.”
That philosophy reflects how the broader Olympic Movement is approaching the commercial opportunities that lie ahead, with the 4th European Games to take place in Istanbul in 2027 as a key step on the road to the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.
Continental multi-sport events including the European Games are moving away from visibility-led inventory towards value-driven partnerships built around purpose, athlete storytelling and measurable legacy.
Fricke from the DOSB and the BOA’s Chief Commercial Officer Tim Ellerton both explained how this shift in partner expectations is being played out at NOC level.
The impact of Milano Cortina 2026
The Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina earlier this year underlined the move towards a more immersive model of partnership activation. For Fricke, who attended in person, the significance of the Games was the emotional architecture around it.
“We had a partner with Citroën that brought all of the medal winners in Cortina – in a golden car, a silver car or a bronze car – to the German House,” he shared. “There were around 200 people waiting inside. There was a fan zone in front with another 500 waiting. And numerous media teams. The way they won the medal was shown again. We tried to prolong and widen the road as much as possible. And we strategically extended this activation across our social media channels. After all, a key element of our partnerships remains the generation of reach and visibility.”
For the DOSB, this approach turned a sporting result into a shared moment between athletes, partners and fans, applying the principle emotional longevity is what makes Olympic partnerships commercially successful.
“Sports gives you the possibility to feel for a longer time,” he said. “You get an emotional bond with the athletes and with the sport itself. That feeling also transfers to your commercial partners and they have an advantage by that too. So you help them and they help you – because they bond along these emotions.”
The same sentiment is shared strongly at the BOA. Ellerton pointed to the strength of Milano Cortina 2026 as a commercial moment for Team GB, and sees proximity and accessibility as central to that.
“There’s no doubt that the success of Milan was also down to the fact that it was so close. There were many, many Team GB fans there. Of course, they weren’t able to travel at all to Beijing or Tokyo. The benefit of having events on our doorstep is huge,” he said.
The 36 million-reach figure the BBC recorded for Paris 2024, and the 26 million for Milano Cortina 2026, are numbers Ellerton cites as evidence of audience appetite that partners can access if the infrastructure around storytelling and activation is in place.
What Partners Now Demand
Both Fricke and Ellerton describe a sponsorship market that has changed significantly. Partners are no longer content to wait for the Games window to justify the spend. They want year-round relevance, athlete access and increasingly to be part of the narrative.
“Our partners demand more of us to retain a relevance, not just around Games time,” Ellerton said. “The Games should be the icing on the cake. We should be able to create a year-round platform, a year-round set of opportunities. The Games is the peak – but there are many more facets to a partnership with Team GB.”
At the DOSB, the Team D brand has become the vehicle for that year-round engagement. Team D Studios, an in-house production unit of the DOSB’s marketing agency Deutsche Sport Marketing, produces short-form content following athletes through preparation, qualification and competition, keeping partners embedded in the story well before an Olympic medal is on the line.
The commercial logic, as Fricke frames it, is one of trust and continuity.
“If you don’t have a league that runs every day, the partners might ask themselves: why are we doing this? The answer is that they can rely on Team D and its values as well as in the Olympic idea. It’s not just about those who do the sports – there is a mentality behind it. And you can rely on that. You can trust it,” he said.
The BOA’s model works similarly. The Get Set schools programme, which reaches 26,000 schools and several million children annually, gives partners like Aldi and British Gas a tangible community touchpoint: athletes in classrooms and messages embedded in the curriculum sit alongside the Games period itself. Media partnerships with Sky and Global extend reach further, with both organisations actively re-telling the Team GB story to their own audiences throughout the cycle.
“We want our partners to be part of our story. We want to tell it on behalf of them and we want them to tell it on behalf of us,” Ellerton said.
Istanbul 2027: A Commercial and Qualifying Launchpad
Against this backdrop, the 4th European Games in Istanbul arrive with a compelling commercial proposition.
For Fricke, the European Games address a particular challenge on keeping sports audiences engaged in the years between Olympic Games, and using that engagement to introduce them to sports they wouldn’t otherwise follow.
“If the average Joe asks why should I watch that, what is so special – I’d say: this is the road to Los Angeles. Here you can already see the qualifiers. You can already see who’s going to be there. And it gives you a quality of following sports and athletes that you don’t normally get. It’s comparable to the Olympics – it’s not the Olympics yet, but it’s comparable.”
Crucially, the European Games provides more drama and more storytelling opportunities, which cannot be replicated by qualification events in individual sports.
“We don’t want the viewer to just focus their emotion on one thing going on, but on the whole story in total. And by this telling them, you can already do a multi-sport event here as a preparation for the biggest multi-sport event of them all, the Olympic Games. Looking ahead to the European Games, our activations will focus on bringing both our national and international partners closer to Team D and creating meaningful moments of shared visibility. We see this as a strong opportunity to provide Team D with a platform through joint content formats that connect athletes, partners and audiences across borders. In doing so, we want to strengthen the relevance of Team D not only during major events, but throughout the entire journey leading up to them.”
From a BOA perspective, Istanbul 2027’s value spans both performance and commercial dimensions. Ellerton points to the 177-strong team sent to Kraków-Małopolska in 2023, with a larger contingent expected for Istanbul, as evidence of the European Games’ operational significance.
“It gives us another moment in time from which to talk about the team in a sporting context and actually representing Team GB, which doesn’t happen very often because of the nature of the Olympic Games. The European Games gives us a moment from which to do that,” he said.
The activation model in Istanbul, Ellerton confirmed, will mirror the Olympic Games with kit-outs with partner branding and content capture, athlete ambassador appearances, partner products in the village, and integrated storytelling across Team GB’s social platforms, which now reach nearly 4.5 million followers.
“Any moment Team GB are out performing – whether on the slopes or in the summer Games – it’s an important moment for our partners,” he added.
What the EOC Is Building
Underpinning these NOC-level strategies is a structural shift at the EOC itself. The appointment of PACE as the EOC’s exclusive marketing partner earlier this year is explicitly aimed at moving the European Games’ commercial proposition from visibility-led inventory to meaningful, value-driven partnerships.
Istanbul 2027 is positioned as part of a structured pathway from the European Youth Olympic Festivals, through the European Games to the Olympic Games, giving partners a clear route into the Olympic Movement with relevance at each stage.
The European Games demonstrates that Europe knows how to stage and commercialise sport in a way that delivers beyond the Games window.