Red Bull sponsor Leeds United: Austrian energy drink's sporting investment explained amid Whites announcement

Leeds United are the latest sporting institution to join the ever-growing Red Bull network after confirmation of the brand’s investment on Thursday morning. The energy drink giants have taken a minority stake in the club and reached a ‘multi-year agreement’ to become the new front of shirt partner from next season.

The deal has been labelled as the biggest of its kind in English Football League history and will see the famous Red Bull logo replace current sponsor ‘BOXT’ on the Leeds shirt. The club have reiterated that neither the name nor logo of Leeds United Football Club will be changed amid concerns regarding Red Bull’s influence on other teams they hold a stake in.

Red Bull are best known for their energy drink but in recent years, the Austrian brand has branched out and now invests in a huge number of sporting teams and events including football, Formula 1 and ice hockey. Such is the level of investment that Red Bull is arguably the brand most synonymous with extreme sports across the globe.

Red Bull’s investment in sport began as a marketing exercise in the 1990s, with early focus on putting their name behind extreme sports such as cliff diving and rock climbing, sponsoring several world record attempts. They soon expanded to start their own events, with one of the most well-known being the Red Bull Soapbox race.

Their investment in sport is essentially a huge marketing scheme, allowing their world-famous brand logo to adorn shirts, cars, parachutes, surfboards and just about anything else for events which are watched by millions. They have also sponsored hundreds of individual athletes, often embarking on extreme events and record-breaking endeavours.

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The Austrian energy drink’s name is now slapped across a wide range of sports, with the most well-known being the Red Bull Formula 1 team, whose driver Max Verstappen has won the last three Driver’s Championships. They also own Visa Cash App RB - essentially a feeder for the main F1 team - and teams across skateboarding, sailing, surfing and much more. The majority of teams they invest in tend to be successful, with the advantage of large financial backing and a huge group of experts in multiple disciplines.

Leeds will be joining a five-team network of football clubs across the globe, albeit unlike the others, they are not owned by Red Bull with 49ers Enterprises still majority shareholders. The main three are RB Leipzig in Germany, RB Salzburg in Austria and MLS outfit New York Red Bulls but teams in Brazil and Ghana are also involved.

Through the former two specifically, there has been a path for which players can move between and that is something Leeds may hope to be involved with. A number of high-profile players have moved from Salzburg to Leipzig including Dayot Upamecano, Dominik Szoboszlai and Benjamin Sesko. Currently, there are no rules prohibiting transfers between associated clubs, although with multi-club ownership on the rise, there could be restrictions in the future.

Salzburg and Leipzig have also enjoyed unprecedented success since joining the Red Bull network and both are regularly involved in the Champions League, although there has been criticism over their commercialisation of football teams and decisions to make major changes to club names and kits. Leeds have stressed that no such changes will be made this time round and the government’s plan to introduce an independent regulator would block such changes without fan consultation.