'Six clubs’ - Red Bull plan expansion in English market as hidden benefit of Leeds United partnership revealed
Leeds United's minority owners Red Bull plan to make further inroads into English football by striking a further three commercial partnerships with clubs.
Red Bull have already signed commercial deals this summer with Everton and Newcastle United to become official energy drink partner of those clubs, but are planning more partnerships, according to Leeds chief executive Angus Kinnear.
Speaking on The Square Ball Podcast, the Elland Road boardroom figure outlined the soft drink giant's plan to branch out and sponsor more teams in England, however it is highly unlikely they will enter into another agreement which includes an equity option, as is the case with Leeds.
Red Bull own a 'significant' minority portion of the Elland Road club, said to be around 10 per cent after striking a deal with 49ers Enterprises this summer that saw the company become principal front-of-shirt sponsors, as well as minority shareholders.
Their agreements with Newcastle and Everton, meanwhile, are purely commercial and not related to club ownership.
Nevertheless, Red Bull intend to delve into the English market further, Kinnear says, if only from a commercial and brand awareness perspective.
"Over the last couple of weeks you'll have seen Red Bull announce more traditional sponsorship deals and I think they're going to end up with six clubs.
"We're very proud that they chose Leeds United to be the first of those because this is, although it has an ownership stake in it, this is about driving the brand awareness through football in a market they haven't been in historically.
"The values of the deal are absolutely transformational from a commercial perspective. We're not going to publish the values but they're a multiple of what we would have expected otherwise - it's a really high level of commitment.
In addition, the Leeds CEO believes their lucrative Red Bull deal will help the club in attaining better sponsorship deals with their current commercial partners and when striking future deals, which stands to benefit United from a financial standpoint.
"They're a fantastic brand already very active in the sports space so it's raised the bar for our other [commercial] partners and how aspirational we are to our other partners," Kinnear added.