For all the billions spent chasing eyeballs online, the most valuable impression is still the one that hits when someone actually cares. And nothing triggers that emotional chaos like sport, the joy, the heartbreak, the VAR fury. It’s the original attention engine, argues MAD//Sports' Ben Phillips.

More and more advertisers are waking up to it. Sport isn’t a sponsorship line item anymore. It’s becoming a full-funnel strategy. In a world where cookies are disintegrating and attention spans are collapsing faster than a striker’s confidence after a sitter, sport remains the one place where emotion, community and commerce collide in real time. Broadcasters, brands and adtech aren’t just circling around sport now – they’re actively building with it.

We’ve basically turned the pitch into a DSP, and the fans have become the audience segment. 

Look at what’s happening. Programmatic overlays on live CTV. Retail-media triggers firing the moment a goal goes in. ITV, Sky and WBD testing dynamic ad insertion. Sportradar, Genius and others powering predictive insights that let brands buy not just airtime but actual moments. And retail media networks are watching closely, because where fan emotion spikes, intent isn’t far behind.

Meanwhile, the old sponsorship model has been quietly subbed off. A logo on a shirt is fine, but storytelling is what wins trophies now. Fans don’t want to be sold to. They want to be part of the narrative. Athletes have figured this out too.

They’re their own media owners, creators and publishers. Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t need your media plan – he is the media plan.

Rights-holders and agencies are adjusting quickly. Broadcast, digital, experiential – it’s all blending. The smart brands are mapping the whole fan journey: the anticipation, the watch party, the meme-fuelled aftermath. Measurement has evolved too. CPM matters, but attention, emotion and participation are the metrics everyone actually cares about.

And this is where it gets genuinely exciting. As adtech has matured, sport has become the one environment that still feels real. No one doom-scrolls through a penalty shootout. They feel it. They remember the sponsor, the moment, the context. If you can measure that – and we now can – you’re holding the holy grail. 

Timing-wise, we’re entering a dream run: the Euros, the Olympics, more women’s sport growth than ever, a World Cup on the horizon, and a streaming landscape that’s becoming richer (and messier) by the day. Layer on retail media and AI-powered personalisation and suddenly sport isn’t just a nice-to-have channel. It’s the place where brands can turn fandom into full-funnel performance.

If you’re still sitting on the sidelines wondering whether sport fits your strategy, it already does. Sport isn’t a media channel anymore. It’s culture at scale.

At MAD//Fest, we’re leaning into that energy. From the Clubhouse in Manchester to the Fanzone Garden in London, we’re bringing broadcasters, brands, data owners, athletes and sports innovators into the same space to shape what comes next. We keep it fun, but the commercial opportunity is very real.

MAD//Sports Manchester and London in 2026 are set to be our most vibrant, collaborative and commercially impactful events yet. We’re bringing together the people who are rewriting the playbook for sport, storytelling and brand experience and there’s real power in being in the room when that happens.

If you’d like to explore speaking, exhibiting or creating something special with us, feel free to contact me.

So bring your boots, your brief and your curiosity. The ad game is only just kicking off.