Sports Marketing Survey's World Sponsorship Monitor (TWSM) revealed the total value of sponsorship for the first half of 2005 was $4.8bn, up from $3.3bn for the same period in 2004.
William Fenton, editor of TWSM, attributes the boosted figures to increased monitoring in Asia and the raft of new global deals.
"Some of the increase is due to increased monitoring of deals activity by TWSM, especially in Asia, but a torrent of big Fifa, Olympic and NFL deals will certainly push the 2005 global total well over the $6.4bn recorded for the whole of 2004," Fenton said.
Increasing sports sponsorship deals is backed up with figures from Chicago-based IEG's forecast of further growth for all continents in 2005 and the views of the European Sponsorship Association.
At the moment, sports sponsorship accounts for around 80% of all sponsorship worldwide. Fenton attributes this to sport driving people's passion and enthusiasm, and marketers looking at new ways of talking to people besides the increasingly fragmented 30-second TV spot.
"Sports is a favourable medium to communicate to people with the fragmentation of the 30-second TV spot. The increasing popularity of sports sponsorship stems from the need for brands to speak to people in a way that they won't be ignored," he said.
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