Money spent on sponsorship deals are set to rise 4.9% this year, with most of the cash going on sports as it offers engaged, multi-screen audiences, according to data by the World Advertising Research Center (WARC).
The report further highlighted how brands and companies are set to spend $65.8bn on sponsorship deals in 2018 without being sure of the return on investment (ROI).
North America will receive the greatest share of sponsorship money from brands, with $24.2bn followed by Europe with $17.6bn, Asia-Pacific with $16.6bn, Latin America with $4.6bn and the Middle East and Africa with $2.8bn.
For example Facebook recently acquired £200m Premier League broadcast rights for south-east Asia in landmark move meanwhile, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, official sponsors got out an average of $25.8m each.
WARC surveyed 500 executives globally and found that 37 % of people have a standard way to measure the impact of sponsorship, with digital and social media analysis methods.