Barcelona’s ‘small’ database of fans could cost the club millions in sponsorship deal

With Barcelona’s sponsorship agreement Rakuten set to come to an end this season, the Catalan giants have been on the search for a new main sponsor.

Spotify have emerged as the favourites to join forces with the Blaugrana in a multimillion deal worth €280 million, with an agreement close to being finalised.

The Swedish music streaming giants will see their name and logo appear on the front of the Barcelona shirts as well as the back of the training kits. Apart from that, Spotify and Barça are also working on finalising a deal for the naming rights of Camp Nou.

The deal is certainly lucrative for the club, given the current economic situation. However, as per a report from SPORT, it could have been much more financially beneficial for Barça.

When Spotify initially approached Barcelona, they made enquiries about the club’s fan database. The soon-to-be sponsors wanted to know the number of ‘registered’ fans, i.e., the supporters who had given consent for the club to use their names, email, phone number and other personal information.

And the number is believed to have left them disappointed. Barcelona is a club with a massive fan following across the globe, with over 350 million followers supporting the Blaugrana. However, out of that, just 1% of the fans, approximately around 3 million, are ‘registered’.

This is believed to have affected the valuation of the deal with Spotify. The report states that in case the number of fans who had consented to the sharing of their personal data was higher, Barça would have stood to gain much more financially from the sponsorship deal.