The WWE revealed on Friday night a logo for Prime Hydration, the sports drink founded by YouTube star and frequent WWE collaborator Logan Paul, as its first sponsor to appear on its wrestling mats. A WWE spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that the logo would appear at future tentpole WWE events, including WrestleMania and Money in the Bank, and that executives are also shopping around sponsorship deals for other places on the mat.
The agreement with Prime Hydration is for two years at an eight-figure cost, which WWE says marks the largest sponsorship in the organization’s history. It’s also the latest move the WWE has taken from the playbook of UFC since partnering with that outfit last fall to form the TKO Group. Prime became the official drink of UFC in January 2023, and the fighting league has long plastered sponsor logos all over its Octagon.
According to company earnings reports, UFC brought in $48.3 million in sponsorship revenue during the 2023 fourth quarter, compared to just $15.4 million by WWE in the same time period. That’s despite WWE outearning UFC by $44 million in media rights deals and content sales.
The new mat sponsorships aligns with a growing ad trend as sports executives push where they can sell sponsorship space. In 2017 the NBA added on-jersey sponsors in the form of a patch, and MLB followed in ’23. In the NFL, sponsor patches are commonplace on practice jerseys, and UFC fighters have had logos on their shorts for years.
