Non-Alcoholic Drinks & Sport Sponsorship: The Rise Explained

There’s has been a boom in the health, nutrition and fitness industries in the past few years. Combined with societal factors, this has resulted in consumers, and particularly younger ones, drinking less alcohol.

Ampere’s sponsorship consumer data shows that nearly a third of internet users aged 18 to 64 are planning to buy non-alcoholic drinks in the next 12 months, with 71 per cent of this audience planning to purchase non-alcoholic beer and 64 per cent spirits or wine. The trend is most evident in markets such as India and Poland, which have the highest proportion of internet users planning to buy these drinks, but consumers in countries such as Spain, Italy, Sweden and the UK also over-index against the average, making these markets particularly key for brands in this sector.

Demographically, the data highlights the younger audience’s greater propensity to buy in this category. Across all markets, consumers aged 18 to 44 are the most likely to do so, with over a third of 25 to 34-year-olds saying they are planning to buy no/low-alcoholic (NOLA) drinks. Beer is the most likely purchase across the 18 to 44s, with spirits and wine being most appealing to the 25 to 34 cohort.

Which sponsorships suit the non-alcoholic drinks category?

Those planning to purchase NOLA drinks have varied interests, which means that there are multiple opportunities for brands looking to connect with these audiences. They are most passionate about sport, with 89 per cent saying they enjoy watching it on TV or online and 74 cent participating in sport or exercise at least once a week. The latter opens the door for no/low-alcoholic drinks brands to get involved in fitness trends and events which are growing in popularity, such as Hyrox, marathons, padel or running clubs, and lean into the ‘social, but healthy’ messaging.

Away from sport, purchasers of the NOLA category also engage regularly with arts & culture: 72 per cent have visited a historical building and 70 per cent have visited a museum/art gallery or been to a food festival in the past year. While arts and culture as a sector can’t compete with live sport on reach, it does provide the ability for NOLA brands to enter more targeted or localised partnerships and activations, as well as accessing generally wealthier consumers.

This breadth of interest opens up myriad opportunities for NOLA brands, thereby making it harder for rights holders to stand out to sponsors in this category.

However, if a NOLA brand’s primary aims are reach and brand awareness – which given how new the category is will be a key driver – then sport is the vertical which will deliver against those objectives.

If we look at all markets surveyed by Ampere, football (soccer) is the most popular sport, even in North America, with the younger audience skew of NOLA drinkers pushing the game to the top – although basketball is a close second in the region overall. This highlights the opportunity for football leagues and teams globally to tap into this burgeoning category.

The opportunity within football becomes even more evident when you start looking at the competitions which NOLA drinkers enjoy watching. In all regions except North America, football competitions are the top three watched by NOLA consumers. The men’s Fifa World Cup, men’s Uefa Champions League and England’s Premier League appear multiple times.

While the World Cup features in North America, there is also high interest in both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL). This means that this category should be high on the hitlist for those leagues and their teams. In addition, beer brands which already have partnerships within these leagues should be looking to leverage their NOLA brands if they aren’t doing so already. All of the competitions clearly have an audience that is receptive to that sector.

What does this mean for rights holders?

More NOLA brands are starting to lean into sports sponsorship, while established brewers are also leveraging it as an awareness builder and a means to get around alcohol advertising regulation.

On a global scale, AB InBev’s Corona Cero became the first non-alcoholic beer partner of the Olympic Games ahead of Paris 2024, while Heineken has been using its Uefa Europa League sponsorship to promote its 0% beer since 2020. In participation sports, UK brand Lucky Saint is a partner of the Hackney Half Marathon, while Athletic Brewing Company signed a deal with Ironman in October 2025.

As the health and wellbeing sector continues to grow, healthy food and drink alternatives will also grow in popularity, particularly among younger audiences who are, on the whole, choosing a healthier lifestyle.

For established brands, this offers the ability to innovate and create new products that sit alongside alcoholic drinks, expanding their potential addressable audience. For new brands, it is an opportunity to disrupt a category which hasn’t been shaken up for a while.

Sport, then, offers a significant opportunity to the emerging NOLA market, whether the objective is increasing brand awareness via bigger competitions or community engagement through marathons or running clubs. For rights holders in this space, the time is now to capitalise on this consumer trend and build a more inclusive space for the growing number of young sports fans who choose not to drink alcohol.