OpenSponsorship Analyzed 14.9 Million Posts and Found Brands Are Measuring Influencer Marketing All Wrong

NEW YORK, NY -- OpenSponsorship, the world's largest athlete marketing platform backed by Serena Williams and David Blitzer, today released its 2026 State of Athlete and Influencer Marketing Report, drawing on a decade of deal data and analysis of more than 14.9 million pieces of creator content to give brand marketers a data-driven picture of what is actually working in influencer marketing this year.
The report reveals a significant commercial shift in the athlete marketing space. The average deal size on the OpenSponsorship platform grew from approximately $2,500 in 2024 to $5,147 in 2025, a 100% year-over-year increase, reflecting growing brand confidence in managed athlete partnerships and the expansion of the creator mix beyond traditional sport.

Athletes Continue to Outperform Traditional Influencers by a Widening Margin
OpenSponsorship's platform data, drawn from 14.9 million posts, shows athlete creators averaging 10.97% engagement across social platforms, compared to 4.92% for traditional influencers. That gap, driven by the earned trust and authentic community that athletes build through visible public performance, is widening rather than narrowing as brands allocate more budget to sports and creator marketing heading into the FIFA World Cup summer.

The Industry Is Measuring the Wrong Thing
One of the report's most significant findings is that average engagement rate, the metric most brands use to evaluate potential creator partners, is a poor predictor of campaign success. After analyzing 14.9 million posts, OpenSponsorship found that the variance between a creator's average engagement rate and their topic-specific engagement rate can be 4x or higher. A creator averaging 1% engagement across their account may hit 6% or more on posts about topics their audience genuinely cares about.

"Brands are spending millions of dollars selecting influencer partners based on average engagement rate, and it is one of the most misleading metrics in marketing. We have analyzed 14.9 million pieces of content and the data is clear: the creator who looks unremarkable on paper may be the perfect fit for your brand. And the one who looks impressive on average may completely underperform on the topics you care about. The industry needs to move from account-level averages to post-level intelligence, and the technology to do that exists right now."
-- Ishveen Jolly, Founder and CEO, OpenSponsorship

Key Findings From the 2026 Report
The report also identifies several significant trends shaping the athlete and influencer marketing landscape in 2026:

• Non-athlete deals on the platform grew 7x between 2024 and 2025, as brands expanded their creator rosters to include podcasters, wellness influencers, lifestyle creators, and NIL college athletes alongside professional athletes.
• Female athletes now account for 75% of deals on the platform, with Track and Field and Golf leading by volume and Marathon runners emerging as the fastest-growing category for 2026.
• Health and Wellness is the fastest-growing non-sport creator category, driven by brands targeting women over 40 posting about menopause, hormonal health, and longevity, a demographic that consistently outperforms engagement benchmarks.
• The average number of social posts per deal grew from 2.9 to 3.5 year over year, a 20% increase reflecting deeper creator engagement and more robust campaign execution across the platform.
• The average deal size doubled from approximately $2,500 in 2024 to $5,147 in 2025, signaling that brands are investing more deeply in managed athlete partnerships and seeing the returns to justify it.

2026: The Biggest Sports Marketing Year in a Generation
The report identifies 2026 as a pivotal year for brand investment in sports, with the FIFA World Cup coming to North America, continued explosive growth in women's sports, and the ongoing maturation of the NIL market creating a convergence of commercial opportunities that brands have not seen before.

"The brands that are building their athlete and creator rosters now will have a significant advantage over those who wait. The World Cup alone represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to connect with passionate, highly engaged audiences across 48 nations. Combined with the growth in women's sports and the NIL era opening up thousands of college athletes as brand partners, 2026 is the year that sports marketing becomes a must-have for serious brands, not a nice-to-have."
-- Ishveen Jolly, Founder and CEO, OpenSponsorship

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About OpenSponsorship
OpenSponsorship is the world's largest athlete marketing platform, connecting 25,000+ athletes and creators with brands across 160 sports and 120 countries. Launched in 2015, the company has brokered over 9,000 accepted deals and 8,000+ successful brand-creator matches, giving it the largest proprietary dataset in athlete marketing. OpenSponsorship became profitable in 2024 and had its best year on record in 2025, growing revenue by 200% year-over-year. Ishveen Jolly (backed by investors Serena Williams and David Blitzer) is the Founder and CEO of OpenSponsorship, winner of SBJ Game Changer 2025 and Forbes 30 Under 30.

The 2026 State of Athlete and Influencer Marketing Report is available at opensponsorship.com.

This release was published on openPR.