Brands activating athlete marketing campaigns are generating more than twice the engagement of those working with traditional influencers, according to new proprietary data from OpenSponsorship, an athlete marketing platform that reports brokering more than 9,000 deals since its 2015 launch.
The company’s “2026 State of Athlete and Influencer Marketing” report, published in April, draws on analysis of nearly 15 million pieces of creator content and a decade of deal data. The findings document a widening performance gap between athlete partners and conventional social media influencers, as well as an expansion in the types of creators brands are willing to fund.
Athletes on the OpenSponsorship platform averaged 10.97% engagement across content, compared to 4.92% for traditional influencers. The company attributes the gap to what it describes as “earned trust,” arguing that athletes build communities through public competition before monetizing that audience. The report states that 75% of consumers trust athletes more than celebrities, and 87% say they are more likely to make a purchase following an athlete endorsement. The report also records a 7x return on ad spend when brands use athlete content in paid placements, with $5.78 in media value generated per dollar invested.
“The brands winning in Influencer Marketing in 2026 are not the ones with the biggest budgets,” said OpenSponsorship founder and CEO Ishveen Jolly. “They are the ones asking better questions.”
Engagement Rate Methodology Under Scrutiny
The report challenges a core metric in Influencer Marketing: average account engagement rate. After analyzing 14.9 million posts, OpenSponsorship found that a creator’s topic-specific engagement rate can exceed their overall average by a factor of four or more.
The report illustrates the point with a hypothetical comparison. A creator with a 4% average engagement rate would typically win a brand evaluation over a creator averaging 1%. But if the second creator regularly publishes content on a specific health topic and generates 6% engagement on those particular posts, the raw account average obscures what would be the more effective partnership for a brand operating in that category.
“The creators that are perfect for your brand may be hiding behind unremarkable averages,” Jolly said.
The company recommends that brands request post-level engagement data filtered by topic, rather than relying on account averages when shortlisting creator partners.
One of the report’s most pronounced trends is the growth of non-athlete creator partnerships. Deals with non-athlete creators on the platform grew 7x between 2024 and 2025, reflecting what OpenSponsorship describes as a broadening in how brands define a valuable creator partner.
Health and wellness creators represent the fastest-growing non-sport category on the platform in 2026. The report specifically highlights women over 40 producing content about menopause, hormonal health, and longevity as a segment generating outsized engagement with purchase-ready audiences. Podcast partnerships and niche lifestyle creators are also increasing in volume.
Female athletes account for 75% of all deals on the platform, with track & field and golf leading among female athlete partnerships by deal volume. The report identifies marathon runners as the breakout athlete category of 2026, noting that the sport attracts health-conscious, high-income audiences.
Average deal size doubled year over year, from approximately $2,500 in 2024 to $5,147 in 2025, a shift the company ties to larger incoming budgets and a move from self-service to managed campaign models. The average number of social posts included per deal also rose, from 2.9 to 3.5, a 20% increase.
The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) market has contributed to the expansion of available talent. OpenSponsorship notes that college athletes consistently outperform expectations despite limited content infrastructure, citing authentic enthusiasm and highly engaged fan bases as the primary drivers. Brands, including Vitamin Shoppe, have activated more than 120 college athletes simultaneously to generate content at scale.
The 2026 sports calendar adds further commercial context. The FIFA World Cup, spanning the United States, Canada, and Mexico, represents the largest edition of the tournament with 48 participating teams. The Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina has also driven record brand investment. The global sports sponsorship market was valued at $97 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $108 billion by 2030, according to the report.
Image source: OpenSponsorship The full report is available here
Cecilia Carloni, Interview Manager at Influence Weekly and writer for NetInfluencer. Coming from beautiful Argentina, Ceci has spent years chatting with big names in the influencer world, making friends and learning insider info along the way. When she’s not deep in interviews or writing, she's enjoying life with her two daughters. Ceci’s stories give a peek behind the curtain of influencer life, sharing the real and interesting tales from her many conversations with movers and shakers in the space.
Brands activating athlete marketing campaigns are generating more than twice the engagement of those working with traditional influencers, according to new proprietary data from OpenSponsorship, an athlete marketing platform that reports brokering more than 9,000 deals since its 2015 launch.
The company’s “2026 State of Athlete and Influencer Marketing” report, published in April, draws on analysis of nearly 15 million pieces of creator content and a decade of deal data. The findings document a widening performance gap between athlete partners and conventional social media influencers, as well as an expansion in the types of creators brands are willing to fund.
Athletes on the OpenSponsorship platform averaged 10.97% engagement across content, compared to 4.92% for traditional influencers. The company attributes the gap to what it describes as “earned trust,” arguing that athletes build communities through public competition before monetizing that audience. The report states that 75% of consumers trust athletes more than celebrities, and 87% say they are more likely to make a purchase following an athlete endorsement. The report also records a 7x return on ad spend when brands use athlete content in paid placements, with $5.78 in media value generated per dollar invested.
“The brands winning in Influencer Marketing in 2026 are not the ones with the biggest budgets,” said OpenSponsorship founder and CEO Ishveen Jolly. “They are the ones asking better questions.”
Engagement Rate Methodology Under Scrutiny
The report challenges a core metric in Influencer Marketing: average account engagement rate. After analyzing 14.9 million posts, OpenSponsorship found that a creator’s topic-specific engagement rate can exceed their overall average by a factor of four or more.
The report illustrates the point with a hypothetical comparison. A creator with a 4% average engagement rate would typically win a brand evaluation over a creator averaging 1%. But if the second creator regularly publishes content on a specific health topic and generates 6% engagement on those particular posts, the raw account average obscures what would be the more effective partnership for a brand operating in that category.
“The creators that are perfect for your brand may be hiding behind unremarkable averages,” Jolly said.
The company recommends that brands request post-level engagement data filtered by topic, rather than relying on account averages when shortlisting creator partners.
Non-Athlete Deals Surge, Female Athletes Dominate Volume
One of the report’s most pronounced trends is the growth of non-athlete creator partnerships. Deals with non-athlete creators on the platform grew 7x between 2024 and 2025, reflecting what OpenSponsorship describes as a broadening in how brands define a valuable creator partner.
Health and wellness creators represent the fastest-growing non-sport category on the platform in 2026. The report specifically highlights women over 40 producing content about menopause, hormonal health, and longevity as a segment generating outsized engagement with purchase-ready audiences. Podcast partnerships and niche lifestyle creators are also increasing in volume.
Female athletes account for 75% of all deals on the platform, with track & field and golf leading among female athlete partnerships by deal volume. The report identifies marathon runners as the breakout athlete category of 2026, noting that the sport attracts health-conscious, high-income audiences.
Average deal size doubled year over year, from approximately $2,500 in 2024 to $5,147 in 2025, a shift the company ties to larger incoming budgets and a move from self-service to managed campaign models. The average number of social posts included per deal also rose, from 2.9 to 3.5, a 20% increase.
The Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) market has contributed to the expansion of available talent. OpenSponsorship notes that college athletes consistently outperform expectations despite limited content infrastructure, citing authentic enthusiasm and highly engaged fan bases as the primary drivers. Brands, including Vitamin Shoppe, have activated more than 120 college athletes simultaneously to generate content at scale.
The 2026 sports calendar adds further commercial context. The FIFA World Cup, spanning the United States, Canada, and Mexico, represents the largest edition of the tournament with 48 participating teams. The Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina has also driven record brand investment. The global sports sponsorship market was valued at $97 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $108 billion by 2030, according to the report.
Image source: OpenSponsorship
The full report is available here
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