Summary
Hot categories include …
Brands To Watch include …
Hidden Market reveals changes for …
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Covered in this article
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Hot Categories
Your weekly rank of the fastest growing / most active categories in sponsorship.
Hot Categories
Restaurants rank #7 for category temperature, with 25 movements across 20 brands in the past 90 days, including eight new deals and eight renewals. There are early signs of fragmentation, with more localised partnerships stealing share from the big QSR players:
Chicken Treat x Perth Glory - returning Principal Partner this week
Balfours Bakery x Adelaide 36ers - new in September, through 2028
Goldie’s Tavern x Brisbane Bullets - new in September
Beverly x Melbourne Racing Club - new in September
Barnacle Bill x Adelaide 36ers - renewal in August
Guzman y Gomez x Brisbane Roar - renewal in August
KFC x Penrith Panthers - renewal in August, through 2028
KFC x Queensland Cricket - renewal in July, through 2029
KFC x Hawthorn - renewal in June, through 2031
Expiries for McDonald’s, Garlo’s Pies, Zambrero & Balfours Bakery
Other categories that climbed the ranks based on recent activity include:
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About Hot Categories: Scout’s Category Temperature Score is an index based on recent growth and activity (accounting for changes in both number of deals and approx. spend). *Currently under re-calibration to capture short and long-term signals.
See the full rankings in the Scout Pro Dashboard, and check out recent articles for overviews of other hot categories.
Brands To Watch
Key brand movements this week, and what it means for future activity.
Binance
Why: Binance was added as an Official Partner of Melbourne Storm this week (detected via Scout’s Hidden Market Tracking). It follows its publicly announced match-day partnership for Storm’s Perth fixture.
Context: Binance, the world’s largest Crypto exchange by trading volume, was previously absent from the Australian sponsorship market, first reported by Scout in March 2025. Crypto has been a hot category recently, with tension driven by:
CoinSpot re-committing to Western Bulldogs
Swyftx major Rugby push in 2026
Crypto.com’s AFL partnership yet to be announced beyond 2026
Cointree exit from Storm
So what: The move from match day partner to an official partnership likely signals a more sustained push into Australian sponsorship by the global exchange.
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Scout tracks all sports organisation websites on a weekly basis, giving Pro users first-mover advantage with intel from the hidden sponsorship market:
All New & Renewed Sponsorships (public announcements + via Scout hidden market, new entrants in Green):
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Recent Expiries (detected by Scout after sponsor removed from website):
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