Infinite Athlete Brand Linked to Potential Chelsea Shirt Sponsorship
Chelsea’s hunt for a front-of-shirt sponsor is likely coming to an end just days before the start of the Premier League season. According to a person familiar with the deal, Infinite Athlete plans to take the place of mobile phone network Three, whose deal with Chelsea expired at the end of last season. The new sponsor might show up on Chelsea’s kit as early as Sunday, when the team faces Liverpool in the first match of the season, though the partnership is still pending league approval.
Infinite Athlete would also become the shirt sponsor for Chelsea FC’s women’s team.
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Throughout the preseason, Chelsea wore a shirt without a front sponsor as it looked for a new partner. The Premier League reportedly vetoed a potential deal with Paramount Plus over possible conflicts with the league’s broadcast partners. Chelsea later was said to have dropped talks with Stake.com following fan complaints, while an Allianz offer also reportedly went nowhere.
Financial terms or the length of the Infinite Athlete deal have not been announced. Three previously paid £40M ($51M) over (fittingly) three years.
Infinite Athlete is a new brand, formed earlier this month following sports tech startup Tempus Ex Machina’s acquisition of injury analytics outfit Biocore. Notably, Tempus Ex Machina signed a seven-year deal with Chelsea earlier this year and has already helped the club experiment with new forms of mobile broadcasts.
“Together with Biocore leadership, we created Infinite Athlete to bring key technologies together to improve all aspects of sports—the game, the athlete and the fan experience,” Infinite Athlete CEO Charlie Ebersol said in a statement at the time of the rebrand.
Ebersol founded Tempus Ex Machina along with fellow former Alliance of American Football executives Annie Gerhart, Mike Naquin and Erik Schwartz. In 2021, they raised a Series B Round from Silver Lake, Endeavor and others. The founders intended to build systems to help leagues like the NFL get more out of their player tracking and video workflows.
“Our fans deserve the best technology, and our partnership with Tempus Ex will provide many features they have never seen before,” Chelsea Football Club co-owner Todd Boehly said in a statement when the team announced that relationship. “We believe passionately in the opportunity we have with Tempus Ex to reshape parts of the fan experience.”
A representative for Infinite Athlete declined to comment. A Chelsea spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
“It is unheard of that a top-six side would still be in the market for their main partner only weeks away from the new season kicking off, dramatically reducing the strength of the negotiating position that the club has,” SBC sponsorship director George Harborne said in July. “A short-term deal could be their only solution.”
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