Celsius lands deal as Major League Soccer's official energy drink

Celsius is set to be the official energy drink of Major League Soccer.

Credit: Illustration by Ad Age

Major League Soccer and Celsius are set to announce a partnership designating Celsius as the official energy drink of the MLS.

The deal, which goes through the 2026 season, marks the first national sports partnership for Celsius, the upstart energy drink that markets itself as a health and fitness brand. It comes as soccer’s popularity surges in the U.S. behind Lionel Messi’s arrival with the MLS club Inter Miami, and upcoming competitions to be held in the U.S. including Copa America in 2024, the Club World Cup in 2025 and the World Cup in 2026.

The deal will allow Celsius to tap into the MLS’ young and diverse fan base while creating experiences that focus on healthy lifestyles, John Fieldly, president and CEO of Celsius Holdings Inc., said in an interview. Fieldly said the prospect of a national marketing deal made sense now that Celsius has expanded its availability through a distribution partnership with PepsiCo.

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“We’ve been looking for a national partnership, especially coming up on our one-year anniversary of Pepsi as our distribution partner, and gaining broad distribution,” Fieldly said. “We really needed a national partnership that touches multiple metropolitan cities throughout the U.S.”

Pepsi invested $550 million in Celsius concurrent with the distribution deal last August, in exchange for a board seat and convertible stock shares equal to 8.5% ownership in Celsius.

Celsius and MLS make a good demographic fit, with both brands resonating with Gen Z and women, Fieldly said. MLS boasts of having the youngest and most diverse fan base of U.S. major sports, with an average age of 37.4 years. Gen Z and millennial fans make up 67% of the MLS base and 31% of the league’s fans are Hispanic. Fandom among women grew by 42% last year, according to the league.

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As part of the deal, Celsius will become the presenting partner of extra time in MLS, or the minutes of extra play following regulation at the end of the first and second halves. In extra time, Celsius branding will be featured on field-level LED boards and boards that denote the designated minutes of extra time as well as player substitutions.

“Everyone needs that extra energy boost, and that’s when you’re going to need it,” Fieldly said of extra time.

Celsius earlier this year reached an agreement to be the official energy drink of the MLS’ Inter Miami team, months before Inter Miami acquired the services of Messi. (Another MLS team, the New York Red Bulls, has been owned by Red Bull, the energy drink company, since 2006.) 

The MLS deal is Celsius’ latest sports-related marketing. It has separately sponsored the Professional Fighting League and did a partnership with the Ferrari team of Formula 1.

In addition to in-game signage, Celsius will have integration within MLS matches on Apple TV, consumer experiences and brand activations at select matches and MLS events. “We’re working on a variety of programs to leverage [the partnership] at retail as well as experiential activations at the MLS stadiums,” Fieldly said.

Celsius’ second-quarter sales jumped 112% to $326 million, it reported earlier this month. Celsius is the No. 3 energy drink behind Red Bull and Monster Energy in the U.S., with market share growing from 4.3% to 8.6% for the four weeks ended June 18, company execs said, citing IRI Spins data.

“Major League Soccer is thrilled to partner with an innovative, growing brand like Celsius,” Carter Ladd, executive VP, brand alliances and consumer products for MLS, said in a statement. “Whether cheering inside the stadium for 90 minutes during our matches or staying energized daily, Celsius is a great partner to support the active lifestyle of our league’s diverse fan base.”

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Jon Springer covers sports marketing and beverage marketing. He formerly covered the food retail industry for Winsight and Supermarket News, and is a former sports and features writer for The Cecil Whig, a daily newspaper in Elkton, Maryland.