Robinhood has signed its first European soccer sponsorship deal, a three-year contract with French club Nice that puts the company’s name on the front of the men’s and women’s kits.
The agreement coincides with Robinhood launching tokenized U.S. stock and cryptocurrency trading in the EU this week. Robinhood shares surged more than 10% on the European expansion news Monday and are up about 135% since the start of 2025.
Robinhood has leaned heavily on team sponsorships as a marketing tool in the U.S., signing jersey patch agreements with the Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat and Washington Wizards. This marks a globalization of the strategy and represents of the company’s first major advertising tie-ups with any European entity.
“One of our key things is to meet our customers where they are and doing what they enjoy doing,” Johann Kerbrat, senior vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said in a video interview. “Sports in general is something that our customers are really excited about.”
Financial terms of the Nice partnership were not disclosed. Klutch helped facilitate the pact, as it has for Robinhood’s major U.S. sports sponsorships.
Beyond sponsorships, Robinhood has recently embraced sports through prediction markets in the U.S., but event futures contract trading is not part of Robinhood’s initial European launch.
Kerbrat said France’s status as a financial technology hub inspired Robinhood’s interest in a Ligue 1 partner over teams from other European countries. “It’s going to be important to continue expanding there,” he said.
Ligue 1 clubs, meanwhile, are eager for commercial agreements given concerns over domestic broadcast money drying up following DAZN’s early rights opt-out.
And it doesn’t hurt that Kerbrat calls Nice his hometown. “Football in France is big,” he said, adding with a smile of his preferred national team, “We’ve won the World Cup a couple of times.”
The Nice men’s squad is a regular in the top half of Ligue 1, finishing in the top 10 every campaign starting in 2015-16, though never higher than third.
Nice’s fourth-place finish in 2024-25 clinched a place in the coming season’s Champions League qualifying round. The prospect of reaching the marquee tournament provided added commercial appeal to Robinhood.
The Ineos-owned club’s women’s team is in the second division of French soccer.
