Visma | Lease a Bike seeks new title sponsor for the next step
Visma | Lease a Bike is actively searching for a new title sponsor. Multiple sources within the team have confirmed this to WielerFlits. Visma will remain involved with the cycling team in the coming years, but it cannot (or will not) keep up with the financial arms race currently underway among the top teams. The Norwegian software company is likely to take a step back within the team.
Besides the oil money at UAE Emirates XRG, the budgets of Lidl-Trek, Red Bull BORA-hansgrohe, and Decathlon CMA CGM have explicitly increased over the past year. This is because the title sponsors of these teams have become (co-)owners of the squads. If Richard Plugge’s cycling team wants to continue competing at the absolute WorldTour elite level in the coming years, the budget will need to increase further. A rise in the cost of the title sponsorship is a logical consequence of that.
Team manager Richard Plugge has recently held several talks with multinationals showing interest in taking over the team’s title sponsorship.
With the assurance of major partners like Visma, PON, and Rabobank, the team’s future is by no means at risk. However, the team wants to remain in the WorldTour’s leading group and will need to seek an additional financial boost to achieve that.
Visma revised its sponsorship approach last year in preparation for a planned IPO in London. As a result, the marketing plan for the coming years will look different. This strategic shift clashes with the ambitions of the cycling team, which wants to continue investing to consistently rank among the top five in the WorldTour over the next five years. In this tension, it became clear that Visma cannot fully support the team’s next step.
However, last week a report appeared in the Financial Times stating that Visma may postpone its IPO. Poor performance of software companies on global stock markets is reportedly putting pressure on Visma’s valuation, which is owned by Hg Capital.
On January 1, 2024, Visma, like Lease a Bike, signed an open-ended contract with the cycling team. Since 2019, the Norwegian software company has been the team’s second title sponsor. Visma will thus remain involved with the team in the future, but no longer as the driving force behind further growth.
