In sports sponsorship, it's easy to tell the story backwards. "The club acquired a sponsor, and the company's logo appeared on the front of the first team's jersey." Sounds good. There are specifics, a prestigious benefit, and a result that can be shown in a photo. However, the most interesting things in sponsorship usually happen much earlier – long before the logo lands on the jersey. That was also the case with the cooperation between Polonia Bytom and Royal Bilard&Dart.
In recent weeks, the team from Bytom announced the signing of an agreement under which the logo of Royal Bilard&Dart appeared on the front of the first team's jerseys competing in the football Betclic 1. Liga. For Polonia, this is an important moment. After many years, a sponsor's brand has appeared in one of the most prestigious spots on the first team's jersey. But the agreement itself is only the finale of a much more interesting story.
It started completely differently
Royal Bilard&Dart is one of the largest facilities of its kind in Poland. The company operates
in Bytom, but its history with the city is relatively short. Interestingly, the owners and originators of the project do not come from Bytom. Mieszko Fortuński and Konrad Juszczyszyn are connected with Lubin, and above all with professional sport – both have European Championship titles in pool billiards to their name.
It was sport that was one of the first natural touchpoints with Polonia. However, it wasn't about a huge sponsorship package from the very beginning. The first conversations were much more informal. An idea emerged to cooperate during individual events, including in the form of a match sponsor, and it was at this stage that something happened that is of immense importance in sponsorship sales.
Instead of trying to sell a ready-made package right away, the club entered into discussions about the needs of the other party.
First, they had to get to know Bytom
The cooperation had another interesting dimension. Although Royal Bilard&Dart operates in Bytom, its owners did not previously have strong ties with the city. They did not know the local business environment, its specifics, or all the opportunities offered by operating in this context. Here, partly, appeared the role of Polonia, which in this relationship was not merely the owner of advertising space. The club also began to serve as a kind of guide to the local environment.
The talks were not only about where the Royal Bilard&Dart logo could appear, but above all about who makes up Polonia's business environment, how the club community functions, and what relationships can be built thanks to it. This was the moment when the conversation about sponsorship began to change its character.
The sponsor didn't just want exposure
Royal Bilard&Dart relatively quickly specified what it needed most. It was not primarily about simply increasing brand awareness. The most important goal was to reach entrepreneurs and companies associated with the Polonia environment and encourage them to use the Royal Bilard&Dart facility – especially for organizing corporate events.
If the sponsor's goal is to sell services, then the number of logo impressions alone is not enough. The sponsor must have the opportunity to translate their presence with the club into concrete relationships, contacts, and business actions. In this case, the answer was relatively natural: since Polonia brings together the local business community around it, and Royal has a large venue suited for organizing events, these two worlds could be combined. Then sponsorship stopped being just a matter of exposure. It started being a tool for building the sponsor's business.
From match sponsor to front-of-jersey package
The road to the final agreement was not straightforward. First came the opportunity to cooperate during single events. Later, organizing corporate events at Royal Bilard&Dart was proposed. Over time, it turned out that there were significantly more possibilities for cooperation. Thus, an offer for a much higher sponsorship package than originally planned appeared on the table – primarily including brand presence on the front of the first team's jersey.
– We are very pleased to enter into such a broad cooperation with Royal Bilard&Dart. We have placed immense trust in each other. This is a very important moment for the company's operation and clear proof of the direction we are heading in. We believe that the cooperation will bring huge benefits to both sides – says Sławomir Kamiński, President of the Management Board of Bytomski Sport Polonia Bytom.
It is at this level that the broader significance of the contract is also visible. The front of the first team's jersey had for years remained a spot in Polonia that was difficult to utilize within a major business partnership. Therefore, signing the agreement with Royal Bilard&Dart is not merely another sponsorship contract, but also a signal of a shift in mindset regarding the club's commercialization.
– This project was important to us not only because of the contract value itself or the exposure on the front of the jersey. In Polonia, we had long lacked a partner in that exact spot, and we wanted to break a certain pattern where sponsorship talks end with a single advertising benefit. Here, we managed to build something much broader. We showed that in Bytom we can build business cooperation differently – starting from the partner's needs, through relationships, all the way to a truly major partnership – says Rafał Rymarz, Director of Marketing and Sales at Bytomski Sport Polonia Bytom.
It is against this backdrop that it is worth looking at the sales process itself that led to the agreement.
– The beginnings of communication with Royal Bilard&Dart are a very good example for me that sponsorship shouldn't start with selling a specific benefit. Initially, we spoke completely differently. There was no assumption that Royal would become a sponsor with its logo on the front of the jersey. We started with a casual conversation about what we could do together, later the topic of corporate events came up, and only then did we start building a larger concept for cooperation – says Rafał Jabłoński, Business Sales Specialist at Polonia Bytom.
– For me, the key was understanding that Royal didn't need exposure alone. The company wants to attract business clients and organize events for them. If the club has a business community around it, then our job is to show the sponsor how to realistically use that environment. Then the conversation stops being a price negotiation for a logo and becomes a conversation about the value of the entire partnership.
Ultimately, the parties reached an agreement on the highest package – which is why the logo of a company associated with the world of billiards ended up on the front of Polonia Bytom's jersey.
Two disciplines, one language
In this story, there is another element worth emphasizing in particular. Mieszko Fortuński and Konrad Juszczyszyn are professional athletes and European champions in pool billiards.
Polonia Bytom, on the other hand, is a club with great football traditions. Two different disciplines, different environments, different specifics of competition, yet a very similar language. This shows that professional sport can be for one another not only competition for fan or sponsor attention, but also a platform for building relationships and cooperation between different disciplines.
The owners of Royal Bilard&Dart know sport from the competitor's perspective. Polonia knows it from the side of the club, the fans, and a professional team competing at a national level. These experiences can complement each other.
What does this mean for other clubs?
This example is obviously specific, but several universal conclusions can be drawn from it.
First – one should not assume that the sponsor knows what the club's business environment needs. A company may have a great product and a great facility, but not know the local market. The club can help it understand where potential business value lies.
Second – it's worth asking the sponsor about their goal before presenting benefits. In the case of Royal Bilard&Dart, the main goal was not simply "being visible". It was acquiring business clients and organizing corporate events. Only by knowing this goal was it possible to propose a suitable cooperation structure.
Third – there is no reason to fear taking the conversation
in an unexpected direction. A match sponsor does not have to remain just a match sponsor. A one-off activation can lead to a business event. An event can lead to broader cooperation, which in turn can result in the largest sponsorship package. The condition, however, is that along the way, both sides see sense in taking the next step.
Fourth – sponsorship shouldn't end the moment the agreement is signed.
In the case of Royal Bilard&Dart, the biggest test will not be the logo appearance on the jersey alone. It will be whether, thanks to the cooperation, more entrepreneurs connected with Polonia's environment start coming to Royal, whether new corporate events take place, and whether both sides actually realize the potential written into the contract. It is then that it will become clear whether sponsorship was merely a purchase of exposure or truly an investment in a business relationship.
For Royal Bilard&Dart, this is an entry into a new business environment.
– From the beginning of our operations, we wanted to support local initiatives and be part of the Bytom community, which is why working with such a distinguished club is a natural step for us. A special source of pride for us is placing the Royal Bilard&Dart logo on the front of the match jerseys – emphasizes Konrad Juszczyszyn, member of the Management Board of Royal Bilard Sp. z o.o.
An unexpected finale
Perhaps this is what is most interesting about this story. When Polonia representatives started talks, it was hard to predict that they would end up in this exact place. The key was establishing what could be done together. Then came the specific business goal of the company, followed by the way Polonia could help realize that goal,
and only at the end came the largest sponsorship package.
This story shows that the best sponsorship agreements often do not start with the question "how much does a logo on a jersey cost?", but rather "what can we do together that neither party could achieve as well on its own?".
In the case of Polonia Bytom and Royal Bilard&Dart, the answer is just beginning to be written. The logo is already on the jersey; now it's time to see how much value can be built around it.
