Equiti Group has renewed and expanded its sponsorship of Al Wahda FC, securing front-of-shirt placement on the Abu Dhabi club’s first-team, reserve and goalkeeper kits for the 2026-27 season. The Equiti logo will appear alongside Lead Development, a leading Abu Dhabi property developer, on the club’s matchday and training kit.

The upgrade from a previous arrangement to a front-of-shirt position is a notable step up in brand real estate. Al Wahda competes across the ADNOC Pro League, the UAE President’s Cup, the ADIB Cup and the UAE-Qatar Challenge Cup, as well as the Under-23 Professional League, giving Equiti consistent exposure across a full domestic calendar.

The commercial case

Equiti frames the deal under its “Aim Higher” brand platform, which the group uses to signal values of discipline, ambition and continuous learning. Chantell Johnson, chief marketing officer at Equiti Group, said the partnership extends beyond a single season. “This club carries deep history in Abu Dhabi, and expanding our partnership with it is a contribution to this city’s story and support for its community,” she said.

Beyond the shirt itself, the agreement includes ten minutes of dedicated LED perimeter advertising at Al Nahyan Stadium on matchdays, three content windows on the stadium’s giant screen before kick-off and at half-time and full-time, branding on both dugout benches, 3D perimeter print, static boards across three public gates, and a dedicated Equiti Gate entrance. The brand will also appear in the club’s Wahda Mall retail store and on the club’s official online shop.

Fares Maktoum Al Mazrouei, chairman of Al Wahda FC, described the relationship as having evolved from a successful sponsorship into a strategic partnership built on shared ambition and mutual commitment to sport and community.

The agreement also revives the “Equiti Challenge” corporate tournament at Al Nahyan Stadium for a third edition. The second edition, held in February 2026, drew eight institutional teams including Abu Dhabi Police, the Department of Justice and the Department of Municipalities and Transport.

Market context

Sports sponsorship has become a mainstream brand-building channel for fintech and trading firms operating across the Gulf, where regulators including the DFSA in Dubai and ADGM in Abu Dhabi have built frameworks that attract internationally licensed firms seeking regional growth. Equiti holds licences in the UK, UAE and Cyprus and describes itself as active across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Several other multi-regulated trading and payments groups have pursued sports partnerships in the Gulf as a way to build retail and institutional brand recognition in markets where digital financial services adoption is expanding rapidly.

For Equiti, the visibility through Al Wahda’s reported audience of 70.1 million viewers across 760 hours of broadcast coverage last season, alongside 194.5 million social media impressions, positions the deal as a regional media play as much as a community one. The next milestone to watch is whether the group converts that awareness into measurable growth in its UAE retail and institutional trading books.

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