MUMBAI: The value of the marketing rights for the 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa is set to take a further leap to reach close to €3 billion.

This compares with about €1.9 billion for this year’s World Cup in Germany.

The figures are contained in Sportcal.com’s recently-published World Cup 2006: The Commercial Report. Fifa estimates that media rights, including new media, would be worth about €1.8 billion in 2010, while sponsorship would be worth €1.1 billion. Many of the main television rights deals for the 2010 event have already been concluded, together with a reduced number of six, more lucrative, deals with top-tier Fifa partners.

The figures represent a massive increase on even a World Cup as recent as that of 1998, when the media rights were worth only about €100 million and the sponsorship rights about €70 million.

Overall commercial revenues for the 2010 World Cup look certain to be pushed above €3 billion once ticket revenue is taken into account. For this year’s event, ticket revenues were worth about €200 million.

The largest single contributor to 2010 World Cup revenues is once again set to be ARD and ZDF, the Germany public-service broadcasters, which are paying €200 million to acquire the television rights for the tournament in Germany. This compares with the €170 million they paid for the rights for this summer’s event.

This year’s soccer World Cup generated €1.9 billion in marketing revenue, with the sale of television and new media rights raising €1.2 billion and the remaining €700 million deriving from other sources such as sponsorship and hospitality.