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These energy suppliers sponsor professional football in 2026/27

By Laurens Arends · updated 05-10-2026

In the 2026/27 season, at least eleven Dutch professional football clubs have a publicly confirmed partnership with an energy supplier, energy broker or energy label. These are seven Eredivisie clubs and four clubs from the Keuken Kampioen Divisie. The combination TinQ and TinQE is involved with five clubs, while Frank Energie is the only energy supplier to be co-main sponsor, at Vitesse.

Energy suppliers that are active in professional football

Energy sponsorship looks different than it did ten years ago. The supplier no longer needs to be on the front of the shirt in big letters. Companies supply electricity to the stadium, help with making it more sustainable or offer supporters an energy contract through the club. In this overview we only count partnerships that could be confirmed through the club or sponsor on 2 September 2026. Installation companies do not count. The sponsorship amounts of these current agreements have not been made public.

Club	Energy supplier or energy label	Role in season 2026/27	Message and activation
Ajax	TinQE	Official Energy Partner, at least up to and including 2028	National launch of TinQE and savings on energy and fuel for supporters.
FC Groningen	TinQ and TinQE	Partnership until mid-2028	Regional visibility, energy for the home and savings when filling up.
N.E.C.	TinQ and TinQE	Sponsor and energy offer for supporters	An N.E.C. petrol station, an energy offer and a goalkeeper shirt for people switching.
Fortuna Sittard	TinQ and TinQE	Sponsor and energy partner	Fixed or dynamic energy, fuel discount and an official Fortuna backpack.
FC Emmen	TinQ and TinQE	TinQ is a business partner for three seasons. The energy offer for supporters runs through TinQE.	Fixed or dynamic energy contract, fuel discount and club merchandise.
FC Twente	Pure Energie	Sustainability partner for two seasons	Locally generated green electricity and making De Grolsch Veste more sustainable.
FC Utrecht	NieuweStroom	Energy partner until mid-2027	Dynamic business energy, energy management and sustainability improvements.
NAC Breda	Cedrus Energy	Energy partner since January 2026	Business energy procurement, link to the wholesale market and optimisation of consumption and generation.
Roda JC	Scholt Energy	Multi-year Official Supplier and energy supplier	Full energy supply to the stadium, energy management and contact with the club's business network.
Sparta Rotterdam	Essent	Official sustainability partner	Making Het Kasteel more sustainable (completely off gas) and a long-term heat supply.
Vitesse	Frank Energie	Co-main sponsor	Dynamic energy, smart energy services and club offers. Frank is also on the kits for 2026/27.

TinQE opts for reach and supporter offers

TinQE is the most striking newcomer. The brand uses Ajax for national awareness and at N.E.C., FC Groningen, Fortuna Sittard and FC Emmen it mainly works with local offers. Depending on the club, supporters get a shirt, ball, bag or extra discount at a TinQ petrol station. TinQE acts as an intermediary for the energy deals.

The energy contract is concluded with Hezelaer Energy B.V. and, according to TinQE itself, the actual supply of gas and electricity also runs through Hezelaer Energy. The various partnerships have the same commercial engine, but are packaged differently per club. TinQE focuses mainly on direct customer acquisition. The step from supporter to energy customer is easy to measure, because each club has its own offer page and code.

Pure Energie and FC Twente put the emphasis on the region

Pure Energie was the main sponsor of FC Twente from 2016 up to and including 2023. In 2026 the Enschede-based company returned to the top of the sponsorship pyramid as sustainability partner of De Grolsch Veste. The partnership fits the origins of both organisations. Pure Energie supplies FC Twente with green electricity for five years, as much as possible coming from Zonnepark N18 in Haaksbergen. The club wants to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions per event and to be energy neutral in 2045.

NieuweStroom focuses on businesses at FC Utrecht

NieuweStroom supplies FC Utrecht with energy and helps the club with dynamic prices and smart energy management. The company also set up an office in the stadium. This means the partnership is not only aimed at supporters, but above all at the club's business network. That fits NieuweStroom's positioning as a business energy supplier. The visibility around matches opens doors with entrepreneurs, while FC Utrecht can use the partnership to make its energy policy more sustainable.

Essent makes the message tangible at Sparta

Essent chose not the shirt but the stadium at Sparta. According to Sparta and Essent, the renewed energy system saves around 100.000 m³ of gas and 188 tonnes of CO₂ each year. Het Kasteel was given, among other things, a thermal energy storage system and well over a thousand solar panels. This gives Essent a concrete project to link its message to. The savings mentioned are figures from the partners involved and not a separately verified impact measurement.

Frank Energie is main sponsor of Vitesse

Frank Energie is the only energy supplier to be co-main sponsor, at Vitesse. Frank's logo is on the away kit in 2026/27. The supplier links the partnership to dynamic energy, the energy app and smart control of appliances. The relationship is also about support for the club. Frank remained connected to Vitesse during the administratively and financially difficult period around the professional licence. As a result, the company can present itself not only as a modern energy supplier, but also as a loyal partner of Arnhem.

Why does football sponsorship work?

Scientific research shows that it is not only visibility that counts. An experiment by Gwinner and Eaton published in the Journal of Advertising found that characteristics of a sporting event can transfer to the image of the sponsor. A credible match between sponsor and sport strengthened that transfer. Speed and Thompson (2000), in turn, found that the attitude towards the sponsor, the perceived sincerity and the fit between sponsor and sport are important predictors of the response to sponsorship.

These studies were not carried out among a representative sample of Dutch football supporters. They explain the mechanism behind sponsorship, but do not provide a reliable percentage for the number of Dutch fans who actually switch.

Dutch doctoral research at the University of Groningen (2013) moreover emphasises that sponsorship must be assessed across different domains, including sponsor awareness, sponsor value and efficiency. It would not be right to look only at the number of supporters who actually switch.

An energy sponsor does have to suit the club

At FC Groningen it became clear in March 2026 how quickly the sponsor fit can clash. Former main sponsor OG Clean Fuels ended its remaining involvement after the club had opened a petrol station for fossil fuels together with TinQ. According to OG, that did not fit its identity around clean mobility. This shows that an energy partner also has an influence on a club's sustainability story. Two energy companies may both want to be sponsors, but represent a very different identity. And sooner or later that will clash.

In any case, a partnership with an energy supplier is not forever. Energiedirect.nl was associated with PSV for ten years and was prominently on the shirt for a long time. That partnership ended in May 2026 and therefore does not continue into the 2026/27 season. According to its farewell message of 15 May 2026, the supplier said goodbye with a tribute to the supporters.

Qurrent at Feyenoord and Sparta, GroenLeven at sc Heerenveen, EnergieFlex at N.E.C., Essent at FC Groningen and Innova Energie at ADO Den Haag are also examples of former energy sponsors whose partnership has since ended. That was not always a deliberate choice: Qurrent was taken over and EnergieFlex went bankrupt.

A club offer is not automatically the cheapest energy deal

Many energy sponsors lure supporters with extras such as a fuel discount, a club shirt or a football. For example, on 27 February 2026 N.E.C. supporters with a TinQE contract got six cents extra discount per litre of fuel and a goalkeeper shirt. However, that says nothing yet about the total energy costs. Moreover, a free shirt only counts as a saving if you would otherwise buy it yourself.

Like ACM ConsuWijzer we therefore advise comparing the personal annual amount. Look at the usage rates, fixed supply charges, feed-in charges, contract duration and any cancellation fee.

In a tailored offer, the supplier must show all costs, give an estimate of your annual amount and make clear when you receive a discount. We have not found an independent comparison showing that energy deals through football clubs are on average cheaper or more expensive. So compare the club deal on the same day and with the same annual consumption against several regular deals.

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