Effective strategies in sponsorship model of Iran's professional sports

Sponsorship is a resource that will be able to provide sustainable competitive advantages and a form of fast-growing marketing that has the potential to become the 21st Century marketing tool. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify effective strategies in the Iran's sports professional sponsorship model.This is an applied research of purpose and data collection is field study. The kind of research is survey and descriptive. According to the grounded theory (Grounded) is based on the method of Glaser. The statistical population is sport industry experts, directors, secretaries and marketing managers of sports federations, Managers and Board Directors of sponsors, and professors of universities with researches and projects related to the matters, Sport organizations, that 23 of them were selected by Target and snowball sampling method. The interviews were open and semi-structured and data analysis has occurred by qualitative content analysis and open, axial and selective coding.The results of the research identified 6 general strategies including investing, relationship management, leveraging and activation, sponsorship fit and alliances as effective strategies in professional sports sponsorship. This research by presenting a model and focusing on appropriate strategies seeks to create competitive advantages and increase the commercial power of sports federations and facilitate the decision-making process in investment as well as the survival of sponsors in professional sport of Iran.