Inside Red Bull’s Rise: How One Brand Is Dominating Global Sport

There aren’t many overarching powerhouses in sport. Football has the City Group, which has dominated the Premier League for a while but hasn’t been able to make much ground elsewhere, and right now, McLaren are taking over Formula 1. Other than sporting brands like Nike and Adidas, there has been little success for a brand that tries to have a stake in multiple major sports. At least that was the case until Red Bull came in.

Red Bull Football

Red Bull became involved in football back in 2005 when they bought SV Austria Salzburg, rebranding it to RB Salzburg. This caused a lot of criticism both in Austria and abroad as the company tried to completely remove the club’s history, declaring it a new team. Even on the club website, it initially said that the club was founded in 2005 however it was forced to change it by the Austrian FA. The club is now generally regarded as one of the least popular in Europe and a group of loyal SV Austria Salzburg fans left the club to form their own side with the original names and colours.

Despite the criticism, Red Bull continued to pursue new opportunities in football with MLS side MetroStars which became New York Red Bulls. This time, they didn’t try to erase the history of the club, but still rebranded it into its own style. The club has been quite successful since the takeover, however they are yet to win the MLS Cup. They came closest last year, but were beaten in the final 2-1 by LA Galaxy.

TOUCHDOWN. pic.twitter.com/rF1Ine2Xes

— New York Red Bulls (@NewYorkRedBulls) May 11, 2025

Their biggest club to date is RB Leipzig, which were SSV Markranstadt before they were taken over in 2009. At the time, they were a fifth tier side, but after four promotions in seven seasons, they made their top flight debut. The club hasn’t stopped since then, earning a second placed finish in their first Bundesliga campaign as well as reaching the semi finals of the Champions League back in 2020. For a while they were generally considered to be the third best team in Germany after the giants of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, however now that Bayer Leverkusen have entered the mix, they have likely been pushed down to fourth.

Red Bull own or have minority stakes in many other football teams ranging from Brazil to Japan. Last year, they announced that they had purchased a minority share in Leeds United, who subsequently earned promotion back into the Premier League and they also announced a future stake in Paris FC, who also earned promotion. Slowly, Red Bull are beginning to have a team in every major league.

Red Bull Motorsport

The sport that most people associate Red Bull with is Formula One. They own two teams in the sport, Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, with the former being the most successful. Since 2010, Red Bull Racing have been one of the most dominant forces in F1 alongside Mercedes. They have won the World Constructors' Championship on six occasions, and had the winning driver on the team eight times, split equally between Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

In 2021, Red Bull started to produce their own power units division, supported by Honda. From 2026 they will enter a partnership with Ford. They are in a unique position in Formula One where they have two teams and therefore four drivers to pick from. This was evidenced earlier this season when Yuki Tsunoda moved from Racing Bulls to Red Bull Racing, with rookie Liam Lawson heading the other way.

Liam Lawson’s qualifying with Red Bull: 18th, 20th, 20th

Liam Lawson’s first qualifying with Racing Bulls: 14th & out qualifies the 2nd Red Bull.

You can’t make this up. pic.twitter.com/0iUZn7CS8u

— Daniel Valente 🏎️ (@F1GuyDan) April 5, 2025

Their dominance has led to a divide in the F1 fanbase, with some fans suggesting that their dominance has made them unlikeable, with driver Verstappen being a polarising personality. This has similarities in their football ownership, with some fans enjoying their meteoric rises through the divisions while others see it as a prime example of the ever increasing commercialisation of sport.

Red Bull And Extreme Sport

Red Bull have been one of the main sponsors of extreme sports for a long time. They promote cliff diving, skiing and BMX as well as creating their own events for unique sports. In Germany they conduct the Flugtag, or Fly Day, where home made “flying machines” are launched off a ramp into a body of water. They also have their own Soap Box race at least once a year, where entrants create their own motorless vehicles.

These events and sports are seen as less competitive and mainstream than football and Formula One, and so Red Bull aren’t as criticised. In fact many fans of these events praise the work that Red Bull has done to promote less popular sports and events.

What Are The Problems?

Returning to football, there are some serious problems that Red Bull could face. UEFA has already looked into the ownership structures of both RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg to see how linked they were to the Red Bull company, and deemed that they were separate enough entities that they could both compete in the same UEFA competitions. They actually faced each other in the Group Stage of the 2018/19 Europa League, with Salzburg coming out victorious in both the home and away fixtures.

Here it is!

👌 Arsenal vs Sporting
👊 Rangers vs Villarreal
👀 RB Salzburg vs RB Leipzig

The draw for the Europa League group stages in full 🙌 pic.twitter.com/G4rzH7PqvK

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 31, 2018

While this has been allowed, there might be issues further down the line should Leeds United ever qualify for a European competition. Whether or not all teams were significantly separate would be an interesting question, especially as Red Bull have recently announced a deal with Atletico Madrid. It looks as if the deal is purely on a sponsorship basis, but it would be interesting to see how UEFA dealt with the increasing dominance of Red Bull.

Another contentious issue is that of player transfers. Salzburg have been essentially a feeder club for Leipzig since they got taken over, and with Leeds being added to the family, the Austrian club will really struggle to hold onto their players for very long. Recently there has been controversy surrounding Premier League clubs buying players from sister teams, most notably Bournemouth buying French wonderkid Eli Junior Kroupi from Lorient and Manchester City buying Savinho from Troyes.