Britain’s young football fans are ditching their sloppy drunk reputation—and are leading the charge for alcohol-free beer

Sales of low- and no-alcohol beers soared during the Euro football championship, according to a Tuesday report from market research firm Kantar. While beer sales across UK grocers increased 2.2% over the four-week duration of the games leading up to July 7, and 13% on England’s match days, sales of “nolo” beer skyrocketed by 38%.

With most of England’s matches falling on weeknights, Brits were likely less interested in heavy drinking over the course of the championship. Boosted by trends like “zebra striping”—alternating between alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks throughout the night—and a growing sober-curious culture, alcohol-free beers have enjoyed increasing popularity.

It’s a departure from the country’s culture of swaths of rabid sports fans whose boozy shenanigans have earned them a reputation of sloppiness and—in the case of a small minority—drunken violence. But for today’s British sports fans, staying sober isn’t a matter of no longer feeling impassioned; they just don’t want morning-after headaches.

The rise of nolo beer and beverage sales follows Gen Z’s waning interest in drinking. As of 2021, more than one-third of young people 16 to 26 in the UK don’t drink, according to the National Health Service’s Health Survey for England. Fuelled by social anxiety and financial angst keeping them at home and health consciousness keeping them from drinking, Gen Z is instead turning to alcohol-free alternatives to well fixtures.

Beverage companies are already catching on, with companies like non-alcoholic beer producer Athletic Brewing recently doubling its valuation to $800 million and beer giants like Heineken and Guinness launching their own zero-alcohol beer alternatives. 

“When we launched in 2018, the world was a very different place,” Luke Boase, the founder of UK-based alcohol-free beer producer Lucky Saint, told the Guardian. “Alcohol-free used to be a dry January thing, but now it’s year-round.”

Nolo beers flood sporting events

Looking to cash in on the changing tastes of fans, Big Beer is finding sponsorship success on sports’ biggest stages. The Paris Olympics will make history as the first of the games to have a beer sponsor: Corona Cero, which contains no alcohol. Produced by the world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, Corona Cero was developed two years ago as a way for the beer giant to tap into nolo beers’ $13 billion market.

There are already signs of beverage companies finding competition of their own in the world of sports. Carlsberg is positioning its alcohol-free beer Tourtel Twist as the Olympic Games’ nolo beer-of-choice.

“We are the official beer of Paris and France,” Carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen said. “[Corona Cero is] the official beer of the Olympic movement. At the events you are going to be served Tourtel.”

Beyond following consumer demands, beverage companies have capitalized on the Olympics’ messages of athletic feats and high performance.

“There are a lot of sports events like the Olympics where the flagship brands are often the 0% variant,” Susie Goldspink, drinks market analyst at market researcher IWSR, told Bloomberg. “That’s partly because it’s such a growing area but it also helps with their moderation agenda of responsible drinking.”

The trend is already spreading to elite sporting stages across Europe. Events like the Six Nations rugby tournament, Tour de France, and Formula 1 are embracing partnerships with beer brands offering nolo alternatives. F1 world champion driver Lewis Hamilton launched a zero-proof tequila company, and fellow driver Max Verstappen has a brand collaboration with Heineken’s Player 0.0. They’ll likely bring even more fans along with them.

“Tying superstars like the two above to your product presents the opportunity to illustrate that it is ‘cool’ to choose non-alcoholic options,” Austin Schneider, director of business development at marketing firm Sport Dimensions, told Blackbook Motorsport. “It allows fans who see parts of themselves in the drivers extend into the types of drinks they enjoy.” 

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