CELSIUS has become the official energy drink partner of ATHX Games, beginning in Birmingham and continuing across UK and Ireland events.
ATHX Games has added CELSIUS as its Official Energy Drink Partner, a deal that says rather more about the hybrid fitness competition’s ambitions than the usual branded fridge beside a finish line.
The partnership began at ATHX Birmingham on 22–23 August 2026 and arrives as the UK-born series expects more than 40,000 participants across its events this year.
A partnership arriving at the point of scale
ATHX was founded in the UK in 2023 and says competitor numbers have grown threefold over the past three years. That makes the timing significant. Sponsorships of this sort become rather more interesting once an event has moved beyond launch-stage curiosity and begun demonstrating that people will actually turn up.
For CELSIUS, the attraction is straightforward: ATHX offers direct access to people already inclined towards training, competition and fitness culture. For ATHX, the presence of an established functional energy drink brand adds commercial weight as the series expands its calendar.
Why CELSIUS wants the ATHX Games crowd
The partnership will centre on CELSIUS bringing its LIVE.FIT.GO.™ platform into ATHX events, including a branded zone and product sampling at selected competitions. It is experiential marketing in the most literal sense: put the product beside the people doing the burpees, rather than hoping they notice it between television adverts.
Julien Scheubel, Head of Brand – Europe at Celsius, said: “CELSIUS® is built for people who are motivated to keep moving and make every day count. We are excited to become the Official Energy Drink Partner of ATHX, a brand that shares the belief in the power of community and in making fitness more welcoming, rewarding, and relevant to everyday achievers.
We can’t wait to bring our LIVE.FIT.GO.™ platform to life together, supporting participants as they take on their goals.”
The language is broad, as sponsorship language usually is, but the commercial logic is tighter. ATHX describes its field as ranging from first-time competitors to seasoned athletes, giving CELSIUS a wider participation base than a partnership aimed only at elite sport.
The UK calendar gives the deal room to grow
Birmingham was the first activation, but the partnership is built around a national event schedule. ATHX Liverpool follows on 3–4 October 2026 at Exhibition Centre Liverpool.
The 2027 programme then moves through London at Excel London on 23–24 January, Glasgow at the Scottish Event Campus on 5–6 June, Birmingham at the NEC on 20–22 August, and Liverpool at ACC Liverpool on 9–10 October.
That spread matters. A sponsorship attached to several cities can build repetition and recognition, while giving the brand multiple chances to meet the same sort of consumer in different regional markets.
Participation is the valuable bit
ATHX is not presenting itself as a spectacle designed chiefly for passive viewing. Its stated appeal is participation, community and measurable progress. That makes the audience commercially interesting because competitors are not merely watching fitness culture; they are spending time, effort and presumably a fair amount of laundry detergent living inside it.
CELSIUS is therefore buying proximity as much as visibility. Sampling, branded spaces and event presence place the drink inside the competitor experience, which is generally a more useful asset than a logo marooned on perimeter boards.
ATHX is already looking beyond Britain
The larger question is how far the partnership can travel. ATHX says it intends to take the competition beyond Europe, while CELSIUS plans to expand alongside it.
That ambition remains just that until further destinations are announced. Still, the direction is clear. ATHX is moving from a young event series to a scalable fitness property, and CELSIUS has chosen to arrive before the map gets crowded.
For both sides, Birmingham was less a finish line than a marker: the partnership now has a UK calendar to prove whether momentum can become something more durable.
