Adidas shares plunge nearly 18% after World Cup costs

Adidas shares fell almost 18 percent on Thursday after the German sportswear maker reported second-quarter core profit that was held back by World Cup marketing costs and came in below analyst expectations.

Adidas said core profit was 574 million euros, or $657 million, for the three months to the end of June. That was higher than a year earlier but about eight percent below expectations in a FactSet poll of analysts. AFP reported the fall put the shares on course for their largest one-day decline.

The company said it spent more than 200 million euros more on marketing than in the same period last year as it developed a World Cup campaign featuring footballers including Lionel Messi, Lamine Yamal and Jude Bellingham. Total marketing spending was almost one billion euros for the quarter.

Outgoing finance chief Harm Ohlmeyer said on an earnings call that Adidas wanted to invest in the World Cup platform for future growth, including in North and Latin America.

Adidas said higher transport costs and US tariffs also weighed on the result. The company said it recorded about 1.5 billion euros of sales linked to the World Cup since the end of 2025, with football jersey sales four times higher and ball sales twice as high as during the previous event. Mexico shirts sold best, followed by Germany shirts.

Overall second-quarter sales rose 13 percent to 6.74 billion euros. Adidas slightly raised its full-year sales growth guidance to between nine and 10 percent, up from an earlier forecast of high single-digit growth, and kept its core profit target at 2.3 billion euros.