Sport is associated with health, overcoming challenges, quality of life, team spirit, fairness, honesty and other admired qualities, as well as directly appealing to the passion of enthusiasts. For this reason, Brazilian financial institutions invest millions of reais in sponsoring sporting activities with a view to improving their reputation and brand awareness. Due to this, the present study aims to understand, through bibliographic and documentary research and quantitative research, whether sports sponsorship can add values considered positive to the brand equity of financial institutions in Brazil. To achieve this objective, the theories of sports sponsorship and brand equity were used, focusing on the sports sector. A descriptive quantitative methodology was used, through the modelling of structured equations, which confirmed the hypotheses of the study: that credible sports sponsorship positively influences the components of brand equity of Brazilian financial institutions.