Crypto deals, according to IEG, a sports partnerships consultancy, helped boost the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) sponsorship revenue to a new high of $1.6 billion in the 2021-22 season.
It is worth mentioning that this figure is up 13% from the $1.4 billion made in the 2020-21 season. As per reports, in the 2018-19 season, the NBA pulled in $1.2 billion in sponsorships. The Sponsorship deals range from arena-naming rights to companies displaying their names or logos on players’ jerseys.
Peter Laatz, IEG’s global managing director, said “The cryptocurrency category’s sponsorship sending spree is like nothing we have ever seen before.”
Another insight showed that crypto deals are now the second most profitable sponsorship category for the NBA, the first being the technology category. One of the major sources of this profit came from NBA’s deal with crypto trading platform Coinbase. The deal is reportedly worth $192 million over four years.
Speaking of the NBA’s team’s share of these mega crypto partnerships, the LA Lakers recently signed a 20-year arena-naming rights contract worth $700 million with the crypto platform Crypto.com.
And the Warriors agreed to a $10 million global rights deal with FTX, a crypto derivatives exchange. FTX also landed another arena naming rights for the Miami Heat.
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