Canadian financial services group Bank of Montreal has agreed a multi-year sponsorship deal with the NBA basketball league.
BMO will be the official bank of NBA Canada, the first organisation to hold the designation.
NBA teams Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks are sponsored by BMO, but the new deal is the group’s first league-wide sponsorship and chief marketing officer Joanna Rotenberg hopes it can capitalise on the sport’s growing popularity in Canada.
“Whereas two years ago basketball was a little quieter among Canadians, now it’s like a war for (Raptors) tickets, there’s so much excitement,” Rotenberg told the Globe and Mail newspaper. “Canada is experiencing an upswing in energy around basketball – both at a participation level and also at a professional level.”
BMO’s partnership with the NBA will feature a collaboration launching 125 community basketball programmes across Canada later this year.