Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Fortaleza has signed a new master sponsor deal with digital bank brand Digi+.
The deal means Fortaleza will have a new main shirt sponsor for the 2020 season, after the club’s one-year deals with NetBet and digital bank brand Conta Um expire at the end of this season.
Digi+ is a digital banking service owned by Brazilian financial services firm Banco Renner. It offers a 100 per cent, app-based digital bank account, available to users of iOS and Android smartphones.
The brand markets itself as the fastest and easiest way to open a new bank account. Customers who wish to sign-up for Digi+ need only provide proof of address and a national ID or driving license number to open an account. Proof of income is not required.
Once an account is opened, Digi+ offers a range of traditional banking services within the app, including transfers; payments; balance inquiries; statements; QRCode deposit services; mobile top-ups; and cash withdrawals from Lottery and Rede Banco24horas ATMs.
When the partnership goes live, Fortaleza will be Digi+’s third partner club in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A.
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This season, Digi+ already has main shirt deals with Cruzeiro and Club Athletico Paranaense.
Marcelo Paz, president of Fortaleza, said: “It was fundamental to close a partnership with an innovative company that already invests in football, and which sees in Fortaleza a huge potential for expansion of its brand.”
The exit of Brazilian state-owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal from sports sponsorship has led to an upsurge in investment from rival privately-owned banks such as Banco Renner, which were previously shut out of the market.
This season, Vasco da Gama and Clube Atlético Mineiro have main shirt deals with Banco BMG, São Paulo has a main shirt deal with Inter Bank, and Flamengo has a main shirt deal with BS2 – whose digital bank offering is similar to Digi+.
When Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was elected in October last year, he vowed to kick Caixa out of sports sponsorship for good, calling the use of public money to promote the bank “absurd”.
In 2018, Caixa had shirt branding with 25 clubs in the Brazilian Série A and Série B, and invested more than €30m (BRL$127.8m) across the two leagues.