Flamengo leaves Caixa, signs with BS2 digital bank

Brazilian Série A club Flamengo has signed a new main shirt partnership with local bank BS2.

Under the deal, BS2 will be the club’s main shirt sponsor for two seasons, until December 2020.

According to Flamengo’s official website, the club aims to raise at least BRL$30m (€6.8m/$7.7m) from the partnership annually.

As reported by Brazilian news site Globo, the basic fee is BRL$11.2m this season and BRL$15m next season, but BS2 will pay more based on a range of metrics, including the number of new bank accounts opened during the partnership.

The basic fee is worth 40 per cent less than Flamengo’s previous main shirt partnership with public bank Caixa Econômica Federal, which paid BRL$25m in a one-year extension last season.

Read this: Caixa withdrawal likely to accelerate Brazilian football’s short-term sponsorship trend

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, investing more than €30m (BRL$127.8m) across the two leagues.

Flamengo – the biggest club in Brazil by number of supporters – is now the fifth Série A club this year to close a main sponsor deal with a digital bank.

Read this: After Paysandu shows the way, Brazil’s smaller clubs reap dividends of white-label kit deals

In the run-up to the 2019 season, Corinthians, Atlético Mineiro and Vasco da Gama signed with Banco BMG, and Cruzeiro signed with Banco Renner.

Meanwhile, São Paulo retains its agreement with Banco Inter, Palmeiras continues with Crefisa and Grêmio continues with Internacional (Banrisul).

Formerly known as Banco Bonsucesso, BS2 rebranded in 2017. The bank was founded in 1992 and is based in Belo Horizonte.