Basketball

American performance bedding company Bedgear’s one-year deal as the Official Performance Sleep System Partner of the NBA’s Boston Celtics was instigated by the team’s sporting department.

Sports Sponsorship Insider has undertaken research into 139 properties and 846 different brands across the top leagues and competitions in basketball.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has renewed as the Presenting Sponsor of the annual Pac-12 China Game for four years from 2017 to 2020.

Japanese e-commerce brand Rakuten is almost certain to have paid the highest fee in the first sales round of NBA team jersey patch rights under its deal with NBA champions the Golden State Warriors, from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

The world’s fourth-largest general-purpose card network uses sponsorship of major sports properties in the US to provide its card members with ticket offers and money-can’t-buy experiences.

Payment services brand American Express has signed an extension to its marketing partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA), continuing as the Official Card of the NBA, WNBA and the NBA G League, the official minor league organisation, from 2017-18.

Geico is the largest media buyer in the car insurance sector, spending $1bn (€937m) on advertising in 2016.

US sporting goods manufacturer Nike last month became the fifth Global Partner of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba). As part of the deal, Nike also becomes Fiba’s exclusive partner in the sports apparel and sports shoe product categories and the Title Partner of Fiba’s World Ranking.

Workwear manufacturer Engelbert Strauss has added to its sponsorship presence in continental competitions this month, signing up as the Presenting Sponsor of the fledgling Basketball Champions League under a one-and-a-half-year agreement.

German banking group ING-DiBa has renewed as the main sponsor of Germany’s national basketball and national wheelchair basketball teams at roughly the same fee as the previous deal, despite the retirement of the brand’s long-term brand ambassador, Dirk Nowitzki, from international basketball at the start of this year.

Oil and gas company ExxonMobil has doubled up on its non-motorsports portfolio, again in basketball, securing a multiyear deal with the National Basketball Association.

Mobile phone manufacturer Vivo’s growing Chinese market share was key to its deal to become the Official Mobile Phone Partner of the NBA in China and replace domestic rival ZTE.

Sports Sponsorship Insider has completed a survey of sponsorship deals across the top three global basketball leagues – the National Basketball Association, the Chinese Basketball Association and the EuroLeague/EuroCup competitions – selected European leagues and associated teams.

App-based taxi network Uber has signed as the Exclusive Ride-Sharing Partner of the Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards and Verizon Center under a three-year deal, from mid-2016 to mid-2019.

Euroleague Basketball has signed online sportsbook Tempobet as the Official National Betting Partner in Germany, from 2016-17 to 2018-19, for both EuroLeague and EuroCup competitions – the fifth such regional agreement made by EuroLeague with an online betting company.