Report: NBA Teams Topped $1.2B Sponsor Revenues In 75th Anniversary Season
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at 07:24PM By Barry Janoff
May 25, 2022: The NBA is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this season, and the league, teams and marketing partners are finding gold amid the Diamond festivities.
During 2021-22, NBA teams surpassed $1.2 billion in sponsorship revenues, achieving 50% growth over the 2020-21 season.
In addition, NBA players continued to expand as a platform for brands, as they saw a 46% increase in deals from the prior year, according to the just-released NBA 2021-22 Marketing & Partnerships Annual Report from SponsorUnited global sports and entertainment intelligence firm, Stamford, Conn.
SponsorUnited estimates the top three teams in terms of sponsorship revenue are the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Estimated team revenues across top five categories in the NBA: Finance (more than $122 million), Technology ($81 million-plus), Healthcare (more than $68 million), Telecom (more than $57 million) and Auto Manufacturer (more than $40 million).
Revenue was driven “by a significant increase in spending across the Sports Betting and Financial categories, and the emergence of Cryptocurrency,” according to the NBA 2021-22 Marketing & Partnerships Annual Report.
According to SponsorUnited, the NBA has surpassed the NFL as the top league in finance sponsorship revenue.
NBA sports bet partners include MGM Resorts, Fox Bet, FanDuel and DraftKings.
“Major jersey patch, venue naming rights plus Crypto and FinTech deals in the NBA has led to an additional spend of approximately $115M within the league.”
Among its other deals, Crypto.com this past season acquired naming rights to the home arena for the Lakers via a deal valued at $700 million.
In September, the Los Angeles Clippers and financial management tech company Intuit signed a $500 million deal for naming rights to the team’s new arena, now under construction and scheduled to open for the 2024-25 season.
Performance drove fan interest as playoff teams increased social following 150% greater than non-playoff teams during the season, according to SponsorUnited.
Among players, “Despite missing the playoffs in his 19th season, LeBron James' social following saw a massive increase of 22 million new followers, which is more than 25 individual NBA teams.”
The report supports research from Forbes, which said this past season, for the first time in league history, three NBA franchises are worth more than $5 billion: the Knicks ($5.8 billion), Warriors ($5.6 billion) and Lakers ($5.5 billion).
Four other franchises top the $3 billion mark: the Chicago Bulls ($3.7 billion), Boston Celtics ($3.6 billion), Clippers ($3.3 billion) and Brooklyn Nets ($3.2 billion).
The Top Ten also includes the Houston Rockets ($2.8 billion), Dallas Mavericks ($2.7 billion and Toronto Raptors ($2.5 billion), per Forbes.
Among NBA deals this past season, the league signed a multi-year extension and expansion of its exclusive marketing partnership with Kia America, marking the company’s 15th campaign as the league’s official automotive partner.
A multi-year marketing and technology partnership named Google Pixel the “official fan phone of the NBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League.”
As part of the deal, Google Pixel became the first presenting partner for the NBA Playoffs, now in progress, with integration into the league’s full schedule of nationally televised playoff games on ESPN and TNT.
Google Pixel joined YouTube TV, which is the presenting partner for the NBA Finals.
In 2021-22, Wilson returned as the league’s official game ball (replacing Spalding) for the first time since the 1983 NBA Finals, having been used during most of the NBA’s first four decades.
“The NBA saw significant growth by capitalizing on a perfect storm of high-growth industries like Crypto and Tech aggressively entering the market with teams having highly visible platforms and innovative marketing solutions that allowed brands to tell their story in compelling ways," Bob Lynch, SponsorUnited president and founder, said via the firm.
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