In July, the NBA announced a groundbreaking media-rights deal valued at a staggering $76 billion over 11 years, starting from the 2025-26 season. This major contract reflects the league’s impressive growth and opens the door for even greater fan engagement with the world’s premier basketball league.
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The NBA continues to deepen its partnerships with Disney, NBC Universal, and Amazon Prime Video, with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon set to air games through the 2035-36 season.
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This surge in game streaming has created stiff competition among sponsors vying for greater brand visibility.
The introduction of jersey patches in the 2017-18 season marked a historic moment, as the NBA became the first major North American men’s pro sports league to integrate sponsor logos onto uniforms. This move significantly boosted the league’s sponsorship revenue, soaring from $861 million to $1.12 billion within just one year, per Statista.
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Although the initial revenue growth was remarkable, it has been challenging to maintain similar spikes in subsequent years. All 30 teams sported jersey patches during the trial period, but that isn’t the case today. Nevertheless, many teams have established jersey-patch partnerships, and more are on the way, according to Andrew Feinberg of Klutch Sports Group, who is optimistic that every team will soon sport a patch again.
The Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies have recently secured multi-year deals with Robinhood, with their jersey patch debuting during the regular season. Other teams, including the Knicks, Celtics, Lakers, and Timberwolves, are kicking off their seasons shortly.
Klutch brokered both Robinhood agreements and is involved in similar deals across various sports. In baseball, both the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers display patches on their jerseys that promise substantial brand visibility at the World Series.
However, the MLB faced a significant setback when FTX, its official cryptocurrency partner, filed for bankruptcy in 2022. During its partnership, umpires wore FTX patches, tarnishing the league’s reputation after the founder was convicted of fraud and handed a lengthy prison sentence.
Since then, teams and brands have become more cautious and thorough in vetting potential partnerships, as noted by Feinberg. With improved screening processes, there’s potential for longer-term sponsorship agreements moving forward.
“Brands have evolved and are becoming more strategic about their sports investments,” Feinberg noted. “Data insights from firms like Klutch are helping brands maximize the value of these partnerships.”