National Basketball Association (NBA) sponsorship revenue grew by more than US$100 million year-over-year (YoY) to reach US$1.4 billion in the 2022/23 season, according to SponsorUnited.
The figures from SponsorUnited’s ‘NBA Marketing Partnerships Report’ also revealed that the league’s sponsorship portfolio rose 3.5 per cent YoY with 2,430 new brand deals. Increase in sponsorship spend was up 10.5 per cent on the 2021/22 campaign.
Sponsorship data and advertising services firm SponsorUnited noted high-growth categories such as financial, retail, sports betting, and gambling and lottery accounting for nearly half of the total revenue increase, which drove major revenue gains.
The finance category ranked number one in total spending, highest YoY spending growth, and growth in deal volume.
The study also highlighted NBA athletes’ social media influence, which surpassed other professional sports athletes by nearly 2.5 times the average engagement per deal. Indeed, playoff status measurably impacted NBA social media growth, especially on Instagram, with the report finding that teams that made the playoffs saw a 33 per cent higher increase in followers than those that did not.
When it came to asset usage, YouTube integrated sponsorship saw the highest YoY increase. However, SponsorUnited stated that less than half of NBA teams have capitalised on the Google-owned video platform, describing it as a ‘glaring oversight of a golden growth opportunity’. For context, the NBA’s YouTube channel attracts more than 75 million unique viewers every 90 days, according to the study
