A report from IEG research stated that total sponsorship spending on the NFL and its 32 teams grew 5.1% to $1.39 billion in the 2018-2019 season, driven by a spate of new league-wide sponsorships including Intuit, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Sleep Number. Also, contributing was a major spike in casino/gaming including such deal’s as its recently announced deal with Caesar’s Entertainment. From a category perspective, beer companies were the biggest NFL investors spending 4.3 times more than any other category. The most invested brands were Ticketmaster having sponsorships with 100% of NFL properties, Budweiser/Bud Light at 88% of the league; Gatorade 79% of teams, Microsoft 73%, and Bose 70%.
Waste Management signed an early renewal that will continue its commitment to the Waste Management Phoenix Open for another decade, through 2030. The deal also covers Waste Management’s marketing relationship with the PGA TOUR as the Official Environmental Waste Services Provider,
NASCAR Racing Experience entered into a multi-year partnership to serve as the title sponsor for the NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, The 120-lap, 300-mile race will now be known as the NASCAR Racing Experience 300. The partnership will deliver additional ride opportunities for guests during DAYTONA Speedweeks Presented By AdventHealth. NASCAR Racing Experience will expand their yearly schedule at the “World Center of Racing” by offering both Drive and Ride experiences between Feb. 11-15.
MMA heavyweight ONE Championship announced its first ever media tour to the United States from Feb. 25-28. The tour will pass through Seattle (Feb. 25), Los Angeles (Feb. 26) and Las Vegas (Feb. 28) with the LA and Vegas events open to the public. As part of the media tour, Johnson, Alvarez, and Northcutt will be hosting open-mat demonstrations in Los Angeles at Clube LA and at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
The WTA announced a new strategic partnership with beauty brand Moroccanoil. Together, the two brands will launch a series of videos featuring the philanthropic efforts of WTA athletes around the world, further expanding the reach and impact these initiatives can achieve.
Toyota signed on with USA Curling in a sponsorship deal that includes the Paralympic program, National Championships, Curling Night in America on NBCSN, and activation at one Paralympic Team and two Olympic Team Trials in 2021. Toyota dealers and regions will have the opportunity to amplify the partnerships with local activations at a grassroots level with community-based activities.
Airbnb for Work went live with a digital marketing campaign spotlighting DeMarcus Cousins, who worked with Airbnb on his move to the Bay Area after joining the Golden State Warriors. The campaign marks the brand’s first partnership with a professional athlete.
Walmart announced a deal with Fanatics to see licensed sports apparel and merchandise via the chain’s online platform. Fan Shop by Fanatics will sell hundreds of thousands of items featuring professional sports leagues such as the NFL, NBA and MLB. In a blog post, the announcement stated that the deal with Fanatics is a “long-term partnership,” while financial terms were not disclosed.
State Farm inked its first-ever sponsorship of an individual professional esports athlete, signing a deal for Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo, a key Twitch streamer and captain of Rogue’s Fortnite team, and boasting 2.9 million followers on Twitch and 7 million followers across all social platforms. Terms of the sponsorship include State Farm support of DrLupo’s livestreams through branded replays, live in-stream stunts and product integrations, event-based remote streams, sponsored giveaways, and social content. “Being given the opportunity to work with State Farm is, without a doubt, huge,” DrLupo said. “I couldn’t imagine a better company to work with, and I’m excited to see what we can do together in the future.”
Psyonix detailed its plans for Season 7 of the Rocket League Championship Series, offering over $1 million in prizing and the addition of South America as an official RLCS region. Signups run through March 1, with qualifiers starting March 2. The Rival Series Play-In takes place in NA on March 30 with Europe’s the next day. League play then launches April 6.
FanAI added esports data startup, Waypoint Media, under its umbrella and will now integrate Waypoint’s tools into their existing platform to provide “additional granular audience data points that give clients unique actionable insights in order to guide marketing, sponsorship, and fan activation decisions.” The deal includes Waypoint’s market-leading Twitch Middleware API, URL shortener and tracking platform Raven, and a top-notch engineering team with over five years of experience in esports data. In addition, the Raven URL shortener will enable FanAI clients to see a roadmap of how users browse their online platforms, supplementing FanAI’s current purchasing data to show further deeper looks at how the fans engage with websites, shops, and social content. As part of the acquisition, Waypoint’s Chief Product Officer, Kevin Hsu, joins FanAI as Head of Engineering.
The Fan Controlled Football League announced today that multi-platinum award-winning artist Prince Royce has joined the league as a team owner. He will also be serving as celebrity “Fan Captain” for his franchise. FCFL had previously named Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman as team owners and the league will be announcing owners for the remaining five teams in the coming weeks. The inaugural FCFL season kicks off in June 2019 with eight teams.
Lightning/Penguins on NBCSN at 8p.
