NBA teams surpassed $1.2B in sponsorship revenues, achieving 50% growth over the 2020-21 season.

This week the NBA 2021-22 Marketing & Partnerships Annual Report was released. The report is fortified by data from over 6,000 NBA sponsorship and media deals from the 2021-22 NBA season. It highlights the impact of team revenue in addition to a comprehensive dive into marketing and partnerships across the league, all 30 teams, players, categories, assets, and brands.

Key findings from the report include:

• NBA teams surpassed $1.2B in sponsorship revenues, achieving 50% growth over the 2020-21 season.Nearing $450M in additional spending on team sponsorships.

• Revenue was driven by a significant increase in spending across the Sports Betting and Financial categories, and the emergence of Cryptocurrency.Socios.com, which had no NBA deals in 2020-21, launched 28 individual deals this season.

• NBA players continue to expand as a platform for brands, as they saw a 46% increase in deals from the prior year. Player endorsements now represent 30% of total NBA brand deals.

• Five of the top six searched companies on the SponsorUnited platform by NBA executives were cryptocurrency brands (FTX, Crypto.com, Coinbase, Voyager, Ankr.)
• Cryptocurrency had a higher search volume than the entire alcohol category. In fact, not one alcohol brand ranked within the top most searched 50 brands.

• Performance on the court had the most direct correlation with fan interest.
• Playoff-eligible teams increased their social following during the season at a 150% higher rate than teams that missed the playoffs.

• Despite missing the playoffs in his 19th season, LeBron James' social following saw a massive increase of 22M new followers, which is more than 25 individual NBA teams.In fact, he alone has more Instagram followers than every NBA team’s total social following across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.

“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” said SponsorUnited President & Founder, Bob Lynch.

For more key insights and access to the complete report, download the SponsorUnited NBA 2021-22 Marketing & Partnerships Annual Report at SponsorUnited.com.

Methodology

This report was compiled using SponsorUnited’s proprietary platform data from September 2021 through May 2022.

*Social Data Compiled from Property or Person-Controlled Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn Accounts and Social Activity.