Australia’s top-flight National Basketball League (NBL) has renewed its major partnership with automotive giant Mitsubishi for the next three seasons.
Mitsubishi will continue as the league’s major partner and official vehicle partner through the end of the 2027-28 campaign.
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The car giant has been a partner of the NBL continuously since 2023, with GlobalData Sport estimating its value at around $900,000 per year, having also partnered with the league for nine years in the 1990s.
That initial partnership was set to run through the current 2024-25 campaign.
After its 2023 tie-up, Mitsubishi extended the deal to cover the semi-professional NBL 1 competition as title sponsor.
Speaking on the extended partnership, NBL chief executive David Stevenson stated: “We are experiencing unprecedented growth in TV viewership, attendances and digital engagement. As we celebrate all those achievements and many others, we acknowledge we wouldn’t be in this position without the incredible support of global powerhouse brands like Mitsubishi Motors.”
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By GlobalDataOther prominent partners of the NBL include title sponsor Hungry Jacks, the fast food chain that has covered the league since 2017.
In 2024, that deal was renewed for five years with Hungry Jacks now committed to the role of title sponsor through the 2028-29 campaign.
The 2024-25 NBL season will run through its March 2025 finals, with the regular season (which began on September 19), running through February 8.
In the 2023-24 season, league broadcast ratings grew 26% year-on-year (YoY) from the 2022-23 season with the ratings of its season-ending finals in particular growing by 27%.
The NBL is broadcast domestically on pay-TV giant ESPN, which in 2024 renewed its broadcast deal to continue covering the league. At the same time, the NBL also added free-to-air to its broadcast mix courtesy of a new tie-up with Network 10, increasing viewership exposure for the league as well as commercial opportunities for the likes of Hungry Jack’s.
League attendance also grew in the 2023-24 season to the highest figure since 1995, and the third highest overall. Only the 1994 and 1995 NBL seasons boasted a larger collective attendance than the 1,097,455 audience that attended across the 154 games of the 2023-24 season, which was notable given that the 1994 (198 games) and 1995 (201 games) campaigns had far bigger calendars.
