International sports marketing agency Infront has been awarded exclusive sponsorship sales rights to Germany’s top-tier Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) for the 2023-24 season.
The new deal will see Infront manage the sale of all central sponsorship packages, including naming rights and extensive advertising opportunities during BBL matchdays.
As part of the agreement, Infront will also serve as a strategic partner for the competition’s sustainability initiatives and programs to nurture young talent.
Infront has worked with BBL on a non-exclusive basis since 2016, securing a title sponsorship renewal in September 2020 with financial services company TeamBank in a deal that runs through the 2023-24 campaign.
That deal saw TeamBank’s easyCredit brand continue to lend its name to the BBL as it had done since the start of the 2016-17 campaign when it replaced Beko, the Turkish domestic appliances manufacturer.
Marco Sautner, managing director at Infront Germany, said: “Over the last few years, we have had the pleasure of working with easyCredit BBL on various projects.
“This has resulted in a trusting cooperation that has always been very cooperative. We are delighted to take the next step and support the BBL as an exclusive marketing partner in strategic matters and to further strengthen it as a communication platform.”
The new deal comes as the BBL prepares to welcome a new broadcast partner for the upcoming season after striking a six-year rights deal with S-Nation Media, the new sports streaming platform launched by publishing giant Axel Springer and Christian Seifert, the former chief executive of the German Football League.
S-Nation Media replaces previous rights holder Deutsche Telekom, whose deal expired at the end of the 2022-23 season, after outbidding the German telecoms operator. The streaming platform will now take over responsibility for producing all matches in the BBL and the BBL Pokal knockout clubs competition.
In addition, the streaming service has agreed partnerships with Bild, the German media outlet, and public service broadcaster ARD to provide some matches free-to-air.
The new streaming platform was announced in January after Seifert’s Reedstreet Ventures holding company established the media start-up with Axel Springer.
The venture is planned to launch in late-2023 to coincide with the start of its new rights deals and will adopt both direct-to-consumer and wholesale models.
