After its Super Bowl success, Papa John’s signs on with NFL

Papa John’s has signed on as the NFL’s official pizza for the next three years, expanding a deal that saw it rent those same rights in and around this year’s Super Bowl.

The company said the new rights agreement was its largest sponsorship ever and that marketing around the Super Bowl helped it record its biggest sales day ever on Super Bowl Sunday, when it sold more than 900,000 pizzas in the United States.

Under the deal, Papa John’s receives regular-season rights and official pizza sponsor designation for Super Bowl XLV, XLVI and XLVII. The NFL has not had a full-time quick-service restaurant corporate sponsor since Burger King in the 2007 season.

While Papa John’s gets category exclusivity within the delivery, carryout and frozen-pizza categories, the NFL is free to cut other QSR sponsorship deals. Last year, the NFL did one-off QSR deals with IHOP, KFC, McDonald’s for the Pro Bowl, and Papa John’s for the Super Bowl.

The pizza brand’s sports portfolio also includes NCAA sponsorship rights, naming rights to the University of Louisville’s football stadium, title sponsorship of the bowl game in Birmingham, Ala., and team sponsorships with 11 NFL clubs.