The NBA is making its annual preseason Global Games trek with eight new partners on board this year.
In total, the league’s international effort this season will see nine NBA teams play seven games in seven cities across six countries. Along with five preseason games to be played overseas this month, there is a regular-season contest in Mexico City between Minnesota and Houston on Nov. 12 and a regular-season game between New York and Milwaukee in London on Jan. 15.
New partners for the international games include Unilever’s Clear brand, Continental Tire and Delta Air Lines as partners for games between Brooklyn and Sacramento in Shanghai on Sunday and in Beijing on Oct. 15. League partner SAP, which sponsored league games in China last year, returns as partner for the China games this year.
Also like last year, ZTE Mobile is the presenting partner for the Global Games in China.
For a game on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro between Cleveland and Miami, the NBA has added Oi telecommunications group as a presenting partner. FedEx, Tam Travel and Harman (also the NBA’s newest league-level sponsor) have signed as partners for the game as well.
Sprite and Cisco, which sponsored a preseason game in Rio last year, return as sponsors for this year’s Rio game. Sprite, which counts Cleveland’s LeBron James as a company endorser, will have in-store promotions at Subway stores in Rio. Cisco will activate with hospitality at the game.
Sports social media outlet Sportlobster has signed as a presenting sponsor of Wednesday’s preseason game in Berlin between San Antonio and European team Alba Berlin, with the company to have activation areas at a fan zone next to the arena leading up to the game along with concourse activation.
Garanti Bank returns as presenting partner for a game in Istanbul that has the Spurs playing Fenerbahce Ulker on Saturday.
In a separate but related activation, Avea will be the presenting sponsor of the Larry O’Brien Trophy Tour that the NBA is conducting across Turkey in conjunction with the NBA champion Spurs’ appearance in the country.
Adidas is a sponsor of both the Istanbul game and the Berlin game.
“This is the first year we will have presenting sponsors for all the [preseason] games,” said Emilio Collins, executive vice president of global marketing partnerships for the NBA. “Across the board we continue to grow our presence. We have a total of 20 partners across the slate of games.”
The NBA has not announced any presenting sponsors for the international regular-season games, in Mexico City and London.
