Apple’s Beats headphone and audio brand is making its first stick and ball sports league investment, picking up a NBA corporate sponsorship to pair with its stable of NBA endorsers, which includes Lakers F LeBron James, Rockets G James Harden and 76ers G Ben Simmons, among many others. Beats’ new rights are a multiyear deal which begins next month and runs across the NBA, USA Basketball, the WNBA and the G League. It covers the audio, headphone and wireless speaker markets. Beats replaces Harman/JBL in the audio category. Harman was a league sponsor since '14 and also had a handful of NBA and WNBA team deals, some of which will continue. As was the case with Harman, Beats will produce NBA-licensed audio products and establish its own network of team sponsorship rights. Beats’ new NBA rights represents a rare sponsorship spend by Apple and also shows how vibrant the headphone/audio has become. After years of inactivity, it now has large sponsorships with the NBA and the NFL (Bose). Other notable Beats endorsers include Serena Williams, Capitals RW Alex Ovechkin, golfer Justin Thomas and skier Lindsey Vonn.
