IndyCar this afternoon officially announced that it has signed NTT, the Japanese parent company of NTT Data Services, to a multiyear deal to replace Verizon as title sponsor. IndyCar is not releasing the exact amount of years for the deal, and CEO Mark Miles declined to say whether it was less than five years. He did say the deal is comparable to the prior Verizon pact financially, which was worth $10M annually. NTT becomes the official technology partner of IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. THE DAILY first reported earlier this month that NTT was in advanced talks with IndyCar to take over the deal. Despite NTT Data’s presence in the U.S., the series will simply be called the NTT IndyCar Series. NTT chose to use its parent company name for the deal because it has a new initiative underway to raise awareness in countries where its subsidiaries do business that it is the parent company. Both NTT Data and the parent company were involved in setting up the deal, which Miles said NTT Data first proposed to IndyCar in September.
DEAL DETAILS: NTT and IndyCar are already collaborating on a new IndyCar app, and NTT is also planning to use the platform to introduce and test several projects. NTT is No. 55 on the Fortune 500 list with $106B in global annual revenue. NTT Data has been a sponsor of Chip Ganassi Racing since ’12; that deal is not expected to be affected by its parent company’s new title sponsorship. Miles: “It is a fantastic development -- it’s the next step in our growth. It was made possible because IndyCar has been growing in all the fan metrics and in terms of our global fan recognition.” He said the “other key component” was NTT Data’s deal with Ganassi. Miles: “They loved the experience. So, we had a foundation for the discussion that made it something that everyone was interested in.”
