Home Team Sports sold an interesting sponsorship for the NBA’s opening week.
The Fox Sports-owned group that sells national ads for all regional sports networks — whether they are owned by Fox Sports or not — sold an NBA opening week sponsorship to Cricket Wireless. The one-year deal marks the first time that HTS sold an opening week sponsorship across NBA games, with 25 of the 29 U.S.-based regional sports networks that carry NBA games.
Cricket, a prepaid wireless carrier owned by AT&T, previously advertised with MLB and the NBA.
Sprint had been the NBA’s official telco sponsor for the past four seasons, but walked after last season. At deadline, the category still was open.
The deal is nearly identical to the sponsorship HTS sold Dairy Queen around the NHL’s opening week games in 2014 and earlier this year. HTS negotiated the deals in both cases, which include on-air branded features, on-screen logos and social media promotions. Both deals allow for sponsored video highlights on HTS Rewind, a video syndication business that accounts for around 17 million unique viewers per month.
Deal terms were not disclosed. HTS sold similar sponsorships for the opening rounds of the NBA and NHL playoffs last season to KFC and Volvo, respectively. Those deals were in the low seven figures, sources said.
