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Marketing and Sponsorship

SponsorUnited continues rise, gets $15M funding

SponsorUnited announced a deal in September with the Utah Jazz, one of dozens of pro teams using the service.

SponsorUnited has closed on $15 million in funding from Miami-based venture capital firm Volta Global. The funding is in the form of a convertible note that will translate into equity based on results from the next round of financing. Volta’s other investments include a position in Sirius XM.

 

SponsorUnited, a sponsorship database firm, was founded less than two years ago and helps marketing professionals track the often-byzantine world of sports sponsorship (see story in SBJ's July 8 issue). Founder Bob Lynch said SponsorUnited has close to 200 properties as clients, encompassing 2,000 active users — which equates to a growth rate in excess of 500% from
Year 1 to Year 2. Overall, SponsorUnited indexes more than 5.9 million sponsor assets across 37,000 separate sponsorships, 24,000 brands and more than 3,000 properties across sports.

Lynch said his company will use the funding to further its technology and continue to expand its customer base from one that’s been largely on the sell side (85% of all domestic pro teams have the service, he said), to a move into the buy side of the sponsorship equation: agencies, brands, potential media clients, and possibly smaller properties and events.

Some of that new funding has already been put to use. SponsorUnited has hired Rajiv Khanna as its first senior vice president, partnerships. Khanna, who will build out a business development team, starts this week. Most recently, Khanna was vice president, teams, at Nielsen Sports. He’s also held marketing positions at Yahoo Sports, Defy Media and Viacom.

Early SponsorUnited investors included Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, while retired ESPN sales chief Ed Erhardt is on the company’s advisory board. SponsorUnited had previously raised $1.3 million in seed funding and another round is anticipated next year.

■ COIN OF THE REALM? Will cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin become the new hot sponsorship category? Crypto brands have been affiliating commercially with European soccer teams for the past few years: The Premier League’s Wolverhampton Wanderers has a relationship with CoinDeal, and Watford has a Bitcoin logo on its jersey sleeve and accepts Bitcoin payment on its e-commerce site. Rival crypto brand Quantocoin raised eyebrows in 2018 when it engineered a 25% purchase of Italian Serie C soccer team Rimini FC 1912 entirely with its own cryptocurrency.

Stateside, there have been just a few deals. The Miami Dolphins have a sponsorship with Litecoin, under which that crypto brand sponsors the game-day 50/50 raffle and accepts Litecoin as payment. UFC also had a short-term sponsorship with Litecoin late last year, which included Octagon branding. Industry sources tell us UFC is now close to another low seven-figure crypto deal with UnitedCoin. The Cleveland Cavaliers in July unveiled a deal with that same company that included rights for its NBA 2K league team, along with social and digital ad inventory and LED arena signage.

The future of crypto as a sponsorship vehicle is still unclear in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a jumbled and uncertain regulatory environment. Still, sponsorship agency Premier Partnerships, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is zeroing in on the nascent category and is already involved with a possible esports deal. 

Tyler Adkison, coordinator of corporate sponsorships at Premier, said he saw several team sports sales reps at the Blockchain Week series of crypto conferences in Las Vegas in late October.

Add to that the fact that the developing cannabis arena generally can’t use interstate banking in the U.S. and things get even more intriguing. 

■ WIN, PLACE, SELL: Allied Sports is selling what is believed to be the first presenting sponsorships for the Preakness Stakes as part of a new sales assignment from The Stronach Group, which owns Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Santa Anita Park in Southern California, and Gulfstream Park in Florida. Pricing evaluation and packaging are the initial assignments for Allied, but the presenting package will include 30-second spots and integration within the NBC broadcast of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, along with on-site signage and hospitality.

With Pimlico hosting little else beyond the Preakness, “opportunities for customization are endless,’’ said Heath Price-Khan, Allied Sports senior vice president, property sales. He added that the Kentucky Derby’s top-tier deal with Woodford Reserve will serve as a model. Secondary sponsorship inventory centers on the massive Infield Fest and concert.

■ FROZEN IVY: The Leverage Agency is again promoting, packaging and selling sponsorships — including a presenting slot — around a Yale vs. Harvard hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 11 dubbed “Rivalry On Ice.’’ Surrounding events include an alumni game at Chelsea Piers that morning, celebrity drop-ins, and pre- and postgame parties. Marketing assets in the sponsorship packages include dasherboard signage.

 

 

 

O'Keefe

■ COMINGS & GOINGS: Longtime NFL licensing exec Bob O’Keefe has resurfaced at Legends as senior vice president, merchandise operations and e-commerce strategy. It is a new position in which O’Keefe will help direct the company’s integration of MainGate, the event merchandiser and e-commerce company that Legends acquired earlier this year. O’Keefe will surely help with the competitive set, since he worked at rival Fanatics for nine years, until his departure this May. … Paul Bamundo, a former marketer at the NBA and Subway and a 2012 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree, has joined Laurel Road as senior vice president, head of business development and marketing partnerships. Laurel Road is a financial services company that specializes in student loan refinancing. Bamundo had been CMO for JMI’s Ivy League Sports Marketing organization since 2016.

Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

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