The National Basketball Association had no trouble overcoming the shortened season when it comes to sponsorship revenue. New findings from sponsorship consultancy IEG show that the league and its 30 teams hauled in a record $1.46 billion for the 2020-21 season, up 6% from last season. The uptick came as the NBA reduced the number of regular-season games to 72 from a typical 82.

“NBA sponsorship revenue is close to reaching the heights of the preeminent National Football League that had total sponsorship revenue [of] $1.62 billion last season,” IEG Global Managing Director Peter Laatz said in a statement. “The star power, number of games, variety of sponsorable assets and global popularity of the NBA all contribute to the League’s continued growth.”

IEG, which tracks sponsorships across sports and other categories, announced its findings today as the NBA Playoffs continue.

NBA league-level sponsorship spending has jumped by nearly 50% since the 2017-18 season, trailing only Major League Soccer’s growth rate, IEG reported. And total NBA and team sponsorship revenue has grown by nearly 70% since the 2016-17 season, which was the last season before jersey patch sponsorships were introduced.

Most teams now sport branded patches on their players’ jerseys. This season, 27 of the NBA’s 30 teams had jersey patch sponsors, including newcomers Honey with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Motorola with the Brooklyn Nets. 

"Some teams are getting more than $15 million per year for jersey patches and that is close to the $30 million a naming rights sponsorship can bring in annually," said Laatz.

Motorola is the only brand with patches worn by multiple teams, with its logo appearing on the jerseys for the Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Indiana Pacers. As a jersey patch sponsor for the Nets and Bucks, Motorola got lots of exposure during the Eastern Conference Semifinals and continues to be seen as the Bucks lead the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals. (The Pacers, however, didn’t make the playoffs.)

According to IEG, the NBA struck 13 new league-level deals for the 2020-21 season, including naming Microsoft the official artificial intelligence partner, official cloud and laptop partner. 

The categories of technology, lottery and gaming, telecommunications, sports apparel and banking each spend more than $100 million on NBA sponsorships annually, IEG reported. Technology was the top sponsorship category during the season, with close to $115 million in new spending, while lottery and gaming brands added nearly $50 million of new spending, according to IEG. 

The most active brand categories are insurance, retail, beer and wine/spirits, with each of those categories having more than 70 individual deals. Based on the number of partnerships, the busiest marketers are State Farm, Anheuser-Busch and Verizon, which each have sponsorship deals with 20 or more NBA teams, according to IEG. Verizon, it noted, signed 12 new NBA deals last season.

The NBA offers a variety of places for brands to appear and be seen by fans both in person and watching from home. Kia, the NBA’s official automotive partner, has been promoting its new logo in areas such as on the floor in some arenas. 

And as teams advance in the playoffs, certain brands are getting more exposure. 

The Atlanta Hawks have Atlanta-based health and wellness platform Sharecare as their jersey patch sponsor, while State Farm has arena naming rights. The PayPal logo appears on the Phoenix Suns jerseys. The Suns don’t have an arena naming rights sponsor.