NBA on Prime Presenting Sponsors Include Wingstop, Mercedes-Benz, CarMax, AT&T
Universal Orlando Resort to present ‘The Crossover,’ Wayfair sponsoring NBA Nightcab, State Farm to sponsor second-round NBA playoffs
With the NBA season two weeks from tipping off, Amazon Ads has set its roster of presenting sponsors for its NBA on Prime Video telecasts.
AT&T, which not too long ago owned the NBA’s long-time cable home TNT, will sponsor The Half during games streaming on prime. AT&T will also serve as the technology provider for the LED court and Amazon Studios NBA production studio in Culver Studio.
CarMax is sponsoring the NBA on Prime Pregame show and Wayfair is sponsoring NBA Nightcap.
Universal Orlando Resort is the sponsor of The Crossover, which will appear between double-header games on prime.
Additionally, Wingstop is sponsoring Prime’s Thursday and Friday games, while Mercedes-Benz USA sponsors its Saturday games.
Finally, State Farm is sponsoring the second-round NBA playoff games on Prime.
"These partnerships represent another milestone as we continue to expand our live sports offerings," said Danielle Carney, head of U.S. video and live sports sales at Amazon Ads.
"The strong response validates our approach to making premium branded opportunities available on Prime Video around sports content like the NBA,” Carney said. “By leveraging our successful learnings with Thursday Night Football, we're creating an enhanced NBA advertising experience that enables brands to forge meaningful connections with passionate basketball fans through premium content, innovative ad formats, and exclusive measurement capabilities that deliver full-funnel results."
Prime Video’s NBA season starts with a doubleheader on October 24 featuring the Celtics playing the Knicks and the Lakers hosting the Timberwolves.
Under an 11-year agreement with the NBA, Prime Video will stream 67 regular season games, the Emirates NBA Cup, the SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament, and the NBA playoffs to Prime annually.
Amazon is adding the NBA to its sports portfolio which already includes the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football, the WNBA, WNSL and NASCAR.
Earlier this week. NBCUniversal announced that it is already nearly sold out of its NBA inventory. The NBA is returning to NBC, which aired NBA from 1990 to 2002.
NBCU said it sold NBA ads to more than 170 brands and that more than 20% of its NBA advertisers were new to NBCU and its Peacock streaming service.
Among the key sponsors of the NBA on NBC are American Express, Kia, McDonald’s State Farm, Wingstop and Comcast’s Xfinity.