Fantasy Euroleague Changes Sponsor, Loses Nike
By: deckardt | Categories: Euroleague, Fantasy Basketball, Nike
The title sponsor for Euroleague’s Fantasy Basketball Challenge is SportingBet. What is surprising is that the sponsor of this game last year was Nike. What caused the switch?
Does this mean a big advertiser like Nike has given up on fantasy? or just European fantasy basketball? or did NIKEiD have its budget cut? or could it be that Nike was simply outbid by Sporting Bet? The bigger issue is that a blue-chip sponsor was replaced by an online sportsbook. I think it is more one of the latter reasons, but is not entirely impossible for the former reasons. In terms of brand power, this is definitely a step backwards for Euroleague’s game.
Last year, NikeID very prominently sponsored the fantasy challenge. In case you are not familiar with it, NIKEiD is a site that allows customers to completely customize and order a pair of Nike sneakers, which makes fantasy basketball a good fit for sponsorship.
As a cultural aside, the idea of a sportsbook sponsoring a league’s official fantasy game would never happen. The professional leagues in the United States fight legalized gambling as much as they can and would never let a sportsbook sponsor its games.
Anyway, just something I noticed that I thought you might be interested to know.
