NBA announces partnership deal with PepsiCo
The NBA announced Monday that PepsiCo’s brands will be named the official foods and beverages of the NBA, the WNBA, the Development League and USA Basketball.
The five-year deal will give PepsiCo official partner status with all four major sports leagues. The rest of the terms were not disclosed.
The most prominent brand in the partnership will be Mountain Dew, replacing lead Coca-Cola brand Sprite, which was the sponsor of the Slam Dunk Contest. Coca-Cola had been a league sponsor since 1986.
PepsiCo’s Gatorade already has been the league’s longest continuous sponsor having a deal as the official sports drink since 1984.
New PepsiCo brands that will now have official status will include Aquafina, Brisk, Doritos and Ruffles. The deal also allows company partner Tingyi, China’s largest soda producer, to exploit the league’s portfolio of assets.
Mountain Dew was the third-best-selling soda in the United States in 2014 by market share (8.7 percent), behind only Coke (15.4 percent) and Pepsi (10.3 percent).
Coca-Cola said in a statement that it will “continue to have a strong presence within basketball culture through our relationships with iconic players. We will also continue to be visible through ongoing relationships with individual teams and venues.”
The company has endorsement deals with LeBron James and Derrick Rose.
Coca-Cola announced Monday morning that it had signed a sponsorship deal to replace Pepsi as the official beverage of Major League Soccer. Pepsi had been partnered with MLS since the league’s first season in 1996.
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