Tencent enhances Fiba association with global sponsorship deal

The International Basketball Federation (Fiba) has strengthened its relationship with Tencent by agreeing a nine-year global sponsorship deal with the Chinese internet company.

The agreement becomes effective in 2017 and will run through to the end of 2025. Tencent will serve as a Fiba partner and global partner of all of the body’s major national team competitions.

Events covered by the deal include Fiba-organised World Cups, Continental Cups, Olympic qualifying tournaments, U19 and U17 World Championships and World Cup qualifiers. Fiba said China’s staging of the World Cup in 2019 would mark an “important landmark” in the deal.

Under the agreement, Tencent brands such as social network QQ.com, instant messaging service WeChat, e-payment services WeChat Payment and QQ Wallet, and online gaming platform Tencent Games will be promoted at the aforementioned events.

The deal builds upon a wide-ranging media partnership signed between the two parties in May. That agreement runs through to 2025 and involves digital media rights as well as the hosting of the Fiba.com website in China.

“China is already today one of the most important countries for Fiba and basketball and has a lot of heritage with over 600,000 basketball courts across the country,” Fiba secretary general Patrick Baumann said. “We aim to build on the enormous passion for the sport in this territory in our quest to make basketball the most popular sport in every corner of the world. With such a partner as Tencent, we can bring basketball to every household in China not only on the road to the Fiba Basketball World Cup 2019, but far beyond.”