Samsung gets NBA monopoly for $100M

As basketball fans have geared up for the new season, the National Basketball Association has done the same — literally. The league recently signed a three-year, $100 million sponsorship deal making Samsung Electronics Co. the NBA’s official and exclusive supplier of the league’s courtside technology. However, the NBA isn’t buying the new technology. Samsung is paying the league $100 million to have the brand’s television screens, tablets and handheld devices used — and prominently displayed — courtside during games for the next three years.

In this article, Loeb & Loeb attorneys Douglas N. Masters and Seth A. Rose examine this deal, which is a prime example of how to integrate a sponsor’s brands and products with a property to a much greater degree than in a traditional sponsorship arrangement.