For the third time since last October, financial service company Robinhood has announced it will put its logo on the jersey of an NBA team. On Tuesday, it added the Miami Heat to an advertising push that also includes the Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards.
Robinhood’s trio of jersey partnerships in one league is a fresh take on an advertising method that is altogether a relatively new phenomenon in the United States.
More from Sportico.com
Until 2017, no U.S. sports league permitted any brand placement on in-game uniforms. Then, the NBA opened the door to the prime real estate for accessing viewers, following in the footsteps of a longstanding practice in international club soccer.
European soccer teams, though, rarely share the same jersey sponsors as others in their league. As a result, the jersey sponsorships become an individualized, identifying endeavor over the lifespan of the partnership. Manchester City, for example, is currently the only Premier League team to promote Etihad Airways on the front of its kit.
Robinhood has taken a different approach in the NBA, becoming the first company with three jersey patches at once.
While holding multiple brand partnerships in a single European soccer league might be rare, some companies, such as Emirates and Red Bull, have successfully adorned the fronts of jerseys for prominent clubs in different leagues at the same time, according to Michael Goodbody, Robinhood’s vice president of marketing and communications.
Goodbody also said Washington, Memphis and Miami have distinct features that Robinhood thought made them worth partnering with simultaneously. “There is a clear business advantage in connecting with multiple fan bases given the vast cultural differences between all three communities and cities,” Goodbody said in an email.
All three deals were facilitated by Klutch Sports Group, and a routine has come together to execute them. Robinhood worked with Klutch even before making the Rich Paul-led company its “agency of record for partnerships in the sports and entertainment sectors” in March 2024.
Last year, Klutch helped Robinhood gain its first NBA jersey patch with the Wizards through a separate deal with Monumental Sports, and in June Klutch aided Robinhood’s first investment into women’s sports when it reached a patch deal with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. Robinhood coordinated with Washington, Monumental and Klutch in part because D.C. is where CEO Vlad Tenev grew up, and it presented an opportunity to strengthen its footprint in the nation’s capital.
Liking how the Washington project worked out, Robinhood turned to Memphis and Miami this summer.
For the Grizzlies, Goodbody said Robinhood felt “the organization was undervalued versus other opportunities within the league” and appreciated its self-identification as a gritty city. “Pound for pound they have some of the most impressive social reach in the league and that’s a key component of any deal,” Goodbody said.
Miami, meanwhile, already possessed a large customer base for Robinhood that it wanted to build on, with Klutch helping negotiate the company’s third jersey patch deal.
Klutch was originally founded with a focus on representing athletes, but it has since looked for ways to diversify its portfolio of services. Managing brand-to-team marketing ventures has been a fruitful niche for Klutch. Its first such success was announced in July 2021—a brokered jersey patch deal between the Houston Rockets and fintech firm Credit Karma Money.
It has found an enthusiastic partner in Robinhood, which will test the merits of a high-volume jersey patch approach in the NBA market.
Best of Sportico.com
Sign up for Sportico’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
