Dallas Mavericks finalize multi-year jersey patch deal with Chime

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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban shakes hands with Luka Doncic (77) after the 117-110 win over the San Antonio Spurs in an NBA basketball game Monday, Nov. 18, 2019, in Dallas.

Richard W. Rodriguez | AP

The Dallas Mavericks on Friday finalized their jersey sponsorship, agreeing to a multiyear deal with mobile banking service Chime.

Financial terms of the deal were not announced, but the agreement is for three years with an option to extend it to five years, according to people familiar with the deal.

According to one National Basketball Association official, the league’s patch sponsorships range from $2 million to $20 million per season, depending on market size. The Los Angeles Lakers’ sponsorship deal with e-commerce company Wish and the Golden State Warriors’ deal with online retailer Rakuten are tops in the league, with both deals somewhere around $20 million per season, according to league officials.

One NBA official said the league grosses roughly $150 million annually from jersey patch sponsorships, which began in 2017.

Chime will have its logo on the upper left shoulder area of all Mavs jerseys starting with Friday night’s contest against the Portland Trail Blazers on a nationally televised game. It’s the company’s first jersey sponsorship.

Chime CEO and co-founder Chris Britt told CNBC the partnership with the Mavs was an “instant connection” between two “like-minded companies.”

Britt said Dallas is a “strong market for our business. It’s one of our top five cities.”

Currently one the most significant U.S. branchless banks, San Francisco-based Chime raised $500 million in a Series E round it closed recently, valuing the company at $5.8 billion, CNBC reported last month.

The bank was expected to generate an estimated $300 million in revenue for 2019, largely from swipe fees on debit cards, meaning its valuation is roughly 20 times revenue, a commonly used metric for start-ups.

Source: Chime

“The experience that Chime has developed for their members is truly setting the standard in financial services, similar to what we strive to provide to MFFL’s [Mavs Fans For Life] more than 41 nights a year at American Airlines Center,” billionaire team owner Mark Cuban said in a statement.

Britt also credited Cuban for agreeing to the partnership to help “people achieve financial peace of mind, get ahead, and avoid bank fees and all sorts of things that traditional banks do. I would be lying if I said having Mark involved wasn’t a draw.”

Mavs CEO Cynt Marshall told CNBC the decision to select Chime’s jersey patch aligned at the right time, as the team was also looking to fill its official team sponsorship slot, a title Chime will also hold with the new deal.

“We wanted somebody that was doing well as a business and growing,” Marshall said. “It’s a perfect fit.”

In addition to the patch, Chime will have an increased brand awareness throughout the American Airlines Center, which could reduce the advertising and visibility of other bank sponsors around the Mavs’ home arena.

“It’s a new era for us,” Marshall said. “It’s going to be very sensitive for some [companies] that they didn’t get it and that we went another way. But we feel really good about it.”

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