Lakers Switch from Gatorade to New Sponsor tied to Dallas Maverick Luka Doncic
The Los Angeles Lakers look to make up for a projected down year in revenue by trading in iconic beverage company, Gatorade, for a new upstart, BioSteel.
The reported deal is worth up to a possible $5 million a year and will include presence on the bench and stadium signage as the more prominent placements. Based on the projected revenue of $400 million, the Lakers are looking to do their best to get back to pre-pandemic revenue levels of $434 million as reported by Forbes. These kind of deals are going to be even more common with the increase in digital inventory the Lakers are looking to build.
For BioSteel, this seemed like an easy decision with the current additions of former MVP, Russell Westbrook and future Hall of Famer, Carmelo Anthony.
“Having a partnership with the Lakers gives us that exposure and awareness so that we can now activate on some of the distribution and sales initiatives that will coincide with it," - Michael Cammalleri, former NHL player and co-founder of BioSteel.
The unique part of this partnership is the involvement of Dallas Maverick superstar, Luka Doncic, who was added to BioSteel's team last March as part of a endorsement deal. We all know the $32 billion dollar beverage industry is a natural fit for these athletes, especially with the success of 50 cent and Vitamin Water, The Rock with Zoa and of course, Kobe Bryant with Body armor (paid $5 million for 10% stake in 2013).
Gatorade was in the hunt to renew it's sponsorship, but with it's new deal with the G-League and their parent company, PepsiCo, already employing LeBron James as their spokesperson, it seems they weren't willing to pay the asking price to beat out BioSteel.
