Turkish Airlines and Euroleague Basketball announce strategic partnership

Turkish Airlines have announced a strategic agreement with Euroleague Basketball to sponsor the top European basketball competition across the globe.

Under the terms of the agreement, starting next season the top European competition will be named Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball. Similarly, the Euroleague Final Four now becomes the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four and the new league title will appear in all media accordingly. The title partnership will run for five seasons, with the option of extending it to an additional five.

This agreement is very important for Euroleague as it is the first time in history that the league associated its name with a brand.

But this is not the first time that Turkish Airlines and Euroleague Basketball have partnered. During the recent 2010 Final Four in Paris, Turkish Airlines was one of Euroleague Basketball's main partners. That experience, say the two parties, showed that both organisations not only share the sporting values of teamwork, commitment and fair play, but also complementary platforms and markets.

The new agreement will allow both Euroleague Basketball and Turkish Airlines to enhance their commitment to the core European markets they share as well as to expand into others internationally. The agreement goes beyond the economic investment and reaches into other areas such as Euroleague Basketball's corporate responsibility programme, Euroleague for Life, in which Turkish Airlines will take an active role.

With this agreement Turkish Airlines has also become the main sponsor of Euro Cup, the biggest basketball competition in Europe after Euroleague.

"We have been working for a long time to find the right title partner that could satisfy not only the economic value of becoming a title sponsor but becoming a partner, with a commitment to the growth of basketball across the globe", said Jordi Bertomeu, CEO of Euroleague Basketball.

"We feel satisfied to have reached this agreement and to join forces with Turkish Airlines on what we consider as an integrated partnership model. We feel that Turkish Airlines is a perfect fit as title partner for the competition, not only for the track record in committing to professional sports across the continent, but also through our mutual commitment to developing activities off the court".

Hamdi Topcu, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Turkish Airlines, said: "Turkish Airlines has recently shown its aim to support sport activities by sponsoring the most reputable brands FC Barcelona and Manchester United football clubs and once again it is a great privilege for Turkish Airlines to be associated with Euroleague. We believe that this partnership also will make an excellent contribution to our brand value".

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