New multi-year partnership with Zalgiris influenced by unfaded interest in basketball 0

After extensive research and a partnership evaluation, OlyBet is set to strengthen Zalgiris’ partner ranks, as the club and the widely respected sports betting company agreed on a multi-year extension. OlyBet is also set to become the main sponsor of Zalgiris TV video content platform on YouTube for the upcoming three years.

Having stood alongside Zalgiris for the past four basketball seasons (two of them – as the general partner of the club), OlyBet took the time to evaluate the effect of the partnership with Zalgiris on the company’s brand recognition and favorability..

“This partnership is an important message not only to Lithuanian, but Latvian and Estonian OlyBet communities, since it’s the long-term partnerships like these that are most meaningful. We value Zalgiris’ management and the value this club creates for everyone – the team, the players, fans and businesses. It’s an honor to stand beside the best team in the country. Market analysis also shows that fans also value this partnership, so we had no doubts to be Zalgiris’ partner for at least three more years.” – said Olympic Casino Group Baltics CEO Saulius Petravicius.

Unchanged for decades, basketball is undoubtedly Lithuania’s number one sport, with a large part of the country’s population regularly casting eyes on the Zalgiris Kaunas basketball team. Of the respondents in Lithuania who place sports bets, 64 percent noted to follow the games of the Lithuanian powerhouse. Not only the interest in basketball, but also the high brand recognition was tracked in OlyBet’s evaluation, as the lion’s share – 54 percent – of the people surveyed in Lithuania recognized and knew that OlyBet was a proud sponsor of Zalgiris.

The survey outputs suggest that a basketball club can perform as an influencer. For example, among the respondents who had not yet placed bets in OlyBet and did not previously know about the partnership with the club, 34 percent declared that they would now rather make sports bets with OlyBet instead of their current sports betting brand.

All the previously mentioned insights show not only the business potential of such partnerships, but also the extent to which consumers value the junction of a brand and a sports club, performing as a brand-influencer. In this particular case, a staggering 70 percent of people surveyed claimed to view the partnership as either very important, or rather important.

Zalgiris director Paulius Motiejunas was excited about this long-term partnership and values it as recognition.

“This is our fifth season working together with OlyBet, so it was right about time to calculate the feedback from clients. OlyBet did what no partner had done before with this analysis. These kinds of innovative and weighted partnerships are very exciting, since this is proof that they are mutually beneficial and has tangible results. It’s a great recognition for the work the club has put in and helps make sure of stable results both on and off the court.”

The OlyBet brand belongs to Olympic Casino Group Baltics, which is part of the largest Eastern European entertainment company Olympic Entertainment Group. OlyBet has been working alongside Zalgiris and has been a partner since 2015.