Sacramento Kings announce partnership with Indian company

Sacramento Kings arrive in India

NBA team, the Sacramento Kings, on Thursday announced that they have agreed to a corporate sponsorship with Indian development company The Krrish Group, further expanding their links to India.

Vivek Ranadive, Kings managing partner is an Indian native and has frequently spoken about transforming the Kings franchise into a global brand.

Krrish Group recently finalized a multi-franchise agreement to operate Jimboy’s Tacos store in India. The team said that the partnership with Kings will include advertisements promoting the Jimboy’s Tacos during game broadcasts, inside Sleep Train Arena and on digital platform including the Kings’ Hindi-language website.

“Given the increasing popularity of basketball and the Kings in India, we hope that this will be the first of many important business partnerships from the region,” Ranadive said in a statement.

Few, if any, other NBA franchises have sponsorships with Indian based companies. Kings further added that they expect to announce more partnerships with Indian companies in 2014.

Chris Granger, the Kings’ President said in an interview that the partnership is “indicative of the fact that globally minded companies are interested in the Kings.” He also added that the arrangement with Krrish is their only partnership with a company based in another country.

“This is just the start of things to come,” Granger said.

Hindi-language version of The Kings website was launched earlier this season. Indian journalists attended the team’s first home game of the season, which included a cricket march and Kings dancers performing on Bollywood-style routines. Members of the Kings dance team also traveled to India this year.

Vice President of business development for the Krrish Group, Prakhar Gupta, said in a statement: “the Indian consumer and retail market has literally been exploding during the last 10 years and the trend is projected to continue for many years to come.”