The 2023 FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup set a record for the most-attended World Cup game in a tournament’s history, breaking the previous record set in 1994. This was accompanied by great support for this year’s tournament, with 10 global partners, including Nike and Wanda Group, who are long-term partners of FIBA. The tournament generated an estimated sponsorship value of $81.85 million, including Nike agreeing to a deal with FIBA worth $15 million, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report “FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023 – Post Event Analysis,” reveals that this year’s competition agreed 81 broadcast deals and 41 sponsorship deals.

Olivia Snooks, Associate Sport Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The record attendance shows the growing popularity of basketball around the world. With extensive support from broadcasters and sponsors, the tournament was able to make this one to remember for its fans.”

With an unbeaten record throughout the tournament, Germany defeated two-time champion Serbia to lift the World Cup for the first time. Dennis Schröder, who was awarded the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 28 points to help his team achieve victory. In terms of their sponsorships, the German Basketball Federation’s long-term sponsor, ING, was the German Basketball team front of shirt sponsor during their successful World Cup campaign.

Snooks continues: “It was great to see a different country win this year’s World Cup. For the sport to grow in popularity and interest, it is so important that a wider group of countries can compete and experience success for their fans to celebrate. The US has won the tournament 5 times, so it just shows that more and more countries are able to be in contention to win world cups.”

Alongside Germany’s success throughout the tournament, there were many German viewers unhappy due to not having a paid subscription to Magenta Sport. Due to these unhappy fans, ZDF, Germany’s national broadcaster, bought the rights to the final game. This enabled a greater viewership for the German fans.

Snooks concludes: “Germany’s fans were able to watch their team win this year’s World Cup on free-to-air television. This enabled record-breaking viewership. This emphasises the gain of national broadcasters streaming live sports.”