- Today, Endesa’s Chairman, Borja Prado, and the President of the ACB (Spanish Basketball Association), Eduardo Portela, have signed the most important agreement in the history of Spanish and European basketball.
- Both entities have formed a strategic partnership with Endesa's name being included in the title of Spain’s professional basketball league, which will now be called Liga Endesa.
- The agreement runs for four seasons (2011-15) with the option to extend it by a further two years, and involves an investment of EUR 30.5 million.
Madrid, 21 July 2011.- Endesa and the ACB have reached a strategic agreement through which the Spanish professional league will adopt the utility’s name as from next season. As a result of the strategic partnership between the two entities – the most important and valuable in Spanish basketball to date – the ACB competition will bear Endesa's name. It is the first time a commercial brand has been included in the name of the competition in almost three decades of the Spanish Basketball Association’s history. As from the 2011-12 season, the ACB League will be called the Endesa League; as will the opening tournament, the Supercup, which will be known as the Endesa Supercup.
The agreement signed today by Borja Prado, Endesa’s Chairman, and Eduardo Portela, the President of the ACB, at the electricity group's headquarters in Madrid will bring the two entities together for the next four seasons (until the end of the 2014-15 season), with the option to extend it by a further two years. Endesa’s investment in the ACB amounts to EUR 30.5 million for the entire period (six years) and represents a firm commitment to the ACB and Spanish basketball, making Endesa one of the largest sports sponsors in Spain.
This collaboration agreement is the most important to date in Spanish and European basketball. It will provide the ACB with much needed additional funds to allocate to member clubs for structural growth and sports development. In turn, this should improve the quality of the competition and, ultimately, the spectator experience.
New logo and image for ACB.com
As part of the agreement, a new logo for the professional basketball competition has been unveiled. The new logo graphically and visually merges the ACB’s image with that of Endesa, showing an image of a player and basketball net as the most representative elements of the sport, and including the word liga (league) and the name of the new sponsor.The ACB’s website has also been completely revamped to adapt it to Endesa’s corporate colour scheme and style, which will prevail on the Association’s official website, showing a clear preference for the blue which is representative of the company’s corporate identity.
About Endesa
Endesa forms part of the Enel Group operating across the entire value chain of the electricity business (generation, transmission, distribution and sale) and in the gas business.It is the leading power company and second largest gas operator in Spain, the largest private electricity utility in Latin America and is present in various European countries (Portugal and Ireland) and Morocco. Endesa has a total installed capacity of 40,000 MW, generates 130,000 GWh per annum, and has 25 million customers and 24,700 employees worldwide. It is also firmly committed to sustainable development. For Endesa, sustainability means growing in a responsible manner, i.e. creating wealth, preserving natural resources so these can be enjoyed by future generations, and fostering social progress in the communities where we operate.
About the ACB
Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Barcelona, the Spanish Basketball Association (Asociación de Clubes de Baloncesto or ACB) regulates and runs the professional basketball league in Spain. The ACB is committed to sport, boasting a first-rate sporting, financial, social and training set-up. It currently has 18 member clubs, who own the competition. The ACB generates an annual turnover of EUR 130 million and is considered to be one of the best professional leagues in the world, enjoying the highest recognition nationally and globally. This is evidenced by the fact that the Association’s official website (www.acb.com) receives an average of 485 million impacts, 47 million visits, and almost 1,200,000 single users each month, making it the most popular and visited basketball website after the leading US websites. On average, around 6,500 spectators watch each game live (an attendance rate of over 80%), which means the league is the best attended in Europe. Other achievements setting it apart include the fact that it is the first professional league to roll out a model of cutting-edge fitness centres under the ACB Brand across Spain (the Saragossa centre is already open and will soon be joined by Malaga).