Q: What does SPND stand for?
A: Sponsorship Price of Negotiated Deals
Q: What is SPND?
A: SPND is SponsorUnited’s comprehensive suite of products that provides transparent pricing insights across sponsorship deals, categories, markets, assets, and entitlements. With SPND, you gain access to reliable, data-driven reports that are designed to guide your partnership decisions and help you optimize every aspect of your sponsorship strategy.
Q: Is SPND a valuation of a sponsorship deal?
A: No, SPND is not the valuation of a deal; it is the estimated transaction price of the deal.
Q: Is SPND the ROI of the sponsorship or anything else?
A: No, SPND is not the ROI of anything; however, it can certainly help you with the “i” (the “investment”) as you determine your sponsorship ROI.
Q: Is SPND always a range?
A: For an individual deal, an estimated range will be shown for SPND. However, when viewing the mean, median, or sum of two or more deals, you’ll see an actual number.
Q: How accurate is the SPND data?
A: Using our proprietary algorithm, we combine AI technology and multiple data sources, continuously refining our estimates based on new inputs and our scaled feedback loop. Our model incorporates all platform-tracked marketing assets, rights holder characteristics, market and category trends, and over $13.3 billion in sponsorship deal transactions. We are currently at an 83% accuracy rate. Note: A 75% to 85% accuracy rate is what’s generally considered good for predictive models. This range ensures our model does not overfit to historical data, thereby allowing for flexibility and scalability across new, dynamic leagues and seasons.
Q: Are the pricing details in SPND based on real-time data?
A: No. SPND’s pricing estimates are calculated using data collected throughout the entire season to ensure accuracy. Estimates are released at the end of each league’s season to capture the impact of all sponsorship activities, including those that occur later in the season. This timing ensures that SPND pricing data reflects the full delivery of contractually obligated assets, providing the most accurate deal prices.
Q: For how many partnership deals can I find SPND pricing data within the SponsorUnited platform?
A: SPND provides estimated transaction pricing on over 45,000 partnership deals across the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, and NCAA Power 5. This includes data from thousands of brands and more than 220 rights holders, with new deals added continuously. We expect this number to grow rapidly as we incorporate additional leagues. Note: We know this has changed to NCAA Power 4; however, SPND data currently on the platform is from when it was still Power 5.
Q: What other companies have this pricing information?
A: SponsorUnited is the first company to offer unprecedented and transparent detail on the estimated transaction price of sponsorship deals. Other companies are focused more on the valuation of sponsorships.
Q: What properties/brands/deals have SPND pricing data?
A: Major professional sports properties—NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS—and the NCAA Power 5, along with any of the brands and sponsorship deals associated with these rights holders. Note: We know NCAA Power 5 has changed to Power 4; however, SPND data currently on the platform is from when it was still Power 5.
Q: Is there SPND for other sports?
A: We’re excited to roll out additional sponsorship pricing data in the near future, and we will announce it each time we’ve added a new league or rights holder type.
Q: How does SPND methodology differ for NCAA Power 5 vs. major pro sports?
A: Each league and team has unique attributes that affect deal estimates, including multiple sports, business relationships with venues, and more. As such, methodology might vary. For instance, while NCAA Power 5 and major pro sports may follow a similar overall modeling approach, each league, conference, and team has its own unique nuances that result in a tailored model for each individual rights holder. Note: We know this has changed to NCAA Power 4; however, SPND data currently on the platform is from when it was still Power 5.
The main difference between major pro sports and college sports is that the estimates for college sports will be combined. Example: If a college gymnastics team has a $3M sponsorship deal with Brand X and that school’s football program has a $4M deal with the same brand, we would estimate that the college has a $7M deal with Brand X.
Q: For what years do you have SPND data?
A: SPND pricing data is based on the season, not the calendar year, and will be uploaded at the end of each league’s season. For NFL, NBA, and NHL, our SPND pricing data starts with the 2021–22 season. For MLB and MLS, our SPND pricing data starts with the 2022 season. For NCAA Power 5, SPND data starts with the 2022–23 season. For future seasons (starting 2024–25), it will be NCAA Power 4.
Q: When choosing a time frame from the drop down in profiles, in the four new SPND reports, and when looking at a specific deal, it used to say Current but now says Latest Available. Why?
A: Current refers to the most recently published season for a given league. Latest Available refers to the most recently published season that also has SPND data available. Since SPND data is always released after the conclusion of a given league’s season, you may have a season under Current that doesn’t yet have SPND data (since that season has not concluded yet); in this case, the SPND data shown in Latest Available is from the prior season.
For example:
It’s June 2024, and you’re interested in MLB data: We have some MLB data for the 2024 season, and you can see this in Current. Since the 2024 MLB season has not concluded yet, SPND data for the current season is not yet available. Therefore, the SPND data in Latest Available will be from last season (the 2023 MLB season).
It’s June 2024, and you’re interested in NFL data: We have all NFL data for the 2023–24 season, and you can see this in Current. If you visit Latest Available, you will see the same data that’s in Current and you will also see SPND data (since the NFL has concluded by June 2024, the SPND data in Latest Available will be from the 2023–24 NFL season).
Q: How often will data be updated?
A: SPND data is continuously refined based on new inputs and updated annually (after the conclusion of the regular season for each league).
Q: How does the SPND work for parent companies? SPND data for Coca-Cola (parent company) as a whole vs. SPND data for Topo Chico (a Coca-Cola brand), for instance.
A: When a parent company with multiple brands enters into a sponsorship, we assess the deal based on whether it was negotiated as a collective portfolio or by individual brands. If a sponsorship is negotiated at the parent-company level—such as Coca-Cola covering multiple brands under one agreement—we estimate the deal as a portfolio-wide transaction. However, if an individual brand—Topo Chico under Coca-Cola, for instance—independently negotiates a sponsorship, we evaluate it at the brand level. We aim to identify whether deals are structured collectively or individually and account for these distinctions in our pricing estimates (recognizing that portfolio deals often result in different cost structures than single-brand agreements).