Saudi financial services brand Samba Financial Group has extended its regional partner deal with LaLiga’s Barcelona for five more years, from 2018-19 to 2022-23. Samba has partnered with the club since 2013-14. The new deal aims to strengthen the brand in the Middle East, where Samba is one of the biggest and most international financial groups and the leader in credit cards in Saudi Arabia. According to the club, the agreement forms part of the club’s target of “proactively looking for partners that are best-suited to the values and traits that define its brand, and seeking the best possible contracts in each category of the world of sports marketing sponsorships”. Barcelona’s global commercial director Xavi Asensi told Sports Sponsorship Insider in June that the club will only seek regional deals in the financial, telco and betting sectors. In the financial sector, the club currently holds seven regional deals. Along with Samba Financial Group, these are with: Emirates NBD Egypt, MayBank, MegaBank, Saigon Hanoi Bank, Scotiabank and SPD Bank.
Samba Financial Group has renewed its regional partnership deal with FC Barcelona for earlier in the year, to 2022-23. The Saudi-based company, which is in the fifth year of its original agreement with the club, will aim to use the deal to grow its brand in the Middle East. Barcelona, which announced another five years it would only seek regional deals with financial, telecommunications and betting firms, now holds seven partnerships with companies in the financial sector.