Beko now naming partner of Fenerbahce basketball team

By Fatih Erel

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish company Beko became the naming partner of Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team for the next two-and-a-half years.

"To forge its support to sports and healthy living, Beko is now the naming partner of Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team. Beko has been supporting basketball teams in Turkish Basketball League and also sponsored the European Basketball Championship for many years and now it takes on the naming partnership of Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team for 2.5 years," Beko said in a statement.

This new naming partnership agreement focuses on “Eat Like A Pro” – an initiative launched by Beko to fight childhood obesity. Through this collaboration, Beko plans to expand the scope of the campaign to promote healthy eating habits among children by advertising their hero basketball players as role models.

Beko, a leading white goods brand providing products and services in more than 130 countries, returns to investing in basketball with Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team. Beko had given its name to Turkish Basketball League for eight years and sponsored European Basketball Championship, before signing this 2.5-year naming partnership agreement with Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team.

At the signing ceremony of the partnership agreement at Ulker Sports and Event Hall, Fenerbahce Sports Club President Ali Y. Koc, Fenerbahce Sports Club Vice President Semih Ozsoy, Fenerbahce Beko Men’s Basketball Team Coach Zeljko Obradovic, KoC Holding Durable Goods Group President Fatih Kemal Ebiclioglu and Arcelik CEO Hakan Bulgurlu were among the participants.

Under the new agreement, the team is now called Fenerbahce Beko Men's Basketball Team. Fenerbahce's star basketball players will wear uniforms with the Beko logo on the chest as part of the naming partnership. The deal includes Turkish Basketball Super League, Euroleague, and all overseas games.

Thanks to this new collaboration, Beko aims to communicate its Eat Like A Pro initiative against childhood obesity to a greater audience by combining sports naming partnership with social responsibility.

Speaking at the news conference to announce the collaboration at the Ulker Sports and Event Hall, Fenerbahce Sports Club Vice President Semih Ozsoy said “Fenerbahce Sports Club that has nine branches such as football, basketball, volleyball, is the dynamism and great locomotive of the sports in our country. The pride of our country, Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team is one of the world's leading brands in sports and basketball, with remarkable achievements in both Europe and our country."

Beko is a leading global brand, and the pride of Turkey. Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team successfully represented Turkey overseas and thrilled Turkish basketball fans advancing to the final three times. It is the first and only Turkish team to make it to the Final Four in four consecutive years. The team has won 12 Turkey championships, five Turkish Cups, seven Presidential Cups, and one Euroleague championship. We are delighted to have two high-achieving brands collaborating and we believe that both Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team and Beko will make new success stories.

Underlining that Beko has been a keen supporter of sports for 30 years in order to help raising healthy generations, Arcelik's CEO Hakan Bulgurlu stated, “At Beko, we started to support basketball in 2006. We hosted Turkish Basketball League for 8 years, and sponsored many international basketball championships. Naming partnership of the Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team is important for both adding value to our global branding journey and also creating a substantial social benefit by influencing the masses.”

Bulgurlu underlined that the new naming partnership agreement focuses on Beko's “Eat Like A Pro” initiative dedicated to fight against childhood obesity and added: “Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team competes in Euroleague, the most globally famous European basketball event. It is a very important brand which gains remarkable achievements over and over and makes a great start to the season in both Euroleague and the league. He is also the leader with the number of fans, social media power and interaction figures. Fenerbahce's achievements in the field and the power reflected in the figures were the most important factors that enabled us to sign this naming partnership. Euroleague tournaments are broadcasted in five continents and they are increasingly becoming more popular. Nearly two billion people have watched each game. We trust that the collaboration will boost Beko's brand awareness in target markets while helping us reach a greater audience with Eat Like A Pro initiative aiming to reduce childhood obesity. As the brand ambassadors of 'Eat Like A Pro,' basketball players of Fenerbahce will assume an important mission both in Turkey and across other countries where they will be visiting for competitions.”

In the news conference, Fenerbahce Beko Men's Basketball Team Coach Zeljko Obradovic stressed that as a longtime supporter of basketball, Beko's naming partnership of the Fenerbahce Men's Basketball Team is a great opportunity. Obradovic added, “Winning games is equally important as leveraging the power of sports to mobilize crowds. We have undertaken a huge responsibility in promoting healthy eating habits among children and raising healthy generations. Our players will be role models with their eating habits for the future generations. We plan to carry Beko’s Eat Like A Pro Initiative one step further with our fans."

- Objective of Eat Like A Pro

Beko focuses on enabling consumers to live healthier and aims to fight obesity by promoting healthy eating and sports habits for children with Eat Like A Pro since 2017.

Research has revealed that obesity prevalence has increased more than two folds since 1980. Childhood obesity, the very root of adult obesity, has become alarming with 40 million obese or overweight children aged five and below. This figure is expected to reach 70 million by 2025.

According to Childhood Obesity Research in Turkey, one in every ten kids is obese and 15 percent is overweight.

Results show that 6 percent of children do not consume meat and 14.6 percent do not consume fish. 9.5 percent never go out to play on weekdays and 42.5 percent spend at least one hour in front of a TV or computer on weekdays. (*)

Obesity causes serious health problems including cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. Obesity damages confidence of children and adversely affects socializing.

Main reasons of childhood obesity include convenience food containing high amounts of fat and sugar, increase in the consumption of carbonated beverages, decrease in traditional fresh cooking, and lack of physical activity and education.

A research carried out in 28 countries including Turkey draws attention to raising awareness of childhood obesity.

According to the research, those who are prone to childhood obesity is only 4 percent worldwide and the figure is the same both in Turkey and England. Most concerned countries are China and Saudi Arabia with a 14 percent rate. (**)

Beko aims to raise awareness on obesity, promote healthy eating among children, and support parents with “Eat Like A Pro” campaign.

For more information about Eat Like A Pro, please visit Beko's website. www.beko.com/eatlikeapro

(*) Data was collected from the Childhood Obesity Research in Turkey conducted in collaboration of Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Education, Hacettepe University, and World Health Organization.

(**) What Worries The World (Ipsos September 2018)

- Beko’s Sports Sponsorships

a) Basketball sponsorships:

Beko Basketball League: Beko hosted Turkish Basketball League between 2006 and 2014 for eight years.

Beko All Star sponsorship: Beko sponsored All Star events organized in a different city every year by bringing the stars from each and every league together between 2007 and 2014.

European Basketball Championship: Beko took on the sponsorship of European Basketball Championship between 2009 and 2015.

FIBA Championships: Beko sponsored 2014 FIBA World Basketball Championship and 2009 FIBA Asian Basketball Championship.

And it was also a sponsor of Bundesliga, Liga, and the Lithuania Basketball leagues.

b) Football sponsorships:

Beko BJK sponsorship: Beko was the chest sponsor of Besiktas Gymnastics Club football team between 1988 and 2004.

This sponsorship was renewed in 2014 but this time with Beko logo on the back of the jerseys.

FC Barcelona Sponsorship: In 2014, Beko became the Premium partner of Barcelona Football Club, and expanded the collaboration by becoming a main partner of Barca in 2018.