BDA LLC, Woodinville, Wash., announced that it has acquired the U.K.’s leading provider of specialist sports merchandise, Sports Merchandise Global (SMG).
“Combining forces with the leadership of Jonathan Bailey, and the great team of people at SMG in Manchester and Paris offices, immediately makes BDA the most prominent global agency and provider of co-branded merchandise for [soccer],” said Jay Deutsch, co-founder and CEO of BDA. “Together, BDA and SMG bring tremendous buying and distribution power, market-specific expertise and a model designed to support the unique needs of fans, teams, leagues and sponsors.”
SMG brings a deep roster of clients and valuable relationships to the BDA sports division. Its expertise lies in activating team and sponsor opportunities for the Premier League and La Liga, including Manchester United F.C., Tottenham Hotspur and FC Barcelona, as well as governing bodies such as the French Football Federation and British Olympic Association. The football division will be supported in the U.S. by Matt Chavlovich, who recently joined BDA from Major League Soccer (MLS) where he was vice president of licensing and consumer products. In his role, Chavlovich will leverage his years of experience to provide meaningful input to BDA’s new soccer clients.
“Over the past three decades, we have learned what it takes to create a meaningful platform for how targeted merchandise-based programs help achieve our sports clients’ goals,” Deutsch said. “From ticket sales and employee engagement, to direct to consumer promotions, we are the best one-stop shop for our partners, who already include MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and over 100 professional teams in Canada and the United States. However, as we continue to build our presence in the U.K. and EMEA, we are smart enough to know we have more to learn about each team and market. With the addition of the SMG team and resources, we are well-positioned to serve all existing and future clients in the best way possible.”
“We are the natural choice for those that want to raise the bar for sponsorship activation and fan engagement,” said Bailey, co-founder and managing director at SMG. “Now as part of the BDA team, we can do just that by offering an increased level of service to our clients. It will be exciting to offer BDA’s extensive team and global distribution network. Working together, I am confident we will become the best partner a sports team, league and sponsor can have.”
The merchandise agency currently has offices in London, Manila, Shanghai, Shenzhen and 32 locations in North America. With this announcement it adds Manchester, U.K.; and Paris to the growing list of locations.
“BDA U.K. is experiencing tremendous organic growth on top of our recent acquisitions and I know there is much more to come,” said Deutsch. “As we open up new clients and welcome great new people to our team, I anticipate we will be one of the top distributors in the U.K. by 2018.”
For more information on BDA LLC, visit www.bdainc.com.
