It’s official — a U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, is now a global sponsor of the Olympics.
The company is the first-ever from the banking sector signed by the International Olympic Committee, joining 11 other worldwide corporate partners including Coca-Cola and the Chinese dairy company Mengniu; Airbnb; VISA; and ABInBev, the world’s largest beer brewer.
The announcement had been anticipated after reports earlier this month that talks were underway about what the IOC is calling a “landmark” partnership, in the new asset and wealth management, and private, commercial and investment banking category.
The sponsorship covers both the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps. For the L.A. Games, JPMorgan Chase will serve as a founding partner in the retail banking category.
Terms of the deal have not been made public, but Sports Business Journal reported that past global sponsorships for a single quadrennium that include a founding sponsorship for an organizing committee have sold for around $200 million.
The money is paid to the IOC, which shares sponsorship revenues with organizing committees as well as other sports entities around the world. Games organizers, however, make more from directly selling domestic sponsorships in categories not already taken globally.
For Utah’s 2034 Winter Games, organizers are counting on domestic sponsors to cover 45% of the $4 billion price tag for putting on the state’s second Olympics and Paralympics that follow for athletes with disabilities.
The leader of Utah’s Organizing Committee Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Game was upbeat about the IOC filling a sponsorship category that previously had been considered domestic.
“We congratulate the International Olympic Committee on its new global partnership and the support it provides to the Olympic movement,” Fraser Bullock, the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, said in a statement.
New sponsorship opportunities for organizers could be coming. Under new IOC President Kirsty Coventry. Olympic commercial partnerships and marketing are being reviewed by one of several working groups that are set to report their findings in June.
Coventry said the IOC’s partnership with JPMorgan Chase “reflects our shared values of ambition, excellence and trust, and will support the Olympic Movement and sport around the world.”
JPMorgan Chase, described as having operations in more than 60 countries including the U.S. and France as well as clients in more than 100 markets, is expected to host financial health workshops for athletes here and abroad.
“Olympians and Paralympians are more than athletes—they are our customers, clients and employees, and their dreams extend beyond the Games," said Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chairman and CEO.
“We bank the communities they call home, finance the facilities where they train, help them start businesses and plan for their futures,” Dimon said. “Their journeys reflect the aspirations of millions we serve every day, and we’re excited to support them.”