The Indiana Pacers franchise of the US’ iconic National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced an expanded partnership with prominent automobile lubricant manufacturer Lucas Oil, which becomes the team’s new jersey patch partner on a multi-year basis.
The brand of Indiana-based Lucas Oil will now appear as a patch on all Pacers uniforms throughout the 2025-26 campaign and beyond, including home, away, practice, and special edition jerseys as well as in the NBA 2K 26 video game, and its accompanying esports series.
Go deeper with GlobalData
In expanding the pair’s alliance, Lucas Oil will also gain wide-ranging sponsorship inventory across the Pacers organization, including the mantle of “official oil partner”, in-venue signage at Pacers home games, international marketing rights, and group player rights for marketing purposes.
As a local brand, Lucas Oil has been a community-focused partner of the Pacers franchise for a number of years, but this deal now widens the brand’s coverage of Indiana area sports franchises (the oil brand also sponsors the Indianapolis Colts NFL team and its Lucas Oil Stadium, and naturally has a strong branding presence across US motorsports).
The Indiana Fever franchise of the WNBA, also owned by Pacers Sports and Entertainment (which owns the Pacers), will also continue to be sponsored by Lucas Oil, although its jersey patch will remain taken up by Indiana-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
The expanded partnership will be inaugurated at the NBA’s annual Summer League pre-season showcase, where Pacers players will don the new jersey patch for the first time.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataIn expanding this partnership to cover the jersey patch inventory, the community aspect of the deal will be maintained, with the Pacers to donate a portion of the proceeds from every Pacers jersey to a local hospital, the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at Ascension St. Vincent.
Lucas Oil will also continue to support Pacers community initiatives, the team’s premium hospitality experiences, and title sponsor its annual Lucas Oil Family Nights.
On the deal, Pacers Sports and Entertainment chief executive Mel Raines commented: “We continue to grow our team’s global presence, we’re excited to help elevate Lucas Oil’s visibility on the world’s stage and to our passionate international fanbase.”
Indeed, the Pacers brand has grown markedly in the last year both domestically and internationally.
In the 2024-25 season, the unfancied Pacers won the Eastern Conference Finals, and made it all the way to game seven of the showpiece NBA Finals, before eventually falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Prior to that, the team participated in the NBA’s annual European games, facing the San Antonio Spurs twice in Paris, France, setting multiple viewing records in the process.
The January 23 and 25 events marked the first time the league has staged two regular-season contests in France.
They instantly became the most-viewed NBA Global Games of all time on social media, generating over 718 million views.
The two games, which aired live on BeIN Sports and Canal Plus in France, were the most-watched NBA games of all time on French television, while viewership on the NBA League Pass subscription service was up 29% in France when compared to last year’s Paris game.
Lucas Oil replaces local tech startup Spokenote, which has been the Pacers' patch partner since January 2024.
The team had previously sported global telecommunications firm Motorola as its jersey patch sponsor from 2018 through to the end of the 2023 season.
With Lucas Oil secured, there now remain only two NBA franchises without jersey patch partnerships confirmed for the 2025-26 campaign – the Charlotte Hornets, and the Los Angeles Clippers.
