Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea’s largest banks, will continue to serve as the title sponsor of the country’s top-tier baseball competition, the KBO League, until at least 2037, in the country’s biggest sports sponsorship deal to date.
The deal, struck with the Korean Baseball Organization, will see Shinhan Bank pay KRW 15 billion ($77.7 million) to hold the designation during the 2028 to 2037 league campaigns.
As part of the agreement, Shinhan Bank said it will support the national and youth baseball teams, as well as engage in various marketing activities for KBO League and Shinhan Bank customers.
KBO commissioner Heo Guy-Yeon has said: “This sponsorship, spanning 10 years from 2028 to 37 with a total of 115 billion Korean won, is the largest in the history of domestic professional sports.
“Through this partnership, the KBO and Shinhan Bank have once again confirmed our firm commitment to providing fans with an even higher level of experience. We hope today’s agreement will serve as a starting point for the KBO and Shinhan Bank to create a new future for Korean baseball over the next 10 years.”
It marks an early extension to the pair’s renewal struck in May covering the 2026 and 2027 KBO League seasons, which included a memorandum of understanding for “a long-term cooperation beyond 2027”.
At the time, KBO said Shinhan Bank would increase its fan engagement with daily content, including match predictions and a quiz, with the league achieving 10 million spectators last season.
Shinhan Bank, which was established as Korea’s first bank in 1897, initially replaced local tire retailer Tire Bank in the role in 2018, ending a partnership that ran between 2015 and 2017.
The bank signed an initial three-year deal but extended the agreement for another year until 2021. Since then, it has signed three two-year extensions in 2021, 2023, and 2025.
The latest extension will carry Shinhan Bank’s partnership with the league to 20 years, becoming the longest-serving title sponsor in the sport’s history.
The deal is part of Shinhan Bank’s sports sponsorship portfolio which includes title rights to golf’s Shinhan Donghae Open, the men’s major event on the Asian Tour, and handball’s H League, sponsorship of The S-Birds of the Women’s Korean Basketball League, the South Korean national teams covering ski and snowboard, field hockey, alpine, handball, judo and triathlon, as well as several South Korean athletes.
