Warriors sign lucrative patch advertising deal with Rakuten

The Warriors have a new sponsor.

Golden State has agreed to a patch advertising deal with Japanese tech company Rakuten and will sport the company's logo on its jerseys for the next three seasons, ESPN reported Tuesday.

According to the report, the deal is worth $20 million per year, surpassing the Cavaliers' $10 million per year deal with Goodyear, making it the most lucrative patch advertising deal in NBA history.

"We love sports," Rakuten founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani told ESPN. "There's a lot of emotion to it — great stories, smiles and tears."

Given the team's worldwide appeal, Warriors chief marketing officer Chip Bowers revealed that Golden State opted to go with a worldwide brand over numerous — and more lucrative — offers from other companies.

"We actually had multiple finalists," Bowers said. "This was not the biggest deal that we were offered. We saw an opportunity given the visibility we were receiving. So we felt in order to grow our global vision, we had to be aligned with a global brand."

Rakuten, which owns Ebates, Viber and Kobo, will do more than just sponsor Golden State's jerseys. The Warriors also will rename their practice facility the Rakuten Performance Center in addition to six other designations that go beyond the three-year deal.

"I'm thrilled that our deal did exactly what deals like this were intended to do when the league announced the program," Warriors president Rick Welts said. "We signed a partner we had never done business with before. We signed a big deal with an international player, and, in turn, we've boosted the value of the NBA and the Warriors outside of North America."