The Buffalo Sabres are the first NHL team to sign an AI company directly into its hockey operations rather than its marketing department. The multi-year partnership with SprintAI, an athletic training platform for professional athletes and their coaches powered by machine learning.

For brand marketers, the partnership reflects a broader evolution in how AI companies are showing up in sports. Rather than stopping at traditional sponsorship visibility, AI brands are increasingly finding opportunities to become part of the technology, data and workflows that teams use to operate.

SprintAI’s partnership with Buffalo will build technology designed to give coaches and front-office staff a connected view of player and organizational data. The company’s GM module was also shaped in part by Jarmo Kekäläinen, who advised SprintAI before joining Buffalo and was later promoted to General Manager. That connection helped shape a partnership around a specific organizational need rather than simply placing a new technology brand into existing sponsorship inventory.

AI Partnerships Are Becoming an Operations Play, Not Just a Marketing One

The Sabres-SprintAI deal is notable, but it also fits into a larger pattern across AI sponsorships tracked by SponsorUnited.

Official Sponsor status remains the most common asset, appearing in 77% of AI deals. But operational and technology-related assets are also prevalent: Data Management/IT Services appears in 61% of AI deals, while Product Placement appears in 52%. By comparison, more traditional visibility assets such as Website Banner Ads appear in 38% of deals, Digital Ads on Videoboards in 25%, and Website Video Pre-Roll Commercials and Ribbon Board Digital Ads in 20% each.

That mix suggests AI sponsorships are already extending beyond brand exposure. Many deals combine traditional sponsorship rights with some form of technology or service integration, and the Sabres partnership takes that model further by incorporating SprintAI into both a Performance Staff Module and a General Manager Module. For brands, that creates a different way to think about sports partnerships. The value of an AI sponsorship may not come solely from how often a logo appears, but from how deeply the technology can be incorporated into the organization and the problems it can help address.

Buffalo’s Deal Started With the Person, Not the Pitch

There is another important element to the Sabres-SprintAI partnership: the relationship existed before the sponsorship did. Kekäläinen’s path from SprintAI advisor to Sabres GM meant the organization was not simply evaluating a new technology vendor based on a sales pitch. He had already been involved in shaping the product for a use case that ultimately became relevant to the Sabres.

That makes the deal an example of how expertise and existing relationships can influence technology partnerships in sports. Rather than chasing the newest AI company, a team can identify a technology that already understands its workflows, challenges and decision-making environment—and then formalize that relationship through a broader partnership.

AI Sponsorship Investment Has Already Surpassed $85 Million

The Sabres partnership is also arriving as investment in AI across sports accelerates. AI brands have invested more than $85 million in team- and property-level sponsorships across the sports landscape, according to SponsorUnited. Google Gemini leads the category with more than $20 million in estimated spend, while Microsoft Copilot has the broadest reach, with partnerships spanning 35 teams, including all 32 NFL clubs through its league-wide agreement.

SponsorUnited tracks 176 AI child brands actively marketing across global sports, accounting for 843 sponsorship deals—a 92% year-over-year increase. The number of active AI brands has also grown 20%. Across the same tracked properties, investment has increased roughly fivefold in less than two years, from $17 million in 2024.

That growth puts the Sabres-SprintAI partnership in a broader context. AI is not simply emerging as another sponsorship category; it is expanding quickly at a time when teams and properties are looking for technology partners that can become embedded in their operations.

The Pattern Extends Beyond the NHL

Buffalo is not alone in treating AI as infrastructure rather than simply a marketing platform.

Outside North America, an Australian Football League club has named an AI infrastructure company as a major partner, while a top European football club has brought on an enterprise AI firm to build fan-facing services. The specific applications differ, but the underlying model is similar: AI companies are being asked to address a particular operational or service need rather than simply occupy traditional sponsorship inventory.

For brands evaluating sports partnerships, that distinction creates another dimension to consider. An AI company can use sports not only as a channel for reaching fans, but also as a real-world environment in which its technology is integrated, tested and demonstrated.

What the Sabres Deal Signals for Brand Marketers

The easiest AI sponsorship to understand is a logo and a media package. The more integrated model connects a technology partner to a specific business or operational challenge.

That is the opportunity illustrated by Buffalo and SprintAI. The partnership combines sponsorship rights with technology built around player development, performance staff workflows and front-office decision-making. The relationship also began with someone who understood both the technology and the organization’s needs.

As AI investment across sports continues to grow, those distinctions could become increasingly important for brands. The question is no longer simply where an AI company can appear within a property. It is also where its technology can create a meaningful role within the organization itself.

Methodology: The league analysis includes team- and property-level sponsorship spend for each of the most recently completed seasons across F1, FIFA, the Group of Five, Power Four, LaLiga, MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, NWSL, the Premier League, Serie A and WNBA. League-level sponsorship spend is excluded.