By Charlie Laughtland
BDA blog editor

With Opening Day of the 2011 MLB season fast approaching, fans will be brushing up on baseball trivia, facts and stats. Here's a figure most baseball buffs won't recognize—Year 27.

Give up?

It's the number of years BDA has helped sports leagues and teams bring their marketing campaigns to life through branded merchandise.

Today we're celebrating our announcement of an extended agreement with Major League Baseball Properties: BDA will continue as MLB's premium merchandise agency of choice for an additional four years.

With the contract extension, BDA will work in tandem with MLB Properties to maximize sponsorship activation opportunities, from in-park gate giveaways to co-branded sales promotions at retail. We'll continue to assist sponsors at MLB jewel events like the All-Star Game and all postseason and World Series games.

BDA has developed industry-leading strategic and sourcing capabilities that meet the evolving needs of sports properties and their corporate partners. By applying that expertise to league affiliations across the sporting arena, BDA is coming off of our best year ever, both in terms of revenue and number of premium promotions.

"This is validation that our model works," said Jay Deutsch, CEO and co-founder of BDA. "BDA activated with every MLB corporate sponsor this past season. The leagues are seeing the value we can bring, so we get to sit down with brands and their agencies at the outset to design these programs. That's the place we want to be."

Howard Smith, MLB's senior vice president of licensing, said it's obvious that innovation and brand management is a passion for BDA.

"Any agency partner should multiply both your efforts and progress toward key initiatives—BDA has done both for Major League Baseball," he said. "BDA has seamlessly and effectively integrated into our licensing group, and has helped drive brand affinity for our business partners."

When it was originally signed 2007, the MLB deal marked the first in a series of large sports property agreements for BDA. Subsequently, BDA inked partnership agreements with the NFL, NCAA, NASCAR and the U.S. Olympic Committee.