Netball Australia has signed a major sponsorship deal with Australia’s leading online department store, DealsDirect.com.au.

The new, two-year sponsorship positions DealsDirect.com.au as one of three Gold Sponsors of Netball Australia, along with Holden and San Remo. 

As a Gold sponsor DealsDirect.com.au will support Netball Australia’s online membership portal, MyNetball, the Holden Netball Test Series and will take up naming rights of the National Netball Championships.

DealsDirect.com.au have extended their new association with netball to the ANZ Championship, securing naming rights to the league’s umpires for seasons 2010-11.

As part of the sponsorship, captain of the Australian Netball Diamonds, Sharelle McMahon, will act as the brand ambassador for DealsDirect.com.au, featuring in marketing campaigns throughout the two-year deal.

Her first appearance will be in the DealsDirect.com.au Mother’s Day catalogue, which will be distributed to 2.3 million Australians this April.

Netball Australia CEO Kate Palmer said today that netball’s predominantly female audience provided a natural fit for DealsDirect.com.au, with research showing a significant skew towards females when it comes to shopping online. She said that a major strength of the new partnership was its ability to reach netball members and supporters right across Australia, including regional areas where DealsDirect.com.au also delivers.

“Netball is the leading women’s sport in Australia and DealsDirect.com.au is the leading online department store in Australia.”

“The partnership with DealsDirect.com.au will be a fantastic support to us as we continue to engage with all our fans – not just netball’s grassroots participants, but also women in the broader community, right across Australia.”

“We are delighted to partner with DealsDirect.com.au and believe our members will benefit from learning more about this 100% Australian owned and operated, Online Department Store and will be excited to discover the huge range of products on offer at bargain prices.”

Co-founder and Managing Director of DealsDirect.com.au, Paul Greenberg said, “Following five successful years of growing the business, we are excited to announce the first sponsorship in our history. We are proud to be Australia’s number one online department store supporting our nation’s most popular sport, and we are confident our sponsorship with Netball Australia will far exceed expectations.”

“Partnering with Netball Australia provides us with a fantastic opportunity to reach potential customers in both metropolitan and regional areas across Australia. Our customer research tells us that women aged 30- 50 years-of-age are our key demographic and this is why DealsDirect.com.au and Netball Australia have a natural synergy. We look forward to working closely with key netball players who will help us communicate our key messages to the broader community via our marketing activity moving forward.”

Netball Australia supports more than 330,000 registered players, 564 affiliated associations and 5,000 clubs across the country. DealsDirect.com.au has over 900,000 customers, 1.5 million unique browsers every month, and stocks more than 7,500 branded and non-branded heavily discounted products across 24 categories.

The 2010 ANZ Championship season kicks off on 20 March. Umpires at all games on both sides of the Tasman will be easily identified in their DealsDirect.com.au-branded uniforms.