Badminton Sponsorship Malaysia: BAM Partners and Independents

The system of badminton sponsorship Malaysia has built works on two tracks. On one track sits the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), which sells rights to the national team, its academy and its two flagship tournaments, the Malaysia Open and the Malaysia Masters. On the other sit independent professionals who have left the national setup and must fund their own careers through personal equipment and endorsement deals. The two tracks meet – sometimes awkwardly – whenever an independent player is called up to represent Malaysia. This guide explains how each part of the system works, using verified deals and events from the past two decades.

For a country where badminton carries enormous national attention, the commercial structures behind it are surprisingly little understood. Who pays for the national team's rackets and shirts? Why did the kit brand change twice in six years? How does a player like Lee Zii Jia pay his coaches after leaving BAM? And what should a young player's family know before signing a first equipment contract?

Why badminton is central to Malaysian sports sponsorship

Badminton offers sponsors something rare in Malaysian sport: a national team that competes regularly at the very top of the world game, an individual sport with recognisable stars, and two international tournaments on home soil every year. Malaysia's successes give the sport a constant flow of headlines. BAM noted, for example, that Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik won Malaysia's first world title in 45 years at the World Championships in Tokyo, and that Aaron Tai and Kang Khai Xing won a World Junior Championships gold in Nanchang, ending a 13-year wait.

For brands, that translates into three valuable assets:

National pride. The national team jersey carries emotional weight, especially during team events such as the Thomas Cup and Sudirman Cup.
Year-round exposure. The BWF World Tour runs through most of the year, so a logo on the national shirt or a player's sleeve appears repeatedly across broadcasts and social media.
Product authenticity. Badminton is a participation sport in Malaysia. Equipment brands sponsor elite players partly because recreational players buy the rackets, shoes and strings that champions use.

This last point explains why equipment manufacturers – above all Yonex and Victor – dominate badminton sponsorship far more than kit suppliers dominate football.

How BAM's sponsorship rights are structured

BAM controls several distinct packages of rights, and a single sponsor can buy more than one.

National team equipment and apparel

The equipment partner supplies rackets, shoes, strings, bags and apparel to national players and coaches, and its logo appears on the national kit. This is usually the longest-running and most valuable relationship BAM has, because it combines cash with large quantities of product.

National team principal partner

Separately from the manufacturer, BAM can sell the most prominent logo position on national team shirts to a principal partner. From the All England Open in March 2022, that partner was PETRONAS, according to the company's press release.

The national academy

Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) is the national training centre. Under the 2022 PETRONAS agreement it was renamed PETRONAS ABM – a naming-rights benefit similar to a stadium deal.

Tournament rights

BAM organises the Malaysia Open, a BWF World Tour Super 1000 event, and the Malaysia Masters, which its title sponsor helped elevate to Super 500 status, according to remarks reported by Malay Mail. Each tournament has its own title sponsor and official supplier, along with court-side and venue branding.

Category partners

BAM can appoint official suppliers in specific product categories. PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad, for example, became BAM's official fuel partner in 2022, supplying fuel and lubricants as well as Mesra-branded products such as mineral water and hand sanitisers.

Yonex, Victor and back again: BAM's equipment partners

The story of BAM's equipment sponsorship is the clearest example in Malaysian sport of how a rights holder can switch partners – and how valuable that choice is.

Period	Equipment partner	Reported terms	Source of report
2001–2015	Yonex	Long-running relationship; BadmintonPlanet reports Yonex sponsored BAM from 2001 to 2015	BadmintonPlanet
2015–2021	Victor	RM60 million over six years	The Star, March 2015
1 April 2021 – 31 March 2026 (original term)	Yonex	RM55 million over five years, cash plus equipment for 151 players	BadmintonPlanet, April 2021
Extended to 2028	Yonex	Value not disclosed; early extension ahead of LA 2028	BAM official announcement

The 2015 switch to Victor

In March 2015, BAM signed a six-year deal with Taiwanese brand Victor that The Star reported was worth RM60 million. The signing in Kuala Lumpur was conducted by BAM president Tan Sri Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Arif and Victor International chairman Chen Den-li. Malay Mail later noted that the Victor deal ended a 15-year partnership with Yonex. It was during the Victor years that a young Lee Zii Jia emerged – a detail that would matter later.

Yonex returns in 2021

When the Victor contract expired, BAM returned to Yonex. BadmintonPlanet reported that the agreement ran from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2026 and was worth RM55 million over five years. It covered a cash sponsorship, equipment for all 151 senior and youth players and their coaches at the national academy, and exclusive official equipment supplier status at the Malaysia Open, the Malaysia Masters and BAM's International Challenge events. BAM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria announced the deal; Lee Chong Wei, a long-time Yonex ambassador, attended the signing.

The extension to 2028

BAM later announced that it had extended the Yonex partnership until 2028, ahead of its original 2026 end date, explicitly linking the decision to preparations for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Under the extension, Yonex continues to supply equipment to national players and remains official equipment supplier for the PETRONAS Malaysia Open, the PERODUA Malaysia Masters and other BAM-organised tournaments. It also supports BAM's junior pathway, including the Junior Elite Tour. BAM's acting president Datuk V. Subramaniam credited the partnership with the association's recent achievements. The value of the extension was not disclosed.

What the switches tell us

Three lessons stand out. First, equipment sponsorship in badminton is genuinely competitive, with at least two major brands willing to bid for Malaysia's national team. Second, these deals are long – five or six years – because brands need time to build the association with players and recreational buyers. Third, a change of national team supplier does not automatically change individual players' preferences; a player who grew up with one brand may later sign with it personally, as Lee Zii Jia did with Victor.

PETRONAS and the 2022 partnership

On 4 March 2022, PETRONAS and its subsidiary PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad signed a three-year agreement with BAM in Kuala Lumpur. According to the PETRONAS press release, it delivered several rights in a single package:

Title sponsorship of the Malaysia Open, renamed the PETRONAS Malaysia Open from the 2022 edition held from 28 June to 3 July.
The PETRONAS logo on national team jerseys, starting at the All England Open from 16 to 20 March 2022.
An official fuel partner role for PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad.
The renaming of the national academy as PETRONAS ABM.

The deal was signed by PDB managing director and CEO Azrul Osman Rani and BAM president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria. The value was not announced officially; The Vibes reported, citing an unnamed source in badminton circles, that it was worth RM45 million in total, or RM15 million a year. Malay Mail described it as BAM's biggest sponsorship deal.

The structure is worth studying. Rather than a single logo placement, PETRONAS bought a presence across the national team, the academy, the country's biggest tournament and a product category. That combination gives a sponsor many more ways to activate – and makes the partnership harder for a competitor to displace.

Sponsoring the tournaments: Malaysia Open and Malaysia Masters

Badminton tournaments generate a different kind of value from team sponsorship. They concentrate a week of international broadcast coverage, sell-out crowds and media attention in one venue.

PETRONAS Malaysia Open

The Malaysia Open is one of the BWF's Super 1000 events, the top tier of the World Tour below the season-ending finals. Its title sponsor receives naming rights, prominent court and venue branding, and hospitality during one of the biggest weeks in the Malaysian sporting calendar. Since 2022 that title has belonged to PETRONAS.

Perodua Malaysia Masters

The Malaysia Masters has a long-standing title partnership with national carmaker Perodua. Malay Mail reported that the 2025 tournament, held from 20 to 25 May at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, was the seventh edition under Perodua's title sponsorship, and that total prize money had risen from US$420,000 to US$475,500. Datuk V. Subramaniam said Perodua's continued support had helped elevate the tournament to Super 500 status; Perodua president and CEO Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said the company was honoured to be involved.

Official suppliers at tournaments

Under both the 2021 agreement and its extension, Yonex is the official equipment supplier at BAM-run tournaments. In practice, that means the brand's shuttlecocks are used in competition and its branding is present around the courts – a significant piece of exposure for an equipment maker.

Why title sponsors like tournaments

A tournament title sponsor gets something a team sponsor cannot: the event carries its name in every broadcast, ticket, press release and result listing, regardless of which country's players win. That makes it a lower-risk option for brands worried about a national team's form, and an attractive one for companies that want to host clients during a high-profile week.

Independent players: how the other track works

Malaysia has an unusually large group of professional badminton players who compete outside the national association. They enter tournaments through their own registrations, hire their own coaches and support staff, and pay for travel and accommodation themselves. Sponsorship is therefore not a supplement to their income – it is the foundation of it.

The Lee Zii Jia example

Lee Zii Jia left BAM in January 2022 to become an independent player, a departure Malay Mail described as controversial. In February 2022, he and Victor both confirmed a collaboration on Instagram, with Victor calling it a "second journey" together – a reference to the years when Victor was BAM's equipment partner during his rise. The contract's terms were not disclosed. Malay Mail also reported that he had set up the Lee Zii Jia Badminton Club and confirmed Indonesian coach Indra Wijaya, who had overseen his development since his junior years.

Revenue sources for an independent

An independent player's commercial income typically comes from:

An equipment contract covering rackets, shoes, strings, bags and apparel, usually with a cash retainer on top for top-ranked players.
Personal sponsors in non-equipment categories – for example, a bank, a drink, a telco or a car brand – whose logos may appear on permitted positions of playing clothing or in marketing campaigns.
Prize money from BWF events, which is variable and depends on results.
Appearance and content fees for exhibitions, clinics and social media campaigns.
Payments for national duty where these are negotiated, as discussed below.

Because the player bears costs that BAM would otherwise cover, sponsors of independents are effectively funding the entire high-performance operation: coaching, physiotherapy, sports science, travel and administration.

Other independent players

Lee is the best-known example but far from the only one. SAYS reported in August 2023 that independent shuttlers invited to train at ABM since December 2022 included Kasturi Radhakrishnan, Goh Jin Wei, Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing, Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Lai. Each of these players or pairs must assemble their own sponsorship support.

The most delicate issue in Malaysian badminton sponsorship arises when an independent player with a personal equipment deal is asked to represent the national team, whose supplier is a rival brand.

The 2023 apparel dispute

In August 2023, Lee Zii Jia's coach Wong Tat Meng publicly criticised a BAM requirement that professional players wear apparel bearing the national team sponsors' logos, SAYS reported. Wong said the rule surprised him and could create sponsorship disputes not only for Lee but also for his coaching and support staff, and that because of it Lee's team could not take up a training invitation at ABM ahead of the World Championships. SAYS noted that Lee's apparel carried the Victor logo and the Jalur Gemilang, while national players were under BAM's Yonex agreement. The report did not include a BAM response.

The 2024 Thomas Cup image-rights arrangement

In April 2024, Malay Mail reported that BAM would pay "image rights" so that Lee could join the Thomas Cup squad for the tournament in Chengdu, China. His management team, TeamLZJ, said that image rights were an important aspect for a professional athlete and that his wish to represent Malaysia was never in question. The amount was not disclosed. Malay Mail had earlier reported that the squad announcement was delayed by discussions with the player's side about compensation.

Why this matters for sponsors

For a personal sponsor, a player's national appearances are often the most valuable exposure of the year – a Thomas Cup tie can attract enormous domestic attention. For the national federation and its sponsors, consistency of team branding is part of what they sold. A negotiated image-rights payment is one way of reconciling the two: the federation compensates the player for the commercial value he gives up while wearing team kit. Anyone drafting an independent player's sponsorship contract in Malaysia should address this scenario explicitly, setting out what happens to logo placements, appearance obligations and payments during national duty.

Player sponsorship contracts: what they cover and a checklist for families

Whether you are an emerging junior or an established professional, most badminton sponsorship agreements contain similar elements. The specifics vary widely and are rarely made public, so the following describes typical structures rather than any particular contract.

Product supply

The number of rackets, pairs of shoes, sets of apparel and reels of string supplied per year, and whether the player can choose specific models or must use current retail lines.

Exclusivity and usage

Usually the player must use the sponsor's equipment in all competitions, training sessions that are filmed or photographed, and public appearances. Some contracts allow exceptions – for example, a different shoe brand for medical reasons – but these should be written in.

Logo positions

Which logos appear where on shirts and shorts, subject to the competition's clothing regulations. Personal sponsors in other categories need to know which positions remain available.

Cash retainer and incentive payments

Top players typically receive an annual fee, sometimes with additional payments linked to ranking or results. Juniors may receive product only, with cash introduced as results improve.

Marketing obligations

Photo shoots, product launches, clinics, social media posts and store appearances – usually a fixed number each year.

National team clause

What happens when the player represents Malaysia, as described above.

Term, renewal and termination

Length of contract, options to extend, and conditions under which either side can exit, including injury, retirement, loss of form or misconduct.

Checklist for young players and their families

Many Malaysian juniors receive their first equipment offer in their mid-teens. Before signing, work through these steps:

Check who you are contracted to. If you are in a state programme or BAM's system, find out whether your association's sponsorship rules restrict personal deals.
Read the whole contract. Pay particular attention to term length, exclusivity and termination. A long, exclusive contract signed at 15 can limit options at 19.
List exactly what is supplied. Quantities of rackets, shoes and apparel should be specified, along with replacement policies for broken rackets.
Clarify cash and incentives. Is there a retainer? Are there payments for rankings or titles? When and how are they paid?
Agree marketing obligations. Limit them to a reasonable number of days that will not disrupt training and schooling.
Protect your image rights. Make sure the sponsor's use of your name and photograph is limited to the term of the contract and to agreed purposes.
Plan for national duty. Include a clause that addresses selection for Malaysia, including any team kit requirements.
Get independent advice. A lawyer or experienced athlete manager can spot problems that families may miss. Where the player is a minor, a parent or guardian will need to be involved in signing.
Keep records. Save every version of the contract and every written communication about it.

Frequently asked questions

Who is BAM's kit sponsor?

Yonex is BAM's equipment partner. BadmintonPlanet reported a five-year agreement from April 2021 worth RM55 million, and BAM later announced that the partnership had been extended to 2028.

Why did BAM switch from Yonex to Victor and back?

The detailed reasons have not been fully published. What is on record is that BAM signed a six-year, RM60 million deal with Victor in 2015, as reported by The Star, and returned to Yonex when that deal expired in 2021. Such switches typically reflect the commercial offers on the table at renewal time.

Does PETRONAS sponsor Malaysian badminton?

Yes. A three-year agreement signed in March 2022 made PETRONAS title sponsor of the Malaysia Open, placed its logo on national team jerseys, made PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad the official fuel partner and renamed the national academy PETRONAS ABM.

How do independent Malaysian players earn money?

Through equipment contracts, personal sponsors, prize money, appearances and, in some cases, negotiated payments when representing Malaysia. They also pay their own coaches, support staff and travel, which is why sponsorship is essential for them.

Can an independent player wear a different brand from the national team?

On their own circuit, yes. During national duty, team sponsor rules may apply. The 2023 apparel dispute and the 2024 Thomas Cup image-rights arrangement show how these situations are handled through negotiation.

Who sponsors the Malaysia Masters?

Perodua is the title sponsor. Malay Mail reported that the 2025 tournament was the seventh edition under Perodua's title sponsorship, and Yonex serves as official equipment supplier at BAM-run tournaments.

Conclusion

Badminton sponsorship in Malaysia is shaped by a strong national association, fierce competition between equipment brands, and a growing class of independent professionals who rely on personal deals. BAM's history with Yonex and Victor shows how valuable national team rights are, while the PETRONAS agreement demonstrates how one sponsor can combine title, shirt, academy and category rights. For independent players, the challenge is building a sponsorship portfolio that funds an entire performance team – and agreeing in advance how those personal deals coexist with national duty. Clear contracts, honest valuation and respect for each party's commercial commitments are what keep the system working.

MST88 News is published by MST88 as an independent explainer and news site on sports sponsorship. We cover sponsorship across Southeast Asia; teams, athletes and event organisers can reach us through the Partnerships page.

Sources

MST88 News is published by MST88, an online gaming and sports entertainment brand (mst88.com). Our articles are independent editorial explainers about sports sponsorship and are for information only. Links to mst88.com are clearly labelled and open in a new tab; that site is for adults 18+ only.