Netball South Africa Locks Water Supply Deal; aQuellé Backs League and National Teams

Netball South Africa has formalized a commercial deal with aQuellé, naming the water brand its Official Water and Sports Drink Partner across the organization’s full competition calendar.

The arrangement puts aQuellé’s branding inside NSA’s most visible platforms: the Telkom Netball League, the country’s premier domestic competition, and international matches featuring the SPAR Proteas and South Africa’s male national team. That coverage spans the domestic and international stages where South African netball competes, giving the brand consistent exposure across a season rather than a single event.

Adam Brooke, CEO of Netball South Africa, was direct about what the deal means operationally. “This partnership is a meaningful step in our journey to build a commercially sustainable sport that can compete at the highest levels,” Brooke said. “aQuellé’s commitment to excellence and their focus on South African communities make them a natural partner for us. We look forward to working together to deliver impactful activations for our fans, athletes, and stakeholders.”

For NSA, the commercial logic is straightforward. The organization has been working to build a more financially robust operating model, and partnerships of this kind deliver both immediate revenue and long-term platform value for activations and fan engagement. Embedding a brand partner across the event calendar, rather than attaching it to a single fixture, is the kind of structural arrangement that generates sustained commercial return.

By contrast, aQuellé’s interest is in access. The brand gains entry to a supporter base that skews young, predominantly female, and community-oriented, an audience that aligns closely with the brand’s positioning around active and outdoor lifestyles.

Sharon Combrink, Marketing Manager at aQuellé, framed the deal in terms of both performance and purpose. “We are thrilled to partner with Netball SA and look forward to hydrating the Proteas as they represent our country,” Combrink said. “aQuellé is also committed to making a difference in our communities, and we are honoured to join hands with Netball South Africa to grow the sport and develop local talent.”

That dual focus, on athlete hydration and community development, reflects a broader pattern in South African sports sponsorship, where corporate partners are increasingly expected to contribute beyond logo placement. The deal is structured as a shared commitment to performance, growth, and local talent development, not simply a transactional exchange of funds for visibility.

NSA’s ability to attract this kind of partner signals something about the organization’s current trajectory. Netball’s audience continues to expand, and the sport’s profile at the national and continental levels has grown alongside it. The aQuellé partnership arrives as NSA works to consolidate those gains into a commercially durable structure.

What remains to be seen is how the “impactful activations” Brooke referenced will take shape across the competition calendar, and whether the community development commitments Combrink outlined translate into measurable programs on the ground.