The National Basketball Association of the U.S. has opened new offices in the last few months in Milan, Madrid and Istanbul to help promote the game and the merchandising of its own licensed products. It has also appointed a regional director for the Middle East, Aly El Hamamry, who is based in London.

The top management of NBA Europe moved last year from Paris to London, where it is headed up by Sophie Goldschmidt, formerly in charge of new business development and sponsorships. She works there with other NBA Europe executives such as Benjamin Morel, merchandising manager, who had started at the Paris office in 1997. The offices in Paris and London continue to take care of the local and regional markets.

The new Italian office in Milan is run by Katia Bassi, who previously worked for Ferrari and the Inter football team. The Spanish office, which was previously located in Barcelona, has been reopened in Madrid and is now run by George Young. Emre Atam is in charge of the Turkish office in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, the NBA has picked an Italian company, Panini, to be its global exclusive partner for making trading cards, stickers and sticker albums. The multi-year licensing agreement starts with the coming season. Panini is based in Modena and has subsidiaries throughout Europe and Latin America. Last year it had sales of about $1 billion.