AAMI has signed a two-year agreement to become Principal Partner of the Sydney Sixers, placing the Suncorp-owned insurer’s branding on the front of playing shirts for both the men’s KFC Big Bash League (BBL) and women’s Weber WBBL sides through the end of the 2027-28 season.
The deal, announced September 17, also makes AAMI Official Insurance Partner of the Sydney Sixers and an Official Partner of Cricket NSW. For insurance professionals, the announcement matters less for the cricket itself than for what it confirms about where Suncorp is directing consumer brand investment – and why that has implications for the broader personal lines market.
This agreement does not stand alone. In early 2026, AAMI extended its AFL and AFLW partnership for a minimum of three years and became naming rights partner of the AAMI AFL Origin. It also became Premier Partner of the WAFL, WAFLW, WAFL Colts, and Junior Football in Western Australia, while taking naming rights to WA Football’s State Talent Program. In South Australia, SANFL’s elite underage football pathway competitions were renamed the AAMI Talent League for 2026.
The pattern follows a deliberate internal strategy. At its October 2025 investor day, Suncorp told shareholders it had lifted marketing spend by an average of 5% year-over-year, and that AAMI held a “clear nine percentage point lead” in consumer consideration over its nearest rival. Nearly 70% of Australians recognise Suncorp’s brands, and 60% consider them when buying insurance – with AAMI ranked first on both measures, according to the Suncorp Group 2025 Investor Update.
Suncorp holds #1 market share in motor insurance and #2 in home. The company has made sustaining those positions through brand investment an explicit part of its strategy as a pure-play insurer following the 2024 sale of Suncorp Bank to ANZ.
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Suncorp and IAG together control roughly half of Australian personal lines insurance, according to equity research by Alpha Insights. Both groups contest the same pool of home, motor, and contents policyholders, and brand visibility is a front-line tool in that contest.
IAG’s NRMA Insurance has pursued parallel activity. It holds naming rights to the NRMA Insurance Test Series, serves as official insurance partner of Australia’s men’s and women’s national cricket teams, and sponsored Nine’s coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Budget Direct entered the NRL club market in 2026 through a Melbourne Storm sleeve-branding deal.
The Sixers agreement extends AAMI’s cricket footprint specifically into New South Wales – NRMA’s home market – and into a competition whose audiences have grown consecutively.
The domestic T20 competition has become one of the more valuable broadcast properties in Australian sport. BBL|14 confirmed its status as Australia’s most-watched sports league on a per-game basis, with average audiences growing 20% year-on-year to 770,000 viewers nationally, according to Cricket Australia. The subsequent BBL|15 season averaged 808,000 viewers per game nationally – up 5% year-on-year – with total season attendance reaching 1,089,043, the highest since BBL|09.
The BBL|15 Finals Series drew an average audience of 1.2 million per game, the highest for a finals series of four or more games since BBL|07, Cricket Australia reported.
The WBBL component carries weight in its own right. Weber WBBL|11 recorded its highest average audience per game since broadcast coverage began, reaching 128,000 viewers nationally. AAMI’s branding appears on WBBL shirts on equal terms with the BBL – a deliberate choice that broadens reach across a different viewer demographic.
Sydney Sixers general manager Rachael Haynes pointed to shared values as a driver of the arrangement. “Their commitment to community aligns strongly with our values as a club and our ambition to create meaningful connections with our members, fans, and grassroots cricket communities,” Haynes said.
AAMI will also serve as Presenting Partner of the Sydney Sixers’ Community Rounds – matchday events recognising local cricket clubs and volunteers across New South Wales. The first fixture is scheduled for November 15 against the Melbourne Renegades in the WBBL, with a BBL Community Round against the Perth Scorchers following on January 10.
AAMI executive general manager of brand and customer experience Mim Haysom described the deal in terms of geographic reach. “Cricket has a wonderful way of bringing Australians together, whether it’s at the ground, around the television, or at a local club. That makes our NSW Cricket and Sydney Sixers partnership a great fit for AAMI,” Haysom said.
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Brokers handled $35.6 billion of the $77.9 billion in gross written premium placed in Australia in the year to June 30, 2025 – close to half the total market – and the intermediated channel grew at a compound annual rate of 6.1% over the prior decade, ahead of the market’s overall 5.7% CAGR, according to the National Insurance Brokers Association’s (NIBA) Data to Direction report.
That broker share, however, is concentrated in commercial lines. Personal lines home and motor – AAMI’s core products – remain predominantly direct-to-consumer. Suncorp has stated in investor briefings that its consumer brands operate “almost exclusively direct to consumer,” with end-to-end control of the brand experience treated as a competitive advantage.
Community-level sponsorships reinforce that dynamic. A consumer who associates AAMI with their local cricket club is a consumer less likely to seek broker advice at renewal. As Australia’s two dominant personal lines groups continue to expand their sports portfolios simultaneously, the effect on direct versus intermediated distribution in home and motor is worth tracking.
