March 09, 2026
Adobe and MLB Team Up to Knock Fan Experiences Out of the Park
Adobe and Major League Baseball have announced a major expansion of their multi-year partnership, placing artificial intelligence at the centre of how the sport connects with its fans. The deal positions Adobe as the official Presenting Sponsor of MLB Opening Day in 2026, 2027 and 2028, and brings a wide range of Adobe’s AI-powered tools into the heart of MLB’s marketing, product and content teams. The goal, according to Adobe, is to “redefine fan engagement” across digital channels.
The move follows a similar play in the world of motorsport, as Salesforce recently partnered with Formula 1 to deepen engagement with its 827 million fans, using AI to personalise fan experiences at scale.
What the Partnership Involves
The expanded deal brings several Adobe tools into MLB’s operations. Adobe GenStudio for Performance Marketing will help MLB’s marketing teams plan, create and deliver personalised campaigns more quickly, allowing them to tailor content to fans whether they are watching from home or attending a game in person. Adobe Firefly Services and Custom Models will allow the league to generate on-brand creative content at speed, handling everything from campaign visuals to resizing assets for different channels.
Also included is Adobe LLM Optimizer, which will help MLB improve how its content surfaces in AI-driven search results, keeping the league visible to fans searching for tickets, stats or team news. Rounding out the suite, Adobe Express will give fans themselves the tools to create personalised social content using official team colours and logos, powered by generative AI.
Uzma Rawn, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Partnerships at MLB, believes Adobe’s products are well aligned to the needs of their supporters: “MLB fans everywhere want to feel a part of the ballpark atmosphere from wherever they enjoy baseball. Adobe is a global leader in digital experiences and creativity, and this relationship provides us with the technology to better understand and deliver what our fans want and need digitally.”
A Showcase Moment for a Company Under Pressure
The MLB partnership arrives at a significant moment for Adobe. The US software company has dramatically increased its advertising spend, with Bloomberg noting the budget has reached $1.4 billion, a rise of more than 30 per cent compared to previous years. Adobe is not just promoting new products, however, it is actively working to counter concerns that AI could undermine its core business, investing in its image around trust, safety and enterprise readiness. It is not the only one. Anthropic also ran an advert that mocked OpenAI’s plans to incorporate adverts into ChatGPT.
Despite record revenues of $6.2 billion in its most recent quarter, up 10 per cent year on year, with full-year revenue climbing to $23.8 billion, Adobe’s share price remains down more than 35 per cent over the past year. The market’s scepticism centres on a single question: are Adobe’s AI products still selling?
The company’s Digital Media Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) figure, which tracks subscription income from its creative and document tools, will be a number analysts watch closely when Adobe publishes its next quarterly earnings report later this week. A strong ARR reading would signal that customers are embracing Adobe’s AI features rather than looking elsewhere. It has recovered nearly 13 per cent in recent weeks, suggesting some early optimism, but we shall have to wait and see whether this is grounded on anything more than hope.
