The Unlikely Ways Vendors Are Sponsoring the Rio Olympics

With Brazil suffering its worst recession in a generation, organizers for the 2016 summer Olympics are pitching barter deals to prospective sponsors -- and finding it an easier sell than big cash payments.

Taking a page from the previous summer games -- when London, still reeling in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, structured about half of its sponsorships in barter deals -- Rio is increasingly turning to “value-in-kind” agreements. Rio had planned a 50-50 split, but organizers now are relying on a record of more than 60 percent barter for the 3 billion real in local sponsorship revenue needed to support the Games.