Community Trust Bank offers promotion tying investment returns to Kentucky winning No. 9

Community Trust Bank wasn’t lying when it said, “When the Cats win, you win.” Kentucky hanging banner No. 9 this season could be the reason you put additional money in your pocket.

The Kentucky-based regional bank holding company has announced a “HOOPS” certificate of deposit set to tie investment returns directly to the Wildcats winning games in 2025-26. It’s a 12-month CD with a required minimum deposit of $2,500, opening with a 3.78% annual percentage yield (APY), according to Daniel Libit of Sportico.

Every Kentucky victory will then earn an additional basis point while a national championship — the assignment under Mark Pope, as you well know — will result in a 1-percentage-point boost for investors. That interest would then be credited on April 8, just two days after the title game in Indianapolis, conveniently.

Sportico reports that Community Trust Bank has sold $288 million worth of HOOPS CD over the last 27 years with three national championships for Kentucky in that span, investors receiving a similar boost in 1996, 1998 and 2012. As Coach Pope said to close out his pre-Purdue press conference on Thursday, what is 27 divided by three? Ah, lucky No. 9.

It’s all coming together, isn’t it?

Central Bank is the official “bank of UK Athletics,” while PNC Bank secured a campus-wide sponsorship with JMI Sports in 2016 for a reported $8.6 million, Sportico adds. Brandon Baker, VP of partnerships for UK Sports and Campus Marketing with JMI, says Community Trust Bank is a “long-time partner,” though this promotion is “not part of their contracted assets with us.”

“While PNC Bank shelled out millions for the right to call itself the University of Kentucky’s ‘official’ bank over 15 years, another financial institution has managed to score a quarter-century of brand exposure from the Wildcats free of charge,” Libit wrote. “… It’s a clever form of guerrilla marketing, one that has paid off handsomely for Community Trust Bank and president/CEO Mark Gooch, a Kentucky alumnus and donor.”

Certainly interesting for Community Trust Bank and fans investing — this team being a legitimate contender to win it all, thus making that boost a possibility — but how does UK feel about it? Or JMI? That’s interesting, too.

Make sure you read Daniel Libit’s piece with Sportico on the fascinating promo that builds with every victory for the Cats.