‘All About’ the new NBA Mobile Application.
AUTHORS NOTE AS OF OCT 25, 2023:
The original article details the 2022-23 innovations and additions. As of October 17, 2023, the NBA rolled out new updates that are detailed at the end of the article.
With the newest season of the NBA Set to start, the league has rolled out some updates and upgrades to their mobile application for the 2023-24 season to enhance fan engagement. This season is all about personalisation, live experiences, and expanded content offerings. The NBA App, which already boasts impressive statistics, having generated over one billion video views last season, is further elevating the experience for fans.
Updates can be found at the end of the article.
The NBA season is back. And already with some novelty: a new way for fans to live their passion for basketball through a new digital platform available worldwide!
Three weeks ago, on September 27th 2022, the league launched a first-of-its-kind new mobile application driven by data and powered by a unique integrated digital platform built in partnership with Microsoft, the league’s cloud and AI partner.
“What makes this app unique in the sports world is that it’s both a deeply personalised experience and an all-in-one destination,” says Chris Benyarko, NBA executive vice president of direct-to-consumer. “We think this platform makes it easy to be an NBA fan. It allows people to immerse themselves in what’s happening with the league. And there is much more to come.”
Official Press Release, Microsoft
The latest and most fan-friendly application includes a wide range of features that have not slipped our attention, given the impact they will have on the fan experience but also on the league's fan-centric strategy. In this new All About article, we deep dive into the essential features of this new platform that deserve to be analysed, commented on, and challenged.
NBA ID will drive the fan experience
“The league’s priority was gathering fan data and utilising these insights to personalise each person’s experiences while adding information about the game and seamlessly blending in NBA facts, accomplishments, and stories. This deep layer of content driven by machine learning features both live and historical content, statistics, game strategies, and more, targeted towards the present and future generations,” commented Ken DeGennaro, senior vice president of media operations and technology for the NBA.
Official Press Release, NBA
NBA strategy is oriented to create a differentiated basketball experience for fans. NBA ID, free to join, will link fans’ experiences across existing products like NBA League Pass and NBA Pick’Em.
Throughout the season, NBA ID members will access new original content and enhanced members-only experiences from NBA partners, ticket promotions, and prizes through predictive and sweepstakes-style NBA Pick’Em fantasy games, voting campaigns, and other rewards.
The American League had worked closely with its technology partner to develop a complete platform allowing data to be aggregated and then acted on with advanced AI and machine learning to meet all fans' demands worldwide. With this application, the NBA personalised content for each user regarding their favourite team or player worldwide, on all continents, and in all time zones. But what content and features will fans enjoy?
A Vertical Video Feed & Story to be immersed in the NBA ecosystem
Here we are; what makes the application stand out and fit in with the digital trends of the new generations is that it adopts the same codes. Much like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, videos delivered vertically have become nearly a standard across the end-user experience.
The NBA app’s “For You” section offers social generated, vertical video consumption as a scroll experience full of what’s called “real-time” highlights of every NBA game in progress.
What better way to engage with fans than offering them a similar experience on their favourite social platform? The NBA is going further by adding an option to share these vertical videos to social media. Beyond the format, such content will give fans access to the entire NBA ecosystem, most notably behind-the-scenes content, to make them feel more immersed. But it is not the only content that fans will have access to.
Exclusive access to original programs
Centralised content to entertain NBA fans seems to be a significant component of the league's strategy. If you look at the content available and produced outside game days, fans won't have time to get bored! Instead, they will be able to enjoy social-style and short content series looking at the lifestyle, culture, fashion, and music, as well as weekly programs with experts sharing the latest betting information and analysis of each game. To finish in style, they will also have access to exclusive series and replay from the most critical games in the league's history.
“We want this app to serve as connective tissue and help build this long-term direct relationship with consumers that also involves partners. We want this app to be a centre, a home,” said NBA Executive Vice President of Direct-to-Consumer Christopher Benyarko.
An application designed to improve the live experience
NBA immerses even more its fan in the game day with unique content all day long, and, for the first time, they will get live access to streams of all pre-game and post-game NBA press conferences and media days from every significant event. In addition, NBA Game Pass subscribers can access expanded options for personalised viewing experiences. Through a wide variety of alternate streams, including additional camera angles, betting-focused streams, influencer-led and analytics-driven options, and in-language feeds with commentary in three languages (Spanish, Portuguese and Korean), the fan will enjoy a real 360 live experience.
The new generation of fans wants to be more involved in the game and immerse themselves in the scene of each match; with such offers, the NBA fulfils all their desires. The league gains from centralizing all its experiences within the same app in a way it encourages fans to stay on the platform and can simultaneously engage them with other offerings, such as the league's e-commerce, and then opening up new monetisation opportunities with instant in-app purchases.
External content contributors to engage ALL fans
Finally, the latest feature that draws our attention is External Content Contributors. Fans can now access influencer-created content from popular creators, including Thinking Basketball’s Ben Taylor, Jesser, Kris London, Lethal Shooter, Devin Williams, Tristan Jass, and more focused on fashion, lifestyle and NBA culture both on and off the court. But also content produced by popular basketball and sports-highlight creators, including Turner Sports, featuring content from the hosts of “Inside the NBA”, Grant Hill and Greg Anthony, FanDuel, DraftKings, Action Network, Bleacher Report, and more.
Including content from influencers and creators on the NBA App is a powerful way to engage its fan base and give them an additional reason to return. As fans are highly committed to the influencers they follow, they are even more interested in their content. With such initiatives, the NBA is looking to increase recurring connections on a daily-weekly basis.
More than engaging existing fans, it also attracts new ones via the influencers’ communities that are not primarily concerned about basketball but more about the creator's content. Let's take the example of Ben Taylor, creator of the YouTube channel Thinking Basketball, which goes deeper into basketball analysis, history, philosophy, and theory with various guests ranging from journalists to former players. He has more than 429 K followers on his YouTube channel. By letting such creators publish content on the App, NBA ensures to reach all of Ben's followers, from the basketball hardcore fan to the casual fan.
Finally, and from a business perspective, widening the audience spectrum while empowering the existing audience is perfect for the league to monetize its products and sponsors better.
A fan-centric App with huge potential
If we have to remember one essential thing about this new NBA application, it is the fan-centric approach. Every feature aims to enhance the fan experience, but above all, to meet the new fan expectation and behaviour. The vertical feed best illustrates the league's desire to adapt the experience to new generations. Indeed, and it is not new, fans’ behaviours and habits have significantly evolved; they have developed new ways to entertain themselves and to consume sports.
Looking for shorter content and immersive experiences, the NBA App stands out as the next generation of mobile apps for sports organisations. Naturally, this strategy needs to be backed up with other actions to ensure that organisations can effectively reach this new generation of fans; web3 initiatives, gamification, and loyalty, among other initiatives, as outlined in the article below.
3 ways to boost fan engagement for new generations
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3 ways to boost fan engagement for new generations -
NBA Application Updates for the 2023-24 Season
Personalised Team and Player Tabs
Fans can now add multiple team and player tabs to their app's main screen, seamlessly accessing real-time content, including news, highlights, stats, and more. Fans can choose to add as many or as few tabs as they want, and the order of the tabs can be customised.
This personalisation and choice of experience means that fans receive targeted content and notifications, enabling more traffic and computation to the NBA’s application, effectively boosting their metrics. This tabs feature allows them to stay up to date with players and their favourite team, and it is an asset when fans want to choose from multiple different teams, however, this can divert traffic from individual teams' apps.
Enhanced Live Game Viewing
The NBA App's enhanced live game viewing experience rolled out some upgrades from last season to give fans more control over their viewing experience than ever before. The idea of personalisation now extends to the match-watching experience for NBA League Pass subscribers, allowing them to change the feed to suit their preferences. Subscribers have the flexibility to switch between various broadcast feeds and language choices, all while engaging with dynamic overlays showcasing real-time player statistics, scores, betting odds, and additional content. Later in the season, subscribers will have the ability to video chat with others while watching a stream.
This addition is a critical plan to keep fans on the application by giving them diverse content as they can choose their own experience and will be able to interact with others. Fans are given another form of interaction with statistics, odds, chatting with friends, and more, effectively satisfying the need for further interaction and a “second screen” directly on the NBA’s own platform.
This, in addition to catering to the non-native-English-speaking fan base, is critical for developing and nurturing fandom and the connection from fan to league.
Social Media-Style "Moments" Feed
The league expanded the social media-style "Moments" feed will feature video content from around the NBA, hosted directly in app. This is an expansion of the vertical video feed and story feature that was implemented in the 2022-23 season. In the “Moments” feed, fans can find player interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, social media posts from teams and players and exclusive NBA content. Powered by AI, the new personalised team and player tabs on the NBA App will give fans a more immersive and tailored experience.
It is always an advantage to host a variety of content and an extensive catalogue on your application or website, as it allows for a diverse fan base to find something they are interested in. The NBA is doing this in a quick format, and that is appealing to young fans, giving them a burst of entertainment to keep them engaged. The Tiktok-like structure of the videos is well known to the younger audience, meaning the NBA can leverage other social media practices to significantly increase time spent in-app and content consumption.
This format may increase interaction between fans to league, player or team, but does not facilitate interaction from fan-to-fan and community building. When sharing a highlight or exciting video in the app, fans are prompted to send through a 3rd party messenger application or send a link to the video. There is no commenting or sharing option hosted in the application meaning fans have to exit to share, effectively moving the conversation off the NBA App.
Official Press Release, NBA
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