The National Basketball Association (NBA) has launched a dedicated content portal on X, the social media platform known as Twitter, in a bid to drive engagement ahead of the playoffs and beyond.
The portal will bring together posts from teams, players, content creators and media outlets, alongside real-time scores and stats and video highlights, hoping to cement X as a “go to destination” for NBA fans and encourage them to spend more time on the platform.
X is a significant social network for the NBA both in the US and internationally. It has more than 60 million followers across its global accounts, while video views related to the league increased by 23 per cent year-on-year during the first half of the season. The volume of NBA posts increased by 26 per cent over the same period.
This in turn benefits X, which can monetise this activity through advertising and other means.
The NBA is the second league to launch a dedicated space on X, following on from the National Football League (NFL) last year.
“With the NBA Playoffs tipping off soon, we are excited to launch the NBA Portal on X,” said Linda Pan, NBA senior vice president and head of new media partnerships. “Through the NBA Portal, fans will have an interactive and complementary experience to watching live games.”
“X has always been the go-to platform for real-time NBA conversation, and the NBA Portal takes this to the next level for both fans and brands,” said Amy Elkins, global head of strategic partnerships at X. “We are focused on expanding premium sports experiences globally and are thrilled to capture the excitement of the NBA community in another one-of-a-kind portal experience.”
Despite Elon Musk’s widespread technological and policy changes, sport has continued to thrive on X and major properties have maintained significant presences on the platform because it remains the place where fans congregate during big events.
X is a major source of real time conversations, highlights and other content and X is doing everything it can to maintain and increase this activity, hoping to generate more advertising revenue and subscriptions.
Formal partnerships like this one are part of those efforts, helping to bring the best of NBA-related content into a single place, amplifying the real time elements of X and allowing it to compete with other applications and traditional media.
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