Customer Stories

NBA: Scoring big with better business operations and global fan engagement

Watch the video

Explore the NBA’s journey with SAP

The NBA is truly an international league. Games are seen in more than 200 countries and viewed in around 50 languages. And the ever-growing fan base has been expanding by the millions. Using cloud technologies and solutions from SAP helps the NBA take the sport of basketball to the next level.

215

countries enjoy NBA broadcasts.

>200 million

social media followers.

65 million

annual page views of NBA stats.

Mark Tatum

Deputy Commissioner and COO, NBA

Our mission is to inspire and connect people everywhere though the power of basketball. We believe in basketball’s ability to change people’s lives.

The Challenge

Growing the game of basketball around the world

Basketball is one of the world’s most popular sports. And as a global business, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is constantly upping its game to always deliver the best the sport has to offer.

This has meant improving visibility and control of its financial operations while finding new ways to improve the fan experience for the millions of people who follow the game.

At the same time, the NBA wanted to build a workforce and culture that reflects the best of basketball. “It’s very important that we as an organisation represent the diversity of our fans, our players, and the communities we serve,” says Benjamin Spitzer, Head of HR Technology, NBA. “It’s really an essential part of moving basketball forward.”

Today, we spend less time managing technology and more time bringing new ideas to the game of basketball. SAP helps the NBA play its best game.

Sal Boccuzzi

VP, Financial Information Systems / NBA

The Solution

Fielding the right solutions to help ensure success

Success both on the court and in the NBA business offices depends on having a good game plan. And the NBA’s strategy includes using the latest technology from SAP.

The RISE with SAP solution gives the NBA the scalability and flexibility it needs to take global financial operations to the next level.

Keeping basketball fans connected to their favourite sport is critical – especially in this digital age. The NBA built a stat site based on SAP HANA Cloud that gives fans unlimited access to the league’s entire statistical database. “Our NBA stats site engages our fans and brings them closer to the game,” notes Charlie Rohlf, AVP, Stats Technology Product Development, NBA.

Since the NBA is all about people, the NBA also chose SAP SuccessFactors solutions to help support a diverse workforce and create equality across the organisation.

The NBA is building on its foundation for innovation and business success by migrating its SAP solutions and other IT resources to Microsoft Azure.

Keeping Basketball Fans Engaged with Digital Experiences

The NBA created a digital stat site that tells the story of the league from its beginning through the present day. Learn why fans spent more than 45 million minutes in one year exploring the interactive site.

The Result

Fulfilling a sport’s mission with business technology

Today, the NBA’s financial operations are tightly integrated. Business staff benefits from real-time reporting and real-time cash analysis. They can make faster and better-informed financial decisions. And greater automation saves the entire business valuable time.

The NBA stat site is a powerful engagement tool that provides NBA fans with real-time comprehensive data and access to statistics on a 24x7 basis. Last season, the NBA stats site had more than 15 million unique users and 65 million page views.

SAP SuccessFactors solutions are helping the NBA eliminate bias across the organisation’s people lifecycle – providing fair and equitable recruitment and hiring practices. “We also have the ability to better identify the training, skills, and development opportunities that our workforce needs to be successful,” says Spitzer.

Diversity in people, in thought, and in talent is central to our success.

Benjamin Spitzer

Head of HR Technology / NBA

SAP helps the NBA run better

Key business outcomes and benefits

Tightly integrated financial operations
24x7 stat site that makes it easy for fans to find and analyse both real-time and historical data
Empowerment of a diverse workforce that supports the NBA’s values and mission

Featured solutions and services

RISE with SAP is a comprehensive solution made up of key products and services from SAP and partners to get customers to the cloud and win the modular cloud ERP market.
SAP HANA Cloud is a fully managed in-memory cloud database that integrates data from across the enterprise, enabling faster decisions based on live data.
SAP SuccessFactors solutions offer individualised experiences and strategic software that empower employees to reach their potential.

About the NBA

The NBA is a global sports organisation that includes the men's professional basketball league as well as the Women’s NBA (WNBA), G League, NBA Africa, and NBA 2K.

Industry	Company Size	Region
Sports and entertainment	1,200 employees	New York, NY

Industry

Company Size

Region

Sports and entertainment

1,200 employees

New York,

Featured partner

Microsoft enables digital transformation with intelligent software, electronics, computers, and services. Its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. The NBA chose RISE with SAP on Microsoft Azure to facilitate its business transformation while driving innovation for its fans.

For more information, watch the video or read the brochure.