By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Basketball launched a successful new era in 2017 and the rapid growth of FIBA’s digital properties has provided a helping hand.
The more than 2.5 billion impressions on Social Media serves as a strong indication of the high level consumption that FIBA’s content is generating.
Videos are growing in popularity, with 643 million views in 2017 across FIBA’s Social Media platforms, more than four times the amount in 2016. The development of Chinese platforms – managed by leading global digital company and FIBA partner Tencent – were crucial in that growth.
In only two years, followers of FIBA’s Social Media platforms have more than doubled, increasing from 5 million to 13 million. The launch in 2017 of four apps – FIBA EuroBasket, Basketball Champions League, FIBA Basketball World Cup and EuroLeague Women – proved hugely successful with more than 335,000 downloads.
More and more fans are able to watch live games. Some 1,700 of them – an increase of 500 on 2016 – were made available on Social Media, with national federations, players and media able to show them. The open distribution of live games brought with it many more viewers of games, a perfect example of this being the 800,000 social media live views for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup clash between the United States and Italy.
FIBA also empowered fans by offering them the opportunity to comment on the games after teaming up with the innovative technology Spalk.
Traffic on FIBA’s websites almost doubled in 2017, increasing from 18 million to 35 million visits. Much of this is owed to an improved content strategy put in place for all sites. Moreover fans have been granted additional access to websites that have become more mobile friendly than ever.
It has also helped that FIBA’s Social Media has been among the popular when it comes to international sports federations, and the fact that FIBA’s competitions – including the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers – have made for compelling, must-see viewing.
The basketball community has also embraced the change in domain name from .com to .basketball with many federations, clubs and players following the lead of FIBA.basketball.
FIBA’s digital strategy has won praise from independent experts.
Richard Ayers of Seven League – a specialist sports digital agency which works with Europe’s leading sports bodies and professional teams – said: “Successfully using digital to deliver audience growth, engagement and revenue is something that only comes with a high level of what we call Digital DNA. Although we don’t work with FIBA, we have been keeping an eye on their progress and it has been great to see an international federation really driving their own development across a range of digital products and services. In particular, the live streaming efforts and their DIY platform is a testament to an internal drive to maximise the opportunities available for the benefit of the sport.”
