Basketball is among the world’s 25 most popular sports with 2 billion people watching various basketball leagues around the world. And National Basketball Association(NBA) is fast growing to be a worldwide league popular in Asian, European and African countries. Today’s NBA is more global than it was back in 1984 having youngest viewership and evolving with fans every year. The men’s professional basketball league that originate from North America with just 11 teams, now has 30 teams and a fandom spanning the world.

NBA’s fantasy games are equally popular because they connect fans virtually from any part of the world and increase their knowledge of the league. Widely considered to be the premier men’s professional league in the world, NBA houses players who are the world’s best paid athletes by average annual salary per year. This adds to the frenzy associated with the fantasy NBA platforms that have fans engaged indefinitely from several parts of the world.

NBA’s growing global fan base

A fantasy platform built around NBA is a successful and probably one of the most lucrative businesses in online gaming today. That’s because NBA hit a major high in its fanship during the last season’s finals that attracted phenomenal viewership around the world. The biggest evidence was the international media representation at the Finals of 2017 which included 265 journalists from 35 countries. For instance, in China the NBA Finals was the most viewed finals of a series ever on the country’s digital platforms. Tencent’s live game coverage enjoyed a viewership of 190.0 million total views and averaged 12.2 million unique viewers per game, which was 30 per cent up from the last 2016 session. Tencent also reported that Game 5 of the NBA 2017 finals was the most viewed NBA game ever with 50.6 million total views and 15.9 million unique viewers.

TV and social media fan following

NBA 2017 finals was the most watched NBA finals series since 1998 as Nielson reported. In fact, the 2017 series averaged 20.4 million total viewers, up from 20.2 million viewers for last season's seven-game series. Nielsen reports that the combined average TV viewership for NBA national broadcasts on TNT, ESPN, ABC and NBA TV is 1.4 million viewers, which is up 17 percent from the 2016-2017 regular season and the most-watched start to a season since 2012-2013. What is noteworthy is that this is also the biggest ratings growth in North American pro sports in a world of television where viewerships in general are declining. NBA’s Facebook page enjoys 33.93 million fans while Los Angeles Lakers have the highest number of Facebook fans with 21.5 million.

Younger fans are playing more

If you are considering to build an NBA fantasy website or mobile application, you must target the millennial and Gen-z online gamers. The growth of NBA has been particularly strong among the younger audience including adults aged between 18 and 35. This demographic is comfortable watching NBA games online and hence loves extending their NBA passion to fantasy platforms. Neilson states that 45% of NBA audience are below 35 years of age.

Digital streaming and NBA fantasy

Tencent’s views on NBA 2017 finals indicate that the sport is popular over the internet where fans are not dependent on TV channels for telecast. 2017 Finals averaged an additional 434,000 digital streaming viewers, according to ESPN. These viewers are pre-disposed towards online gaming are most likely hooked to NBA’s official fantasy league. Since the league has its own fantasy platform, a majority of its viewer have a natural inclination towards NBA fantasy. And these fantasy platforms are growing in a number of countries over the years. For instance, NBA India have partnership with fantasy sports provider Dream11. This is why NBA fantasy business is a lucrative proposition.

Why should you build a fantasy NBA platform?

/ NBA is among the top 25 most popular sports around the world, hence enjoys a worldwide fan base
/ NBA audience is pre-disposed towards online gaming and fantasy sports
/ Younger audience is also more inclined to buy merchandise from NBA fantasy platforms
/ NBA officially runs a fantasy league
/ NBA players are highest paid athletes around the world
/ NBA has fan base in the most densely populated regions such as Asia, Africa and Europe

Building a fantasy NBA platform

Basketball fans have evolved over the years to be a digitally connected demographic that love to play fantasy games online. Vinfotech has been in the business of fantasy sports application development for various sports and demographics. We have a wide variety of projects built for niche sports that have attracted millions of fans around the world. Give us a call