Competing Apart, Sharing Together with Michael James, SVP, Head of Data Strategy & Analytics at the NBA

Aug 30, 2023

Michael James, SVP at the NBA, discusses the league's data-driven culture and their digital transformation. They explore CRM challenges in sports, diverse technology stacks in NBA teams, and collaboration with peers in other leagues. They also discuss favorite basketball players and the value of communication and collaboration in data analysis.

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INSIGHT

Data's Evolution in NBA Business

The NBA's data strategy role focuses on using data to make better business decisions and improve fan engagement.
This role has significantly evolved over the past two decades, reflecting sports' increasing reliance on data.

ANECDOTE

NBA Analytics Rooted in Ticketing

The NBA's business analytics roots started with ticketing CRM roles focusing on targeting and pricing.
Player analytics like plus-minus came first, but business-side analytics grew later, beginning roughly 12 years ago.

INSIGHT

Team and League Fan Engagement Linked

Teams focus their data and CRM efforts on enhancing the in-arena fan experience.
The league prioritizes direct-to-consumer digital products, linking these efforts to team use cases for fan engagement.

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How does the NBA use data to compete and improve? When it comes to driving business growth with data, transparent communication makes success a slam dunk. By sharing innovative ideas and best practices across the business, one all-star team elevates the success of others across the entire organization.

Michael James, SVP and Head of Data Strategy and Analytics at the NBA, is committed to creating a better fan experience and making better business decisions through collaboration. In this role, he bridges executive leadership and technical expertise to create a data-driven culture in constant pursuit of innovation. Satyen and Mike discuss the NBA’s digital transformation, the future of GenAI in the league, and attracting more people to sports business analytics.

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“We have very active communication with our teams. You build up a relationship over time and you start to realize, ‘If this person is sharing this thing that worked, we have a good sense of who else might be able to benefit from it.’ We'll make sure to package that up in a way that is not only informative, ‘Here's what the team did,’ but also has the tangible next steps. ‘Here's what you can actually do with this to drive the business.’ And it's no different on the data side. We've built a ton of data products through the years at the league level for our teams, also for different departments within our league office as well. But, the goal of all of those products is to make sure that we are driving better business decisions, we're driving a better fan experience, and, ultimately, that's going to lead to more revenue.” – Michael James

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Time Stamps:

*(13:16): Sharing the (data) ball among the league

*(17:34): Establishing best practices across an enterprise

*(37:08): Measuring performance to measure culture

*(41:16): Improving DEI in data

*(46:57): Satyen’s Takeaways

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Alation.

Learn more:

* Subscribe to the newsletter: https://www.alation.com/podcast/

* Alation’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alation/

* Satyen’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssangani/

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Links

Follow Michael on LinkedIn