Adam Silver, NBA Deputy Commissioner, discussed the impact of technology on basketball games and the business value driven from data with theCube co-hosts John Furrier and Jeff Kelly, live at SAPhireNOW 2013.

The main issue the NBA has worked on with SAP was their need for a solution for their statistics database, as officials wanted to “allow fans to engage deeper” with statistics, regardless from where they were accessing the numbers.  SAP designed the NBA.com’s new statistical database system, which allows site visitors to access any kind of statistics permutations at any time.

Silver mentioned that there were plenty other website providing NBA game statistics, and instead of trying to shut them down through expensive legal procedures, the best approach was to outplay them. “We have the richest, deepest data,” and it was provided in real time.

As Silver explained, “only a minuscule percent of our fans… experience the game personally,” the rest access it through technology.

Asked how the NBA manages the fact that players now have social media accounts that allow them to build a fan base directly, Silver sad that social media activity was being monitored to some extent, while players have certain periods of time, such as before and during the game, when they are not allowed to publish updates on Twitter or talk to the media. However, social media accounts provide an opportunity for them to connect with the fans: “it’s an expectation of fans these days to have access” to such channels.

Asked about the business value the NBA gets from data – be it statistics provided to the fans or fan behavior analysis – Silver stated that they have “doubled the amount of time that our fans spend on NBA.com checking statistics.” The value is “about increasing engagement”.  Where duration as a parameter is concerned, Silver pointed out an increase to 40 minutes per average fan, compared to 15 minutes which was the average when he had joined the NBA. Understanding fan behavior “helps us better monetize,” he added.

Silver also mentioned the benefits to ticket pricing driven from analytics. By analyzing purchasing behavior, the NBA has come up with a different ticket pricing strategy – such as dynamic ticket pricing. “There’s different values in different games,” Silver said, as people care more about some games, and teams are realizing that people will pay a certain price to get a seat two weeks before a game, and will pay something else just an hour before the game.