It was time to rethink the National Basketball Association’s digital strategy. Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft CEO who owns the Los Angeles Clippers, said as much, as did the Washington Wizards’ Ted Leonsis and tech billionaire Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks. So when the NBA modified its agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery to run the league’s mobile app in 2021, the NBA took control of its digital destiny and shifted its partnership to Microsoft. The collaboration begins before the opening jump of the 2022-23 NBA season comes Oct. 18.
The partners say the deal to rebuild the NBA app will benefit both. For the league, it means stability and the hope of fewer latency issues with a free app that provides vintage games on demand and statistics that will keep fantasy players up to date. For Microsoft, it means it’s gotten a toehold in what could be the dominant consumer technology of the future.
Click here to read the full article.
This article was written by Jabari Young for forbes.com
