Microsoft on Thursday announced a multi-year partnership with the National Basketball Association and will help create a new direct-to-consumer platform that runs on the company’s cloud computing technology.
The new service will stream live and on-demand game broadcasts via a personalized fan experience “that tailors the content to the preferences of the fan, rewards participation, and provides more insights and analysis than ever,” according to a press release.
“This partnership with Microsoft will help us redefine the way our fans experience NBA basketball,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “Our goal, working with Microsoft, is to create customized content that allows fans — whether they are in an NBA arena or watching from anywhere around the world — to immerse themselves in all aspects of the game and engage directly with our teams and players.”
The NBA and Microsoft envision the platform giving fans a way to watch games together; to get notified if they are going to miss a key moment in a live game; to watch from different viewpoints and with different audio feeds; and to access historical stats in real-time while watching, among other possibilities.
Microsoft will become the “Official Artificial Intelligence Partner” and an “Official Cloud and Laptop Partner” for the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, and USA Basketball beginning with the 2020-21 NBA season.
We’re partnering with the @NBA to bring fans closer to the game and players they love with new personalized experiences powered by Azure and its AI capabilities. https://t.co/wILH9cfsiI
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) April 16, 2020
The NBA suspended its season on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as live sports goes on pause amid the outbreak and social distancing measures. The partnership with Microsoft could provide more value as the league looks for ways keep fans engaged when they can’t attend games.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week that live sports could return this year, but with no fans in stadiums or arenas.
The deal is another key sports-related partnership for Microsoft, which has worked closely with the NFL since 2013. Microsoft extended its NFL deal last month. NFL players and coaches will continue using Microsoft Surface tablets on the sidelines during games; teams and NFL staff will also use Microsoft’s Teams collaboration tool. The Surface tablet was featured in Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad this past January.
It’s not clear how the NBA will use the Surface tablet, Teams software, or other Microsoft products both on and off the court. Players in others pro sports leagues such as MLB use Apple iPads during games.
This is the latest cloud-related win for Microsoft. It recently beat out Amazon for the DoD’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project — though Amazon is protesting — and inked similar partnerships with companies such as AT&T and Walmart over the past few years.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Ballmer has worked closely with a Los Angeles startup called Second Spectrum to build Clippers CourtVision, an augmented reality viewing experience for basketball fans.
Ballmer, the world’s 9th-richest person, still holds a significant stake in Microsoft, which has seen its stock price more than triple over the past four years.
Here’s more about the Microsoft-NBA deal:
Beyond delivering live and on-demand game broadcasts through Microsoft Azure, the NBA’s vast array of data sources and extensive historical video archive will be surfaced to fans through state-of-the-art machine learning, cognitive search and advanced data analytics solutions. This will create a more personalized fan experience that tailors the content to the preferences of the fan, rewards participation, and provides more insights and analysis than ever. Additionally, this platform will enable the NBA to uncover unique insights and add new dimensions to the game for fans, coaches and broadcasters. The companies will also explore additional ways technology can be used to enhance the NBA’s business and game operations.
