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You hate to see another March Madness come to an end, but in comes the NBA playoffs with their 5th year of play-in games beginning tonight This innovation was a reaction to a pandemic that caused the league to adapt and try to soften loses, in the NBA’s case a 10% revenue lose and a 37% viewership lose in 2020 The short version of the format is that seeds 7-10 in each conference compete to determine the final two playoff spots in their conference 7 vs 8 and the winner secures their spot, the loser has a chance to face the winner of 9 vs 10 for last spot (loser of 9 vs 10 eliminated) Regardless of criticism, the league rebounded from pandemic era business struggles and kept this innovation around Just two and half years later, they hit the $10b revenue mark for the first time The goal of the move from a business standpoint was obviously more playoff games = more viewership = more money, but it also hoped to replicate the depth of teams and underdog possibilities that March Madness has They also hoped to incentivize teams with extra playoff spots giving the middle of the pack teams a chance which, in theory, limits tanking Tuesday-Friday marks the start and it has some massive stars It also includes the Miami Heat team who just last year, as a team who lost their first play-in game, advanced to the finals It was hard for me to type that, but it had to be said. But the Celtics are back Nonetheless, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Joel Embiid are some of the stars starting the 2024 NBA playoffs and I have a feeling these guys definitely won’t hurt the success that the play-in games have brought for business Excited to see how the next couple of weeks play out and as always, Go Celtics #sports #sportsbiz #linkedinsports

In this week's newsletter I cover: 🏀 Takeaways from Game 1 of the NBA Finals 🏈 CMC's New Deal ⚾ The Dodgers' and Yankees' MVP-Caliber Duos If you love sports, please subscribe. Any feedback or suggestions are welcome! Enjoy! (I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks, so there won't be a new Down the Line until I'm back!)

Reposting from last week with corrected image: After a long wait and much anticipation the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals finally start tonight! This means that we're back with our series of head-to-head partnership matchups. For previous series during these playoffs we covered just one matchup, but for the finals we're going to make this a full seven game series between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks just like we're going to see on the court. First up, to go along with our in-depth coverage of the new league-wide partnership between the NBA and SKIMS, let's take a look and see which team's fanbase had greater growth in DTC spending with the Skims brand between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons. While Mavericks fans grew their Skims spending by an impressive 71.74% this season, if you've been following the rest of our Skims x NBA coverage this week you'll already know that this number is actually below the league average of 77%. Celtics fans, on the other hand, blew away the Mavericks and the league average by nearly double at 138% growth! It looks like the Celtics cruised to an easy victory here in game 1. Check back next week when we'll continue our NBA Finals partnership head-to-head coverage between these two teams with Game 2.

Congratulations to Adam Silver and his team at the National Basketball Association (NBA) on a successful In-Season Tournament (IST). It was fascinating to watch public and media reaction shift from confused and skeptical to engaged and excited over the last six weeks. What I admire most about the IST is the way it has set a new standard for turning relatively low-value content – an early- or mid-season game – into a high-value asset. We’ve seen the National Hockey League (NHL) do this effectively with its Winter Classic and the National Football League (NFL) do it with overseas games, but the duration of the IST gives it a value that is unique in the American regular-season sports landscape. The proof is in the pudding: Ratings were up more than 20% across platforms compared to last November, and the league saw record November attendance. There’s now talk that the IST could be sold as a separate #broadcast or #streaming package when current NBA #mediarights deals with The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery expire in 2025. I expect the IST will spur a wave of #innovation by leagues to create more regular season excitement, which is a great thing for fans, teams, sponsors, and rights holders.     https://lnkd.in/dqBmg_jM   #sports #sportsbusiness #nba

Blink and You’ll Miss it 😴 The Boston Celtics are your 2024 NBA Champions 🎉 after defeating the Dallas Mavericks in a series that was... interesting. Finals viewership hit a low since 2007 (excluding the COVID era), with only 11.31 million viewers on average across five games. 📉 While TV viewership has been declining for a decade as people shift to streaming, there are still basketball-specific factors contributing to the lackluster NBA Finals ratings: ⭐️ No Familiar Faces Playoff mainstays like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant were absent, leaving casual fans either to educate themselves on new stars or switch to other entertainment options. The old guard managed only a single win this postseason, pushing the spotlight onto rising stars like Anthony Edwards 🐺, Luka Doncic 🐴, and Jayson Tatum ☘️. ⚖️ Lack of Competition Competitive games were scarce. Boston's Game 1 victory by 18 points set the tone for a series where the average lead was 13.1 points across 5 games (see chart 2). The Mavericks' 38-point win in Game 4 and the Celtics' blowout in Game 5 didn’t help in keeping viewers engaged. Despite the viewership dip, credit is due to the Celtics. They dominated the season and clinched their 18th championship, making history. Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown deserve their accolades. We just wish the series had been a bit more exciting to watch. 👀 #NBAFinals #linkedinsports #sportsbiz #sportsball #viewership #datavisualization

Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Can You Rig the NBA Finals? It’s official, the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks volition look disconnected successful the NBA Finals. The best-of-seven bid tips disconnected this Thursday and volition tally done June, until 1 squad achieves the 4 wins required to beryllium crowned champion. Evil’s Michael Emerson connected Working Opposite a Giant, Hairy, Five-Eyed Demon Home-court vantage plays a superior relation successful basketball. Since the finals comprise a maximum of 7 games, and 7 is an unusual number, 1 squad whitethorn get an other location game. The NBA knows this confers an advantage, truthful they grant the other location crippled to the squad with the amended win/loss grounds successful the regular play (this twelvemonth that goes to the Celtics). They besides stagger the schedule, truthful that the privileged squad plays astatine location successful games one, two, and, if necessary, 5 and seven, portion the different squad hosts games three, four, and, if necessary, six. This week’s puzzle investigates the relation of scheduling successful the result of the championship. Could we destruct home-court vantage if we front-loaded the Mavericks’ location games? Did you miss past week’s puzzle? Check it retired here, and find its solution astatine the bottommost of today’s article. Be cautious not to work excessively acold up if you haven’t solved past week’s yet! Puzzle #45: There’s No Place Like Home The Celtics and Mavericks volition look disconnected successful a best-of-seven bid wherever the archetypal to 4 wins takes the trophy. Suppose that some teams person a 55% accidental of winning their location games and 45% accidental of winning their distant games (there are nary ties). If the Mavericks hosted the archetypal 3 games and the Celtics hosted crippled 4 and, if necessary, games five, six, and seven, past who would beryllium much apt to win? What if the bid were best-of-101 and the Mavericks hosted the archetypal 50 games? Try to lick this without resorting to messy probability calculations. I’ll beryllium backmost Monday with the reply and a caller puzzle. Do you cognize a chill puzzle that you deliberation should beryllium featured here? Message maine connected X @JackPMurtagh oregon email maine astatine [email protected] Solution to Puzzle #44: Blank Dice Last week I gave you a trio of puzzles astir labeling blank dice, 1 of which was an Amazon interrogation question. I privation to springiness a shout-out to each of you. The comments conception had a lively treatment astir the worth (or deficiency of value) successful puzzle-y interrogation questions, and galore of you commented oregon emailed alternate solutions to the puzzles that I hadn’t considered. Suppose you person 1 mean dice and 1 blank die. L...

The Varsity 1) How big can the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Game 7 audience get? Five years ago, the Blues-Bruins Game 7 set an NHL TV record on NBC Sports with 8.91 million viewers. The Panthers-Oilers Monday night shouldn't get close to that. But it still should attract an audience that makes The Walt Disney Company executives happy. 2) The amount that the state of Indiana paid WWE for the right to host WrestleMania, Summer Slam and Royal Rumble represents the largest-ever domestic fee WWE has received from a market looking to host its events. I have the details. 3) Janko Roettgers got his hands on an early look at what Venu will look like. For the enigmatic sports streaming joint venture from The Walt Disney Company, Fox Corporation, and Warner Bros. Discovery, which has been shrouded in secrecy since it was first semi-unveiled four months ago, this provides a snapshot of what users can expect. 4) The bankruptcy court that is hearing Diamond Sports' case is run by a judge who has a reputation for ruling in favor of firms representing corporate debtors, per an explosive The Wall Street Journal report from Alexander Gladstone, Andrew Scurria and Akiko Matsuda. 5) National Basketball Association (NBA) media rights update: "July." Plus, ESPN’s biggest star, Stephen A. Smith, doesn’t simply covet McAfeebucks. He also wants a McAfee-style deal structure that would pay him out like he’s running his own production company. What should James Pitaro do? https://lnkd.in/gmRvYw6Y

The 2023/24 National Basketball Association (NBA) campaign saw the league set all-time records for regular season total attendance, average attendance, percentage of capacity and sellouts. Confirmed: Total attendance of 22,538,518 in the 2023/24 regular season surpasses the previous record of 22,234,502 set in 2022/23 NBA had 873 sellouts, compared to 791 last season 71 per cent of games sold out, up from 63 per cent in 2022/23 League had an average attendance of 18,324 comparted to 18,077 the season prior NBA arenas were filled to an all-time high 98 per cent capacity Context: This is the second season in a row that the NBA has racked up all-time records for regular season total attendance, average attendance, percentage of capacity and sellouts. Twelve teams sold out every ‘true’ home game: Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz.  The 2023/24 campaign also saw fans from more than 150 countries and territories attend regular season games. A contributing factor that boosted attendance was the inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament, which helped take the league to its highest-ever average attendance for November (18,208). https://lnkd.in/ghs_Xczk

The NBA broke their All-Star game. Last night’s All-Star game was almost a mockery of viewership. 1️⃣Players were attempting ego moves unguarded and at will. (The best part of the game) 2️⃣Multiple players took half court shots in the middle of the game. 3️⃣No defense whatsoever; the trend continued. The players don’t take the game seriously. Why should they? A bunch of multi-millionaires unmotivated by anything other than socializing. That’s not to admonish, but just to call the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star week for what it is: pre-offseason. There is nothing novel about this event. The dunk contest is the annual highlight followed distantly by the 3-point contest. So, why watch? Many in the media—whose job it is to cover this event—echo this sentiment. Can it be fixed? There’s nothing to fix. Let’s just call it for what it is: NBA Socializing-Pre Offseason. Watch the actual game if there’s absolutely nothing else on television. Maybe use the 2 hours to catch up on sleep and watch the 30 seconds of highlights in the AM. Otherwise, line the players up and play 1-1 in rotation for 2 hours. I’d watch that! #nba #nbaallstar #nbaallstar2024 #yawn #socialentrepreneurship #oneonone #hoops #consulting #sportsbusiness #sportsmarketing #sports #sleeptime

If interested in the NBA postseason, check out my first published article recapping the NBA playoffs and giving my take for game 1 of the NBA Finals! https://lnkd.in/gYpDeubR