Asia office finding ways to bring fans closer to NBA

How important is the Philippines? Incredibly important

MANILA, Philippines — NBA Asia managing director Scott Levy said that their regional office will continue to look for ways to satisfy the demands of the Filipinos, one of the league’s largest markets.

Over seven million Filipinos follow the NBA on its Facebook social media account, the largest outside the US, according to Levy.

“How important is the Philippines? Incredibly important. It is one of our largest markets in the world. It probably is the market with the highest fan affinity for basketball,” said Levy during a roundtable meeting with a group of reporters at the NBA Philippines office in Bonifacio Global City yesterday.

“We don’t take our fan base here lightly. We are focused on making sure everybody is happy with what they have available and we’re listening on things we need to do better,” he added.

Levy said that they are looking for more ways to engage the Filipino fan base and get them closer to the NBA, citing partnerships with local companies that allowed the league to air 30 games on TV, provide mobile experience, bring NBA players and legends to the country and help in grassroots development.

“Satisfying the demand, that is probably the biggest challenge here in the Philippines. Other than the US, we operate more different businesses here because of the demand for the game,” said Levy.

“We never think it’s easy because Filipinos are very demanding. They come back to us and say there are not enough games on TV, not enough content on social media, the players are not in the market. We want to bring more players here, bring the real experiences,” he added.

One of the programs they are focusing on is the Jr. NBA. They recently launched the Jr. NBA Asia website and social media accounts, with youth-focused content as they strive to encourage more kids to play the sport. They are also looking to tap the female market and get girls to play and live active and healthy lifestyles.

“It (tapping the female market) is a very important focus for us for many years. Our program is Jr. NBA, Jr. WNBA. We kind of blend the name and call it Jr. NBA but it is a gender neutral activity. We have female coaches. We are active in schools to bring more young women, girls, into the program,” said Levy. 

“Our goal is to raise the percentage to 50-50 for boys and girls. We haven’t achieved that yet in the Philippines.”

They are also looking into enriching the fans’ mobile gaming experience by working with local developers.

“As we see a lot in Southeast Asia, the mobile phone is very important. As streaming speeds continue to improve, I know there’s tremendous amount of investment going in, then we’ll be able to deliver more content. And also gaming. There’s not enough basketball mobile games. We want to work with local developers, particularly regional ones. Just simple recreational basketball mobile games that are tied to the NBA to help educate fans on players and more ways to interact,” said Levy.

Aside from helping the grassroots level, Levy said that they are also willing to lend a hand in the professional ranks.