The Digital Phenomenon of Basketball in Spain

Basketball It is the second most popular team sport in Spain, behind football. It is so both in number of practitioners (2.3 million) and federated members (more than 377,000), as well as in business volume, audiences and followers on social networks, among other metrics. Only the main tennis tournaments, Formula 1 and MotoGP compete in these sections, and generally it is with the events held in Spain and whenever Spanish athletes fight for titles. The basket, however, does not depend on the volatility of individual sporting success.

Basketball currently brings together 82.26 million followers on social networks, according to data collected by 2Playbook Intelligence. The sample has analyzed followers on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and, if they have them, YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. Includes the FEB, the ACB, the Herbalife 3×3 Circuit, the Plaza CaixaBank 3×3 Circuit and all the ACB clubs, LEB Oro, LEB Plata, Liga Femenina, LF Challenge, LF2, First and Second Division of Wheelchair Basketball and 3×3 teams. What the platforms do not allow is the filter to detect how many users are shared between all accounts and determine the real reach of the publications or unique users.

And, even so, the figure would be higher if the digital communities of the players themselves were counted, and others such as NBA Spain, Movistar Basket, Movistar NBA and other accounts that create exclusive content for this sport, which would raise the sample well above the 100 million. The bulk of followers They are concentrated in the ACB, which has more than 73.35 million followers between the league and clubs. The digital strategy is essential to increase the reach of clubs and competitions that do not have open television. Hence, the league has reinforced its digital strategy in recent times to connect with an audience profile that is not necessarily found either in the halls or on television. This way, engagement is maintained and more sponsors can be attracted.

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Women’s basketball has 1.7 million followers between the three divisions, of which 69% are concentrated solely in LF Endesa. The competition is on the verge of becoming more professional and the FEB, which manages the competition, will focus on the digital strategy as a pillar of its growth. Exposure is essential, since, although all the games are broadcast, it reaches a still minority percentage of all basketball fans. The FEB complements the exposure of the Women’s League and other categories with its own networks, since neither the LF nor the LEB Oro have their own account on social networks.

The FEB amasses 1.1 million followers with the Baloncesto España account among all platforms and another 91,000 with the FEB Competitions account. That is where brands also help build the product by contributing their own digital community in the creation and dissemination of content, giving access to other profiles of users who do not follow current basketball news. This is what happens with brands like CaixaBank, which focuses on the Plaza 3×3 Circuit to which it gives its name. The brand created the product together with the FEB and is the main person in charge of giving it visibility on networks and media. It does the same with adapted sport, which must be offered exposure windows and boost visibility primarily at the initiative of its sponsors.

The digital basketball community in Spain is one of the most consolidated in the world

In addition to the ACB strategy, the birth of the brand has also been key to the growth in networks. The family, promoted from the FEB. What one day was born as a hashtag where fans could comment and follow match activity live, It became a hallmark. “The success of this brand is that it has gone beyond the locker rooms, the senior teams. He has penetrated the training pyramid, throughout basketball. Now it is a brand that identifies our entire sport and all classes. The family It is Spanish basketball,” explains Óscar Graffenhain, general director of the FEB.

Years ago, with the conquest of the first World Cup, the basketball world and the FEB itself began to use a brand representative of the men’s national team: the ÑBA. It coincided with the first successes of the Spanish in the American league, and with more and more players crossing the Atlantic. Pau Gasol, Raül López, Jorge Garbajosa, Marc Gasol, José Manuel Calderón, Sergio Rodríguez, Rudy Fernández and even Juan Carlos Navarro made the leap.

The brand would later become a summer classic: Ruta Ñ. It included the preparation tours for World Cups, Eurobasket and the Olympic Games, and thus could also include women’s basketball, which despite having had more players in the WNBA (with Amaya Valdemoro rings included), did not quite fit into said umbrella. The Ñ Route has been in force until the pandemic, although by then it was barely used by the media more than by the FEB itself.

Furthermore, the brand had another weakness: it only referred to preparation, leaving the rest of the events and calls orphaned. That was a greater need after Fiba created the windows for qualification for the 2019 World Cup, which Spain won. In those calls for Spain B, a new identity was forged that did not reside in the names of the players, but in the group. The family It emerged in the windows and crystallized as a brand with the 2019 Gold until extending to all of basketball and allowing the organization to launch its own membership card.

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Basketball also triumphs in audience

As for audiences, basketball has once again demonstrated that it leads without opposition when there are big events. More than 700,000 spectators watched the women’s Eurobasket final against Belgium, which surpassed one million viewers in its golden minute. The previous final of a women’s Eurobasket, which aired on La 1 in 2019, attracted 1.85 million people.

Spain’s matches in Eurobasket 2023 were offered on Teledeporte with the exception of the final (La 2). All of them exceeded the channel’s average share, which is around 1%. The semi-final was followed by an average of 420,000 people and, with a 4.9% share, and was the most watched program that day.

In the men’s field, the Teledeporte broadcasts left even better data. The match against Brazil brought together 758,000 spectatorswith 7.3% of share. The elimination against Canada brought together 1.73 million fans in front of the television, with a 15.3% screen share. It did so on a day of high competition, surpassing the Formula 1 Catalunya Grand Prix and football, since it coincided with a weekend. The match against Latvia, broadcast on La 2, attracted 626,000 viewers, with a screen share of 16.5%.

Finally, as far as the leagues are concerned, the ACB or the NBA do not reveal data about their games on Movistar+. The LEB Oro is broadcast on LaLiga+ and audience or subscriber data is not known either. In the Women’s League, the matches offered by Teledeporte attract an average of 65,000 spectators per match and some have surpassed the 100,000 barrier, according to data from the FEB. Their matches are also broadcast on Twitter and Twitch, which in the last season have had an average audience of 41,000 and 6,900 viewers, respectively, which multiplies by six what is achieved on the FEB OTT, where all the competitions are broadcast. which it manages for free.

2023-11-17 04:02:01
#influencers #Spanish #basketball