🏀 Courtside Computing: NBA's Tech Revolution & YouTube's Sports Disruption.

Welcome to the sixth edition of The Sports Stack. Our referral competition for a £75 Amazon voucher is still live. Everyone still has a chance to win, and I’ve added a share button at the end of this week’s newsletter. Share it with five friends to be entered into the draw.

What we’ll cover this week? 

• Inside the NBA's $76B Future: AI, Robots, and the Next Generation of Basketball

• YouTube's Sports Revolution: How the Platform is Becoming the New TV

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🏀 Inside the NBA's $76B Future: AI, Robots, and the Next Generation of Basketball.

This was the 25th edition of the NBA All-Star Technology Summit, an invite-only event for the most influential people in Technology, Media, and Sport. Attendees had the chance to listen to talks with Jensen Huang, Ruth Porat, Kevin Weil, Sabrina Ionescu, and Steve Kerr, among many others.

When Mark Cuban predicted streaming's rise at the first NBA Tech Summit in 2000, it seemed far-fetched, but it’s clear his prediction would come true and still be a topic of discussion in 2025. While researching this week's edition, I stumbled across the agenda from the 2000 Summit, and I recommend you download it. Courtesy of J.A. Adande via the San Francisco Standard.

Download the Agenda below:

What were some of the key agenda items in 2000?

• The Viewer Experience 2002, 2005 and beyond. 

• Broadband Alliances and Distribution Strategies: yes, broadband! 

• Defining Digital Revenue Models. 

The first panel discussion in 2000 was titled ‘Brand, Content, and Community’. It focused on the idea that building a successful brand was the heart of building loyal consumers. The panel was asked, “What types of companies and brands are best positioned for long-term success on the Net?” Notice how the discussion centred on brands and businesses rather than athletes and focused on consumers, not fans. Things have changed!

Fast forward to this year’s summit, where Jensen Huang (NVIDIA) demonstrated AI that can predict player injuries. Kevin Weil (OpenAI) demonstrated models that simulate playoff outcomes with 87% accuracy, and the panel discussed how venture capital and private equity will drive future technology breakthroughs. It's clear we’ve come a long way in 25 years, and it is frightening to think that in another 25 years, we may reflect on how outdated the panels of 2025 were.

Let me know what you think might be on the 2050 agenda in the comments.

What were the key takeaways from the summit?

The summit opened with a landmark discussion on the NBA’s new 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal, which cements streaming platforms (Kudos to 2000 Mark Cuban) like Amazon Prime Video as primary partners. 

• The $76 billion total value marks a 160% increase in annual revenue compared to the current $24 billion deal, reflecting the growing importance of live sports in media.

• It’s reported the deal will mean that the league’s salary cap will increase, enabling athletes to be paid more. 

AI took ‘centre court’, which was no surprise. 

• The NBA released a short YouTube video outlining how physical AI robots are helping the Golden State Warriors train. My favourite is A.B.E (Automated Basketball Engine), a robot that rebounds and passes the ball back to players during shooting drills - see it in action below.

• There was also M.I.M.I.C (Motion & Intercept Modular-Interface Coordination), a tool for coaches to simulate basketball plays by positioning robots in defensive or offensive formations. 

The NBA’s YouTube script made these advancements feel a bit ‘satire’, and I wasn’t sure if this whole thing was a joke or whether this technology was actually being used to help the Golden State Warriors. I talked last week about storytelling’s importance in complex technology topics, and I understand they wanted to bring a bit of humour to the whole announcement, but in my opinion, it downplayed the technology and made me question whether these robots were real. Maybe it was not the right tone for a technology audience.

What else happened in the AI space?

• NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang highlighted AI’s role in player development through advanced biomechanical analysis tools. 

• OpenAI’s CPO, Kevin Wall, discussed how generative AI models can more accurately simulate game outcomes. By integrating vast historical data with real-time variables like player stats and team dynamics, these models can run thousands of virtual scenarios to predict results.

I’m a technology advocate, but I also understand that analytics and AI have changed and will continue to change the dynamics of Basketball and other sports, for better or worse (many people say they’ve made it worse). 👇🏻

So, will these advancements in AI and enhancements in accuracy improve the sport? 

This trending topic might have been the catalyst for one of the other important announcements at the NBA All-Star Technology Summit. Adam Silver announced the formation of a cross-functional task force to evaluate the ethical implications of AI adoption in basketball. The task force will, among other things, address potential biases in referee decision-making algorithms and ensure data privacy for athletes using wearable technology.

📺 YouTube's Sports Revolution: How the Platform is Becoming the New TV.

Last week, YouTube’s CEO announced the company’s big bets for 2025. 

1. YouTube will remain the epicentre of culture.

2. YouTubers are becoming the startups of Hollywood

3. YouTube is the new television

4. AI will make it easier to create and enhance the YouTube experience for everyone.

In addition to those big bets, we’ve seen some key shifts in consumer trends and incredible stats driven by YouTube. In this chapter, we will discuss how these factors may be impacting sports.

Key Stats: 

• TV has now surpassed mobile as the number one consumption device for YouTube. 

• Most frequently used tool for listening to podcasts in the US.

• According to Nielsen, YouTube has been the number 1 in streaming watch time in the US for 2 years.

• Channel memberships grew 40% YoY. 

• Auto dubbing will be available for all creators in the partner program this year.

What could it mean for Sports? 

Sports entities must now consider their longer-form content to be ‘(connected) TV-first,’ ensuring that production standards are designed for TV.

With more YouTube content consumed on TV than ever before, viewers are freeing up their mobile devices, providing an opportunity for sports to capitalise on the second-screen experience. In previous newsletters, we discussed the impact of watch-along and shoppable content as second-screen experiences. With this recent consumer shift, it’s clear we will continue to see growth in those areas.

For sports that don’t want to fight the continued battle of reach (YouTube) vs. investment and first-party data (OTT), the YoY growth in channel memberships could provide ample opportunity to create new commercial revenues and exclusive content offerings without the up-front technology investment and infrastructure management required to run live and non-live content at scale on owned and operated platforms.

Clubs like Liverpool, Fenerbache and Glatasary are taking advantage of channel memberships even with limited to zero live first-team rights and building strong new revenue streams. 

With 11 million subscribers and memberships starting at £0.99 and rising to £5.99 per month, there is significant monthly recurring revenue potential for Liverpool . This proposition becomes even stronger for sports entities that own some of their live rights.

Read more about YouTube Channel Memberships here.

“YouTube remaining the epicentre of culture and becoming the new Television”

This week, Cristiano Ronaldo, an investor in Premier Padel, is live-streaming the finals via his YouTube channel. If that’s not the perfect example of YouTube remaining the epicentre of culture whilst becoming the new Television, then I’m not sure we’ll see better, especially in sports. All sports should be paying attention to this.

Some thoughts: 

• Premier Padel's ability to instantly tap into an audience of 74 million subscribers is an incredible advantage, especially since SportsPro reports that Ronaldo is not being paid for broadcasting.

• The uniqueness of this crossover and innovation is truly impressive. It represents the very kind of out-of-the-box thinking that challenger sports need to adopt to break through. 

• Observing the evolution of this model, especially regarding financial aspects, will be intriguing. What value will these channels hold for sports organisations who own their digital distribution rights, and how will these business models be developed between creator and rights holder? 

  • Will the creator (with the large audience) hold the leverage in the negotiations, or will it instead be the rights owner or holders that do due to the monetisation opportunities it may create for the channel owner?  

• [Watch out] Creators and athletes who adopt a similar approach must be cautious about exposing their audiences to unwanted content to prevent subscribers from leaving or feeling they are being served content they did not sign up for.

Using Technology To Create Global Reach.

The advancements in YouTube’s AI features, specifically around content dubbing, could help sports expand their reach globally. Sports entities can reach audiences who previously didn’t engage due to language barriers by providing fans with content in their language without adding large production overheads. YouTube has shared that adding dubbing to videos increases watch time by up to 40%, creating additional revenue opportunities for sports that run advertising on their content. 

Mr Beast has been using YouTube’s dubbing feature for some time now. See for yourself below. Use the settings to change the audio track.

🗞️ Quick Hits: This Week’s Stories & Updates.

• SportsPro announced a new partnership with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), strengthening opportunities for UK businesses seeking to expand into the lucrative US sports industry.

• Last week, during LEAP 2025 in Riyadh, $1.78 billion in tech investments were announced, with sports and startups taking centre stage. To demonstrate its commitment to eSports, HGM announced the launch of a $300 million fund to develop games for local and international distribution in Saudi Arabia. 

• Also at LEAP, Javier Tebas, President of Spain’s LaLiga, said there is an AI revolution happening in Sports, claiming that 85% of sports events are using AI. 

• Staying in Riyadh, SURJ Sports Investment (SURJ), a leading sports investment company, agreed to acquire a minority stake in DAZN through a $1bn investment.