Twitter and the NBA unveiled a new direct message experience for users to access content on the platform.
NEW YORK — The NBA and Twitter unveiled a direct message bot to provide fans with news, scores, schedules, video highlights and livestream programming.
Upon sliding into the NBA’s DMs, users are prompted with a menu of easy-access options in an experience that can be personalized for one’s favorite team. Among the videos offered are a recap of every dunk from the previous night. The streaming includes the NBA’s two weekly Turner-produced shows exclusively airing on the social media platform, The Starters Twitter Show (which broadcasts Tuesday mornings) and The WarmUp (Thursday evenings).
“The NBA has been one of our longest standing and most innovative partners,” Twitter’s global director of sports partnerships, Laura Froelich, told SportTechie. “They’ve always said to us, ‘As soon as you have something new, we want to be the first to do it.’”
Previously, for example, the NBA was the first to tweet clips using Twitter’s native video player. The WNBA has scored more than a million viewers for some of its live-streamed broadcasts. Froelich praised the league’s forward-thinking vision for embracing new mediums and its understanding that new products could have early glitches and bumps along the way. Nevertheless, Froelich said, the NBA has always told her, “We want to be there on the ground floor for the upside opportunity, which we know is there.”
Twitter announced updates to its direct message system back in June, allowing businesses to insert buttons into a DM bot for seamless user activity even outside the messages. This NBA product, initially highlighted during Twitter’s annual Sport Summit for its partners, is the first such rollout with a major sports league.
“The DM experience is just the latest in that long string of innovations that we’ve done with them,” Froelich said.
