melynda pilon / nhl images
The NHL surprised many in 2015, when it announced that it was signing an expansive media rights partnership with MLB Advanced Media, turning over control of its digital products and platforms for both the league and its teams, as well as its streaming subscription service.
Since then, that partnership has led to enhanced services, redesigns and relaunches of the league and club sites, new product offerings, overhauls of existing services like NHL.TV, and strong growth in nearly every tracked metric. Central to that success has been Nili Doft, NHL vice president of digital products and analytics, who has helped to guide the process and now manages the day-to-day relationship with BAMTech.
“I remember when we first announced it and telling people our new partner was MLB, it kind of blew people away,” Doft said. “The relationship has really changed every year we’ve been part of it, but when you look at everything they’ve brought to the deal in terms of technology and innovation, it has really been incredible.”
Doft handles the league’s day-to-day communications with the technology company and with all league partners that tap into the digital content space, ranging from all 31 clubs to Rogers, SAP and Fanatics. She also works with the league’s content consumption analysts, dissecting data from all of the league platforms and disseminating it to all of the business departments across the league, as well as to league partners.
Key to that has been Doft’s ability to build relationships with all of the constituents, something that she has worked on since joining the league in 2008.
“There is a lot of communication and connecting one party with another and providing information to different parties to help inform their decisions,” she said. “I see my role as helping each party navigate what the digital waters look like for us, so that we can keep moving things forward together.”
— Ian Thomas
Age: 38
Where born: Stamford, Conn.
Education: University of Pennsylvania, Bachelor of Arts in linguistics and Bachelor of Science in economics, marketing concentration
What gets you fired up? When a band first takes the stage at a concert.
Profession other than your own you’d most like to attempt? Headline writer for the New York Post.
Guilty pleasure: Cheese of the month club membership.
Something your friends would consider “so you”: The distinctive way I observe the Sabbath.
Charity supported: Vision to Learn.
Person in the industry you’d most like to meet: Jessica Gelman, co-founder of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I … : Was born allergic to my own blood and had to have a neonatal exchange transfusion.
