THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION THAT MADE THE IBBA THE BIGGEST SPORTS CONTENT PRODUCER IN ISRAEL

SUMMARY

The IBBA sought a cost-effective and cutting-edge solution to livestream games from leagues that were previously not covered and develop and grow its fan base. Together with Pixellot, they created a platform to expose more leagues, teams and players, recruited new advertisers and sponsors and implemented modern coaching technologies.

The IBBA’s ambition was to digitally transform their organization, and this was achieved via an innovative, multi-layered business model including:

• New league-wide advertisers and sponsors
• Club participation for access to Pixellot’s scouting and analysis platform
• Monetization of live data audio/visual rights of the Top 2 men’s and women’s leagues.

An End to End Solution

Pixellot provided the IBBA with an end-to-end solution that includes live and on-demand game production and highlights, a tailored OTT platform, and an analytics solution for review and highlights.

Partnering with Pixellot helped the IBBA become the leading creator and distributor of sports in Israel, engaging thousands of fans daily, creating significant media interest, and generating new revenue streams.

Just two years on, the IBBA has live streamed nearly 1,200 games and signed 4 league sponsors, including two large beverage companies. With 135,000 unique viewers, games get an average of 558 views per game, with an average viewing session of more than 10 minutes.

Today, IBBA uses Pixellot’s technology to fully produce and stream 8 basketball leagues, 4 men’s and 4 women’s, establishing it as a pioneer in levelling the playing field for men’s and women’s sports’ production.

• NUMBER OF GAMES STREAMED: 1,109
• NUMBER OF UNIQUE VIEWERS: 135,000
• AVERAGE VIEWS PER GAME: 558
• AVERAGE VIEWING SESSION PER GAME: 10.6 minutes
• YOUTH FINAL GAME: 3,722 views
• VIEWING PLATFORMS: Mobile – 80% ; Web – 20%

BACKGROUND

The Israeli Basketball Association (IBBA) is one of Europe’s most successful associations owing to the achievements of its Under-19 national team – the first national association to play in the championship finals 3 years in a row. The Elite Youth League is the IBBA’s future, and its success has led to high demand for live league games as well as players’ highlights and data. The national league (2nd division) has also grown in popularity given the teams’ strong Israeli-born player roster.

CHALLENGES

The success of the Israeli basketball teams resulted in growing demand for additional game coverage and an investment into the future generation of players. However, given the high production costs, there was little TV coverage of the league.

The association decided not to rely on broadcasters and to independently pursue live coverage of all the Elite Youth games. The need to find a cost-effective production solution became evident. However, all previous attempts, including a manual system for media consumption had proven unsuccessful. In addition, the IBBA needed a solution that would provide reliable statistical analysis covering as many games as possible, to help scout the ‘gems’ among the Under-19 players.

SOLUTION

Democratizing Game and Player Content with Automated Video

Given both the technological solutions supplied by Pixellot, and the multi-layered plan for monetization suggested, the Israeli Basketball Association (IBBA) signed a four-year partnership deal with Pixellot, to produce and distribute live games and additional content across all Israeli Basketball Association media platforms. Pixellot provides the IBBA with live streams and highlights as well as a dedicated OTT application and data platform, and offers coaches and analysts access to Pixellot’s video coaching platform. This ensures the IBBA has the tools to drastically increase sports production, boost fan engagement, and finance its expansion using a multi-layered business model based on new advertisers and sponsors, club participation, and live data audio/visual rights.

RESULTS

Live Streaming of +1,200 games and signing 4 league sponsors.

Within two years, Pixellot systems were installed at 74 venues to automatically film and produce games from 90 teams, including rich graphics, commentary, sponsored placements, and video ad insertion.

The partnership with Pixellot generated thousands of hours of live basketball that were previously inaccessible for the audience outside the venue. It increased engagement and views and created new revenue streams including new league-wide sponsorships that weren’t sold before. In the 2022/3 season, the U19 leagues signed a popular juice company as a main sponsor as well as a mineral-water company– the iBasketbal TV platform created new revenue opportunities that were previously unfathomable.

The success of the national league and elite youth leagues served as the first step towards an even more ambitious endeavor – equal live coverage for the top men’s and women’s leagues. In the 2022/23 season, four women’s leagues will start streaming through iBasketball TV, doubling the number of Pixellot connected venues. The Israeli Basketball Association is proud to be the first national association to offer its fans live coverage of 4 men’s and 4 women’s leagues.

More than 1,200 games will be filmed in the 22/23 season and going forward.

All the games and the highlights are available on tv.ibasketball.co.il and on the IBBA social media channels.

The IBBA is committed to applying cutting-edge technology in order to revolutionize the accessibility of basketball games in our market by making the content and additional features available to everyone, everywhere, and anytime. Basketball is a forward-thinking sport, and we plan to be at the forefront of this technology revolution. Our teams and players will benefit directly from access to stats and video breakdowns like never before.

Amiram Halevi, IBBA Chairman