NBA Renews Snapchat Pact, Plans to Boost Content Nearly Threefold This Season
The NBA is back on Snapchat’s court for the 2016-17 season, with the league planning to nearly triple content produced for the youth-skewing communications and media app.
New this season: Fans attending games will have access to Snapchat’s NBA-themed Bitmoji emoji (pictured above) and selfie Lenses. It’s the first partnership Snap-owned Bitmoji has struck with a sports league for a custom emoji pack.
As it did for the 2015-16 season, Snapchat will again cover weekly NBA games via Live Stories, including tentpole events like the All-Star game and NBA Finals.
Starting on Oct. 25 for the NBA’s opening night, Snapchat users will be able to explore the first Discover edition and watch Live Story coverage of Kevin Durant’s first game as a Golden State Warrior; the season opener of 2016 champs Cleveland Cavaliers against the New York Knicks and the Cavs’ ring ceremony; and a compilation of league rivalries and preseason chatter.
Snapchat users will also be able to add “scoreboard” geofilters to their photo and video snaps, which update posts with the current score of the game they’re watching.
Snap (Snapchat’s new corporate name) has similar deals with sports leagues including the NFL and Major League Baseball. The company this fall plans to start selling $130 video-enabled sunglasses called Spectacles to let Snapchat users capture and upload 10-second clips.
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