By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
While young NBA players are trying to make a name for themselves here at the NBA Summer League, the NBA also uses this annual event in Las Vegas as a tech innovation laboratory, trying out everything from overhead and courtside video cameras to new ways to broadcast games on your cell phone.
The NBA is back at it during this 10-day basketball festival of games, networking and schmoozing, showcasing a digital collectible called Top Shot at a booth between Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion, where 75 summer league games are happening from Aug. 8-17. In 2019, the NBA had experimented with broadcasting games via a vertical screen for cell phones.
This year, Summer League fans are checking out the Top Shot booth, where workers are explaining the new digital collectible concept that gives fans a chance to collect video moments from games played at summer league. These video moments, which run for about 15-20 seconds and are comprised of scenes from different camera angles, cost $5 each. Here’s an example from this week.
LVSportsBiz,com caught up with Adrienne O’Keeffe, associate vice president for global partnerships, who said the NBA is trying out these individual digital game moments for the first time during Summer League. The digital collectible is an official licensed product and developed by Dapper Labs in partnership with the NBA.
“Fans can own these moments from the game,” O’Keefe said.
While the NBA previously sold packs of game highlights plays for $9 each, this new $5 digital moments allows fans to buy an individual play from a game they attended and collect their favorite moments as keepsakes. Or they can even trade them with the point that the digital moments are verifiable.
Here in Las Vegas, one of the moments that was captured and packed by Dapper Labs was a play during the Oklahoma City vs Golden State Warriors game.
“Fans can keep a memory from a game that they were at,” she said Tuesday.
The end game is that the NBA eventually wants to be able to sell this concept at all 30 NBA team arenas and even at NBA events like All-Star Games.
Fans get involved by signing up for a Top Shot account. Dapper then creates the moment. And if you buy it, it shows up in your account and you’ll have it there as part of your collection.
The value rests in the uniqueness of having a product that is scarce that you can verify as your own. Fans can even create playlists of their favorite moments, players and teams. The NBA debuted Top Shot in 2019, but the Summer League is a platform for Dapper Labs to showcase the single moment product.
The NBA also is merging its Top Shot digital world with the physical one by rewarding fans who buy the products to have social meetups at games. That’s what the NBA did with eight lucky Phoenix Suns fans who met at the NBA Finals Game 5 of Bucks vs Suns.