Rebecca Dyer is the director of business development and sales for Genius Sports.
Two months into a historic WNBA season and amidst a flurry of broken records, unprecedented media coverage and incredible growth, it’s been difficult to find even a moment to reflect on a landmark period for the league and women’s sports in general.
We’ve all seen the stats. The start of the season has been the most-watched ever, including the 2.3 million who tuned into ESPN to watch the Indiana Fever play the Chicago Sky, marking the most-viewed WNBA game in 23 years. Attendance, meanwhile, topped 400,000 fans for the opening games in May, representing a 156% increase from last year.
Merchandise sales, social media impressions and streaming subscriptions are all through the roof, propelled by an outstanding rookie class led by Caitlin Clark. And the results are starting to come in, as the WNBA this week won a six-fold increase in annual media rights revenue as part of the NBA’s new deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon.
Ahead of this landmark season, Genius Sports struck a new partnership with the WNBA to implement cutting-edge tracking solutions across the league. So, in preparation for this weekend’s hugely anticipated WNBA All-Star game in Phoenix, with the USA Basketball Women’s National team taking on the WNBA All-Stars, this feels like a good time to pause and analyze how this investment in technology is driving the league’s growth on and off the court.
Growing Up With WNBA Dreams
Growing up, it was my dream to go and play in the WNBA. I got some of the way there, playing for both the University of North Carolina and the University of Kentucky, going to two Elite Eights, one with each team. Unfortunately, due to injuries my dream was cut short, but if you’d told a 6-year-old Rebecca that she’d get to work with WNBA teams to power some of their decision-making, I’d have jumped at the chance.
Growing a league and a fanbase is a very difficult proposition in the ultra-competitive U.S. sports landscape. While nothing can replicate the pulling power of a new superstar athlete like Clark or fellow rookie All-Star Angel Reese, the technology behind the scenes is crucial to improving the quality of the overall product both on and off the court.
Every year, we see technological marvels and breakthroughs across the men’s major leagues but that same investment in tech for women’s sports? Not even close. At Genius Sports, we’re here to change that with our partnership with the WNBA setting a new benchmark.
Transforming the WNBA Product
Our partnership with the WNBA is much more than capturing new data points. It’s implementing industry-leading technology that matches the quality of the WNBA’s world-class athletes while equipping teams and partners with exciting new insights and opportunities.
Powered by AI and computer vision, our technology is capturing low-latency 3D player pose and ball tracking data, unlocking new advanced statistics such as a player’s shot quality, shooter impact, paint touches and much more. For example, the Indiana Fever could have delved into our technology to find that Caitlin Clark’s average 3-point shot distance is 27 feet and 51.2% of her 3-point attempts have been self-created, a category in which she leads the league. She’s also averaging 6.1 points per game off 25+ feet shots, well ahead of second-place Sabrina Ionescu, averaging 4.8 ppg from the same range.
By equipping WNBA coaches, analysts and players with this level of data and insight, we hope to give them every opportunity to take their games to the next level. From enhancing training to individual and post-game analysis, the WNBA has the most advanced basketball technology at its fingertips. But of course, investment in technology cannot solely focus on the behind-the-scenes preparation. The WNBA is currently attracting huge swathes of new fans and we’re looking to capitalize on this opportunity in partnership with the league by creating immersive new experiences and engagement opportunities.
As we’ve seen with dozens of other U.S. and European leagues across multiple sports, tracking technology is also an incredible foundation for new broadcast platforms. Augmented, data-driven broadcasts are transforming how millions of fans globally watch their favorite competitions including the NFL, NBA, Premier League and most recently the CFL.
This new wave of enhanced viewing modes shows relevant player statistics, such as player speeds or shot distances, when the action is at its most compelling, while creating brand new sponsorship inventory for brands to insert themselves in the live action. These altcasts are soaring in popularity but have yet to be launched across women’s sports, providing the WNBA with a golden opportunity to break new ground once again.
As a fan first and foremost, I’m loving the WNBA being front and center of the media spotlight and all the opportunities that brings. This weekend’s All-Star game looks set to shatter even more records and showcase the best of this incredible league.
Bring it on!
