WNBA Completely Transforms App, Website Ahead of Season to Grow Fan Base

With just three days to go until the WNBA’s 27th season tips off, the league completely overhauled its app and website, thanks to a collaboration with Deloitte. The W’s digital properties have long been a source of contention for the fanbase, and the league did not have a dedicated digital and content team until 18 months ago. As women’s basketball has exploded in popularity—WNBA national viewership grew 22% year-over-year on Disney networks in 2022, and the NCAA championship game in March averaged 9.92 million viewers, a record for women’s college ball—investment in the game has not necessarily risen with it. But thanks to the league’s first-ever funding round in 2022 that led to a $75 million capital raise, the WNBA could hire Colie Edison, the league’s svp and chief growth officer. “When I came into the league, and through this multiyear transformation, what’s very clear is we have a great product on the floor, we have a great brand that we continue to build, but there were elements of the ecosystem that still needed transformation,” Edison told Adweek. The capital that didn’t go towards brand building and marketing went towards hiring and investing in the league’s digital transformation. In partnership with Deloitte, the WNBA built its first internal digital products team. “That investment is really so that whatever touchpoint we have with our fans supports the narrative of making it easier to be a fan,” explained Edison. That included hiring Devin Ward, the WNBA’s director of digital products, nearly two years ago, and she quickly got to work. “One of the first things I said when I came in the door is that we need to rebuild. We need to restart and rebuild the foundation of our products so that we can have a scalable road map for the future,” Ward told Adweek. Why More Brands Should Add Gender Equity to Their Playbooks After This March Madness To build the new app and website, there are now around a dozen team members who worked on the app over the past 18 months, as well as Deloitte employees who worked on the properties. Deloitte is an inaugural WNBA Changemaker—a partnership and sponsorship program designed to help the league overhaul its business—and one that has rapidly transformed the league since commissioner Cathy Engelbert introduced the program. “The work that we do with them is authentically aligned to their partnership with the league,” said Edison. “We work together to greatly impact the scope of what women’s sports is today, and work toward gender equity, LGBTQ+ equity and diverse voices.” “That’s at the macro level,” Edison continued. “At the micro level, it’s these projects that really move the league forward, and these athletes forward.” Investing in the game The WNBA gave Adweek a sneak peek of the overhauled digital properties ahead of today’s launch—and promises the new app will be on par with broader sports applications across the industry. While the former app targeted the avid basketball fan and existing subscribers of the league’s direct-to-consumer product League Pass, the WNBA recognized it was missing the casual fan—especially since the existing app did not have a navigation menu, and the majority of the content was locked. The new app features 24/7 coverage that includes live games, schedules, real-time stats, score updates and standings, as well as a plethora of original content, including social-style vertical video and influencer content. Additionally, the majority of the initial content pushed at download will be free, which the league hopes will target the casual fan and help grow the base. The app also removed the subscription barrier to access live game statistics. The WBNA developed original programming that includes short-form series, including a three-part series featuring reigning MVP A’ja Wilson. Fans can also watch sit-downs and conversations with their favorite players, behind-the-scenes features, and curated short-form content reminiscent of Instagram and Snapchat stories. The WNBA Is Done Being Left Behind in Media Rights Deals The league went through multiple rounds of user testing and listened to fan feedback to help build the new navigation. “We really wanted to make sure that fans know that we are listening,” said Ward, adding that the league also did a competitive analysis across all apps in the sports space. Notably, the WNBA’s direct-to-consumer League Pass app will be integrated into the app, which lets fans stream games on connected devices. Existing subscribers will notice live streams with higher video quality than years prior. Users can now see the entire schedule throughout the season, easy directions on where to watch games, and an option to hide scores to avoid any live spoilers, as well as an alert icon on iOS with live game activity, similar to an Uber notification or delivery service alert. “It’s about accessibility to our sport,” said Edison. “If we can give [the fans] an amazing digital experience through our app, they will become engaged. It’s about growing that funnel of a casual fan, but really a sports fan, to come into the fold.” “For so long, it’s been ‘Well, this is women’s sports,’ and no, it’s just basketball, it’s not ‘Women’s basketball,” she added. “We need to utilize the app to leverage the continuation of those narratives.”