USBNsi Launches Athlete Market, Connecting Professional Basketball Players With Businesses
ATLANTA, Ga. — Professional basketball has traditionally followed a familiar commercial model: teams seek sponsors, businesses purchase advertising, and players compete on the court.
USBNsi is expanding that model.
The sports intelligence platform of the United States Basketball Network has launched USBNsi Athlete Market, a commercial marketplace designed to connect approved professional basketball players with businesses seeking athletes for advertising, appearances, endorsements, content creation and other marketing campaigns.
The concept is straightforward:
Put professional basketball players to work for your business.
Businesses can use Athlete Market to identify participating athletes available for social-media promotions, appearances, product endorsements, commercials, branded content, community events and other legitimate commercial opportunities.
For USBN, Athlete Market represents more than an additional sponsorship product.
It creates another way to develop the economic value of the professional basketball player.
One Profile. Two Markets. More Opportunity.
USBNsi is the sports intelligence platform of the United States Basketball Network.
Its developing structure is based on a simple idea: a professional basketball player should not need one disconnected system for basketball opportunities and another for commercial opportunities.
Instead, a player can build one USBNsi profile that connects to two distinct markets.
The USBNsi Player Market focuses on basketball opportunity.
Get Found. Get Signed.
The USBNsi Athlete Market focuses on business and brand opportunity.
Get Hired. Get Paid.
Player Market helps players present their basketball information and become available for consideration by professional teams.
Athlete Market gives participating players another opportunity: present themselves to businesses looking for athletes who can contribute to marketing and promotional campaigns.
Together, the two markets expand USBNsi beyond player discovery and create infrastructure around both the competitive and commercial sides of a professional athlete’s career.
The Commercial Opportunity for Professional Basketball Players
Professional basketball extends far beyond the NBA.
Players continue pursuing careers through domestic leagues, international basketball and other professional opportunities after their college careers have ended.
Yet basketball opportunity and commercial opportunity do not always develop together.
A professional athlete may have a compelling story, college experience, hometown connection, community presence, engaging personality or established social-media following while still having no organized system for connecting with businesses.
The challenge is often infrastructure.
Players may not know which businesses want to work with athletes, what services they can offer, how a campaign should be structured, how content may be used, what commercial terms are appropriate or how the relationship should be managed from beginning to end.
Athlete Market is designed to provide that bridge.
Participating athletes can develop commercial profiles around information businesses may consider, including location, interests, social presence, community involvement, available services and willingness to participate in advertising and promotional campaigns.
A basketball profile answers one question:
Can this player help a team?
A commercial profile addresses another:
Can this athlete help a business?
USBNsi is developing infrastructure for both.
Solving the Business Side of Athlete Marketing
Businesses face their own challenge.
A restaurant, automobile dealership, bank, fitness center, retailer or other company may want to work with professional athletes but still have several questions to answer.
Which athletes are available?
Which athletes are local?
Who fits the company’s brand?
Who is comfortable creating content or appearing on camera?
Can the athlete attend an event?
Can the business use the athlete in advertising?
What services can the athlete provide?
How will the campaign be coordinated?
For many businesses, finding an athlete is only the first step.
Athlete Market is designed to reduce that friction by creating an organized connection between businesses and participating professional basketball players.
A business can identify its marketing objective, explore available athletes and request a campaign involving a particular player or ask USBN to assist with identifying an appropriate participant.
USBN can help coordinate the campaign structure, athlete participation, agreements, scheduling, content requirements, approvals and related campaign activity.
Instead of requiring a business to build an athlete-marketing program from scratch, Athlete Market provides a defined starting point.
From Advertising Around Athletes to Marketing With Athletes
Traditional sports sponsorship remains an important part of the USBN commercial model.
A company might advertise through a basketball organization, purchase venue exposure, receive digital recognition or associate its brand with a team or event.
Athlete Market introduces a different proposition.
Rather than only advertising around the athlete, a business can market with the athlete.
The player can create the video.
The player can visit the business.
The player can appear at an event.
The player can introduce a product or service.
The player can participate in branded photography.
The player can create social content.
The player can become part of the campaign itself.
USBN teams, games and media can then provide additional infrastructure around that athlete-centered campaign when appropriate.
That changes the business conversation from simply:
Sponsor our basketball organization.
to:
Put professional basketball players to work marketing your business.
That is a materially different commercial product.
Professional Athletes as Commercial Talent
Much of the current conversation around athlete marketing has centered on college athletics and name, image and likeness opportunities.
USBNsi Athlete Market approaches the market from a professional basketball perspective.
The marketplace is designed around approved professional basketball players who are building careers beyond the traditional college recruiting process.
That creates opportunities for businesses to develop relationships with athletes as content creators, event guests, community representatives, endorsers and potential brand ambassadors.
Those relationships do not necessarily have to end with a single social-media post or appearance.
They can develop alongside the player’s professional career.
Commercial participation is voluntary.
Players can decide whether they want to participate, identify the services they are willing to provide and choose whether to accept individual opportunities.
Commercial participation is also intended to remain separate from basketball evaluation and team consideration.
That distinction matters because competitive performance and commercial value are not necessarily the same thing.
A leading scorer is not automatically the best representative for every business.
Another player may have strong commercial potential because of personality, hometown connections, community involvement, professional experience, content ability or audience engagement.
Athlete Market creates a structure in which those forms of value can be recognized separately.
Find the Right Athlete. Build the Campaign. Reach Your Market.
The business-facing concept is designed to make athlete marketing easier to navigate.
A company can begin with its objective and identify the type of athlete or campaign it wants to explore.
Potential commercial services may include:
- social-media promotions;
- branded photography;
- short-form video;
- athlete appearances;
- endorsements;
- autograph events;
- community events;
- clinics;
- commercials;
- product demonstrations;
- corporate events; and
- longer-term brand ambassador relationships.
Businesses are also not limited to working with one athlete.
The broader Athlete Market structure includes three primary campaign models.
Athlete Campaigns can center on one or more individual players.
Team Campaigns can incorporate a particular USBC team, its athletes, games and local market.
USBN Network Campaigns can extend across multiple athletes, teams, geographic markets and USBN media properties.
That provides a path for businesses to start with a focused local campaign and expand as their objectives grow.
A local business may begin with one athlete.
Another company may develop a campaign around an entire team.
A regional brand may eventually work across several USBN markets.
Creating Additional Revenue Opportunities for Players
For professional basketball players, Athlete Market introduces potential revenue opportunities beyond compensation associated directly with playing the game.
Those opportunities can include:
- paid appearances;
- social-media campaigns;
- endorsements;
- commercials;
- content creation;
- clinics;
- corporate events;
- community appearances; and
- recurring brand ambassador relationships.
That expands the professional proposition USBN can present to athletes.
The opportunity is no longer limited to pursuing a basketball roster position.
A player can potentially build a basketball career, professional identity and commercial presence within the same broader platform.
That is the concept behind USBNsi’s positioning:
One Profile. Two Markets. More Opportunity.
A New Commercial Model for USBN
Athlete Market also expands the commercial infrastructure available to the United States Basketball Network.
USBN does not have to rely exclusively on conventional sponsorship inventory when participating professional athletes themselves can provide legitimate commercial services to businesses.
Under the Athlete Market model, a business can purchase a defined campaign.
A participating player performs the agreed commercial services.
USBN coordinates and manages the relationship.
Teams and USBN media assets may also be incorporated when appropriate to the campaign.
The result is a marketing product centered on an actual professional athlete rather than advertising inventory alone.
The athlete can earn compensation for approved commercial work.
The business receives defined marketing services.
Teams can benefit from additional commercial activity.
USBN can develop campaign-management, media and production opportunities around the marketplace.
The model creates an economic reason for each participant to want the campaign to succeed.
Building Commercial Intelligence Around Athletes
Athlete Market can also create another category of information for USBNsi: commercial intelligence.
As campaigns are completed, USBNsi can begin developing a better understanding of the types of athletes businesses request, the industries interested in athlete marketing, the services companies seek and the characteristics associated with successful campaigns.
Over time, those insights could help USBNsi better understand an athlete’s commercial potential beyond follower count alone.
Possible considerations could eventually include factors such as engagement, local-market relevance, community involvement, content quality, professionalism, completed campaigns, reliability, client feedback and campaign results.
That creates two distinct dimensions of athlete evaluation.
Basketball intelligence: How can the player contribute competitively?
Commercial intelligence: How can the athlete create value for businesses?
USBNsi is being developed to better understand both.
The Bigger Idea Behind Athlete Market
Athlete Market ultimately represents a larger idea about the direction of USBNsi.
Professional basketball consists of interconnected groups that need one another.
Players need teams.
Teams need players.
Businesses need customers.
Athletes need economic opportunities.
Brands need credible people who can communicate with those customers.
Fans want stronger connections with players.
USBNsi is developing infrastructure designed to connect those relationships.
One profile.
Two markets.
More opportunity.
The Player Market can help an athlete get found and pursue basketball opportunities.
Athlete Market creates another path for approved professional players:
Get Hired. Get Paid.
For businesses, the proposition is equally straightforward:
Find the right athlete. Build the campaign. Reach your market.
USBN has spent years developing professional basketball teams, competition, media, technology and player infrastructure.
Athlete Market expands that foundation by asking a different question:
What happens when the professional basketball player becomes not just part of the game—but part of the business?
USBNsi Athlete Market is designed to help answer it.
Explore USBNsi Athlete Market
Businesses interested in working with professional basketball players can explore USBNsi Athlete Market to identify athletes and begin developing a campaign.
Players interested in basketball and commercial opportunities can create or complete their USBNsi Player Profile and participate in the USBNsi ecosystem.
One Profile. Two Markets. More Opportunity.
