*By Michael Teich*
Instagram, not Snapchat, is the preferred off-court platform for the LA Clippers to win over fans, said the basketball team's director of social media, Sandro Gasparro.
"Instagram is probably our most engaged platform and also our fastest-growing," Gasparro said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar. "Most of our fans are there. We get a lot more metrics as well."
The Clippers on Monday became the NBA's first team to introduce player GIFs to Instagram Stories, choosing the Facebook-owned ($FB) app over the similar offering from Snap ($SNAP), which is based in the LA area.
Gasparro said the decision largely came down to user preference. With 400 million daily active users, Instagram Stories attracts more than double Snapchat's count of daily visitors ー which stood at 188 million at the end of June.
"It allows us to unlock the personalities of our players a little bit and show what they are like off the court," Gasparro said of the Instagram Stories platform. "It also allows our fans to really contribute to the conversation around the team in unique and fun ways."
The NBA's early adoption and savvy strategy for social media has created a strong, engaged fan base.
The NBA's Twitter ($TWTR) account has 27.3 million followers. The NFL, MLB, and NHL all fail to measure up, with 24.1 million, 8.2 million, and 6.14 million, respectively.
Gasparro said it's a team effort ー Clippers execs are collaborating with players to capitalize on the digital trend.
"We're definitely working really closely with our guys, not only in terms of supplying them with great content they can use on their channels, but also helping them craft their own content strategy," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/la-clippers-do-it-for-the-gram-2).
Following a 2018 Supreme Court ruling year that cleared the way for sports gambling, fans in seven states can bet on the upcoming Super Bowl for the first time ー and leaders in the budding industry are anticipating the Big Game will deliver their biggest day yet. “We expect the Super Bowl to be our single biggest day in the company’s history,” Mike Raffensperger, the chief marketing officer for betting platform FanDuel, told Cheddar.
FightCamp is a new fitness company that streams boxing classes from top instructors direct to consumers. The classes can be tailored to the needs of boxers at all levels of expertise ー from newbies to punching pros said co-founder Tommy Duquette.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 25, 2019.
The New York Knicks and its jersey sponsor, the website-building platform Squarespace, are doling out assists to four local businesses as part of the second annual "Make It Awards." "Partnering with Squarespace to help those entrepreneurs get their businesses to the next level was something we were very interested in doing and it's been a major hit," said MSG Sports' senior vice president of business operations, Kristin Bernert, in an interview on Cheddar.
The Delaware Blue Coats will make their debut Wednesday night at the brand new Philadelphia 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., and the team will share the spotlight with an arena that boasts five stories, can seat 2,500 fans, and includes three NBA-regulation basketball courts. The flashy new arena was designed to promote youth sports in the state of Delaware and the greater Philadelphia region. "It's all geared towards youth," Chris Heck, the president of the Philadelphia 76ers, told Cheddar.
The NBA is transparent about its approval of legalized, regulated sports betting ー but the league is also clearly communicating that it wants a fair share of the money wagered on its games. "It's our view that if state governments are going to be authorizing private entities, in most cases casinos, to generate significant revenue ー billions of dollars of revenue ー off of the NBA competitions, that the NBA participate in some way," said the NBA's head of fantasy and gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross.
Former Green Bay Packer Ahman Green is a four time Pro Bowler, but he's also an avid gamer. When it comes to Halo he's just another fan that looks up to professionals like Proximitty and LethuL for help with his improving his skills.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday Jan. 23, 2019.
If there's one person aside from the 800,000 unpaid federal workers who is hoping the government shutdown ends soon, it's Keisha Lance Bottoms. The mayor of Atlanta is less than two weeks away from hosting Super Bowl LIII, which is a logistical and security nightmare even when the city's airport *isn't* being slowed down by mass TSA sick-outs. "I'm extremely concerned," Bottoms said of the possibility that the shutdown may continue through Super Bowl weekend.
Cloud9 has been dubbed the most valuable esports company in the world by Forbes Magazine ー a title that is thanks, at least in part, to the organization's powerhouse VP of marketing, Eunice Chen. Chen is an esports vet who has worked for industry stalwart Riot Games and even runs her own tournament production company, Heroeshype. In an interview with Cheddar Sports, she said, "there are always different ways we can break into new markets in esports and beyond."
