The opportunity
Basketball is England’s second most popular team sport, with around 1.2 million under-16s playing every week. Yet live crowds are a fraction of that interest. The fans exist. Most have never been given an easy first game, a reason to come back, or a next step up. The goal: fill the arena with fans who return, grow members who renew, and turn game nights into revenue well beyond the ticket.
Why the UK is different
- Fans are created, not inherited. In Lithuania, Spain or Greece, families have followed the same club for generations. In the UK, most future fans haven’t been to their first game yet.
- Football owns the attention, so basketball has to win where football can’t: affordable, family-friendly, indoor nights, close to the action.
- A young, NBA-first audience that lives on TikTok, YouTube and 2K, not on TV.
- The competition is a night out, not another team. With no core fan base to rely on, a game competes with everything London offers on a Friday night: gigs, clubs, restaurants and other sport. So it has to plug into culture, music and fashion, through the right partners and creators.
- London’s hidden advantage: large communities from countries where basketball is a top sport. Back home, many would already have a season ticket.
I’ve worked in European basketball since 2005, and my Executive Master’s final project was on exactly this: how UK basketball ticketing differs from the rest of Europe.
What I’d borrow from other sports
- Darts: sell the party, not the sport. Around 90,000 Ally Pally tickets go in about 15 minutes.
- The Hundred: design for families and first-timers. 203,000 people bought tickets to their first-ever cricket game.
- Baller League UK: creators as the draw. A creator-led league that played every week in a London arena, with 75% of its audience aged 18 to 34.
- Australia’s NBL: from close to bankruptcy to a destination league, by investing in game night and the story.
- The NBA and NFL, to test here: fashion and music as a way in for younger fans.
The call I’d make
Fix the basics before buying reach: get the customer journey and tracking right first, then spend to fill the arena.
The plan, in four stages
- 1 · Get the basics right. Learn what has and hasn’t worked, fix the journey to a ticket, and trace every sale back to what drove it.
- 2 · Fill the arena. The warmest audiences first, game night as the product, and creators and partners with a clear job to do.
- 3 · Build the upgrade ladder. From a first free sign-up all the way to founding member.
- 4 · Monetise the arena. Premium seats, spend per fan, memberships, and sponsors who renew because results are measured.
Creators and athletes: the way in
In the UK, 60% of 18 to 34-year-old sports fans like sports creators, against 15% of over-55s. Creators and players are the front door for people who don’t follow basketball yet, chosen for the audiences they bring and judged on tickets sold, not likes.
A small team that works like a big one
Sports clubs run marketing with a handful of people. I’d use AI to know every fan, tailor every message, turn highlights into content within the hour and test faster, with people always checking the output.
How I’d measure it
Tickets sold, not clicks: first-time fans, how many come back and what they spend, with tests that show what marketing actually caused.
Why I’m built for this
- A European basketball insider: a Euroleague club, a Euroleague Institute Master’s, and EuroCup game nights in London as a Euroleague Basketball Delegate.
- I’ve sold tickets for a UK club: +35% in one season at Guildford Heat.
- Big-brand marketing around sport at Microsoft, on budgets up to $120M+, often with a super lean team.
- Subscriptions run through my career: season tickets and memberships are subscriptions, and I’ve marketed subscriptions again and again over 13 years: Microsoft 365, Game Pass and Copilot. I built the Office 365 Renewal Centre from scratch and grew renewal revenue by six figures.
- I’ve been the buyer: for 13 years, sponsors pitched to me. I know what makes a brand sign, and renew.
- I’m the audience: a Londoner who has played basketball in this city for over a decade.
The full plan, with audiences, offers, the creator programme and measurement, is something I share in conversation.
Hi, I’m Sylwia. Marketing and paid media leader, 13 years at Microsoft, open to Head of Marketing, Marketing Director and Marketing Lead roles in sport, health tech and tech.
