The National Basketball League went online on September 1 with a new network of websites designed and developed by awarding winning sports technology provider SportingPulse.  
 
Developed in close conjunction with the National Basketball League, the new development cements SportingPulse’s position as the leading online provider to basketball, one of Australia’s biggest participant sports.
 
SportingPulse already provide the technology that powers the basketball network, basketball’s nationwide database and competition management solution, and the WNBL Network, which was launched in 2007.  
 
In addition, both the WNBL and NBL use FIBA LiveStats, another SportingPulse product, which powers webcasts for close to 40,000 unique viewers per month across the summer season.    Earlier this year, over 5600 individuals tuned in online to watch the final game of the NBL grand final series between Melbourne and the South Dragons.
 
SportingPulse built the new online site for the league itself (http://www.nbl.com.au) and for the eight member clubs, during July and August, ready for the September 1 launch.
 
A number of automated features have been built into the sites to make its administration easier and support content management.  This includes content tagging for news, and automation of ladders and results onto each club page.  SportingPulse migrated news articles from each of the clubs previous sites to ensure fans can  search back into their clubs history.
 
Nick Maywald, SportingPulse CEO, said that the organisation was delighted to be able to work with the league on such a big project.
 
“This was a big undertaking, and it was achieved to the league’s timetable, which is always a great outcome.   We are looking forward to continuing to develop both the sites and the relationship with the NBL and Basketball Australia.”
 
Basketball Australia are rolling out a series of promotions and activities to do with the upcoming NBL and WNBL seasons, the first of which got underway last night in Darwin, with the “Top End Challenge” featuring all eight NBL clubs.  
 
“The NBL were obviously keen to have the new online network up and running in conjunction with the inaugural Top End Challenge” Maywald added.  “Fans will enjoy the sites this year, with more functionality to come as we lead into the season proper”.
 
SportingPulse will launch NBL Dream Team in conjunction with Melbourne based company Virtual Sports next week, along with an official league tipping competition.