Predictive analytics and AI deliver a winning fan experience

The Orlando Magic uses mobile app data and SAS to personalize marketing campaigns and boost fan engagement

In the NBA, nothing builds fan loyalty like winning. For the Orlando Magic, crafting an extraordinary fan experience is a close second.

The Magic is in a league of its own when it comes to using technology to engage fans and drive revenue. Even in the city’s competitive entertainment market, the team is enjoying a seven-figure surge in ticket sales and sponsorships thanks to an all-new mobile app and a winning analytics strategy.

“We’re leveraging technology as much as we can to enhance the fan experience and build new and improved products,” says Jay Riola, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer.

Excelling with analytics has become a layup for the Magic. Its analytics journey started in 2010 with the opening of its smart arena, now known as the Kia Center. To test variable ticket prices, the team’s front office acquired data management and analytics solutions from SAS. Success followed, with ticket revenue jumping 50% in the first season.

Since the 2013-14 season, the Magic’s single-game ticket revenue has grown by 161%. Plus, the Magic consistently ranks in the top five in the NBA for single-game tickets sold. Riola attributes much of that success to improved pricing, revenue management and overall marketing strategies driven in large part by data and artificial intelligence.

Today, with its appetite for innovation and a data-driven strategy, the Magic is considered one of the most analytically savvy teams in sports. “Everyone – I mean everyone – uses SAS,” says Riola about the basketball organization.

A fan experience like no other

Say you’re a Magic fan heading to a home game. You receive a push notification that links to a personalized pregame newsfeed in the Magic app powered by AI. As doors open, your phone buzzes with your seat number based on predicted demand for the game. With your Magic app open, you pay for a new jersey in the Team Shop and personalize your digital commemorative ticket. You sit down, order nachos from the app to be brought to your seat and then redeem Magic Money to take a postgame photo on the court after a big win.

“Our app is a remote control for the arena experience,” says Riola, who oversaw the development of the latest version of the team’s app.

Powering the experience is a chain of seamless technology that includes ticketing, points of sale and geo-targeted services through the app. Once fans enter the arena, app users receive instant communication including maps, in-game contests and personalized offers for nearby food, beverages and merchandise.

The app drove significant revenue from customer purchases for the 2024-25 season, including thousands of unique experiences and items offered in the Magic Marketplace. The Magic saw a 180% increase in gameday app users for the season, and fan satisfaction scores regarding the team’s use of in-venue technology have increased by 20%

Personalization takes center court

While a slam dunk of an app is enough to keep some fans engaged, it’s what the Magic has done with customer data that puts it in a different league.

The process starts by integrating streaming app data with historical data from more than 2.5 million customers. Information from 16 source systems – including ticketing, concessions, retail merchandise and mobile app data – is combined into an enterprise data warehouse with close to 300 productionalized target tables. Individuals are then clustered into segments based on their behavior.

At that point, Riola and his team use SAS to model the data and predict what products and services fans are likely to purchase. Personalized offers are then automatically sent to fans via push notifications, website banners and emails.

“We’ve been believers in analytics for a long time,” Riola says. “But we’re getting much more sophisticated in how we use analytics to personalize the fan experience and grow our business.”

A certain segment of fans, for example, will browse jerseys in the app marketplace following a hot performance from one of the Magic’s top players. Using SAS, this interest has been scored with predictive models and combined with existing knowledge about these shoppers to display personalized offers for the jersey in the app.

The technology has worked similarly with season ticket sales. Using a predictive model, the team has anticipated which ticket holders are on the fence about renewing. This enables sales to target at-risk fans through the app with loyalty-building gifts such as free valet parking.

“We continue to outscore the league average in fan experience and improve our year-over-year satisfaction scores,” Riola says. “With SAS, we’re delivering an experience our fans can’t find anywhere else.”

Up next: SAS Viya

In 2024, the Magic and SAS agreed on a renewed multi-year partnership focused on the team’s move to SAS Viya and its plans to make the most of Viya’s productivity with data and AI going forward.

As part of the ongoing evolution of SAS’ sports partnerships, the Magic remains a strategic and trusted partner, with a renewed focus on translating outcomes from Viya off the court to exciting activations on and around the court.

“In Orlando, we’re always looking to elevate the fan experience through data and innovation, so we’re incredibly excited to bring SAS Viya into our analytics ecosystem,” Riola says. This powerful technology will enable us to unlock deeper insights, drive more personalized fan experiences and accelerate our data strategy.”