Alexa is Now Your Resident NBA Expert
With a week until the new season kicks off, the NBA announced that all 30 professional men’s basketball teams will now have a custom Alexa skill, making it the first professional league to do so. All NBA fans have to do is ask “Alexa, enable (insert your favorite team’s name)” to launch the skill. From there, NBA fans can ask the date of the next home game, who your team plays on a specific date, current and final game scores as well as hear the latest team news.
Why Skills Matter
While you can ask Alexa about updates on your favorite basketball team without enabling a skill, the NBA says the new custom skills will provide more detailed, accurate and up to date information. It will also allow the teams and league to further customize and curate the content, rather than rely on whatever Alexa finds first. Like their web page, organizations are learning that custom Alexa skills allow them to further control their narrative, which will become increasingly important as these devices become more popular with consumers. It could also show that the NBA found success with its first Alexa skill, which launched right before the 2017 Playoffs, giving fans access to information surrounding the final teams and games.
