News

NBA Chooses AWS AI for Basketball Stats and Analytics

• By David Ramel
• 10/31/2025

The NBA and Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a multi-year collaboration establishing AWS as the Official Cloud and Cloud AI Partner of the NBA and its affiliated leagues, including the WNBA, NBA G League, Basketball Africa League and NBA 2K League.

Key takeaways from this partnership as presented by Amazon include:

• NBA and AWS to provide fans with live stats and comprehensive analytics during games.
• New AI-powered tools will help fans better understand player performances and game strategy.
• AWS becomes the official cloud and cloud AI partner of the NBA, WNBA, and others.

Here's more details on those key takeaways:

At the center of the partnership is NBA Inside the Game powered by AWS, a new platform built on AWS cloud and AI infrastructure. It converts player-tracking and game-data streams into interactive fan experiences and analytics for teams and broadcasters.

Features debuting in the 2025-26 season include new AI-driven metrics such as Defensive Box Score, which quantifies defensive impact; Shot Difficulty, which measures how hard a shot attempt is based on position and pressure; Gravity, which tracks how players draw defenders; and Play Finder, an AI tool to locate and analyze similar plays across games.

These innovations will appear in live broadcasts, the NBA App, NBA.com and social platforms, providing more personalized and interactive content for fans. The agreement also moves the league's digital platforms, including NBA League Pass, to AWS infrastructure, supporting global reach and advanced machine learning workflows.

The collaboration demonstrates how professional sports organizations are using cloud and AI technologies to deepen engagement, enhance storytelling and optimize performance. Fans gain richer insights into play and players, while teams and broadcasters gain new analytic tools and storytelling capabilities.

By partnering with AWS, the NBA is making AI and cloud central to how basketball is analyzed, broadcast and experienced. The rollout of NBA Inside the Game marks a shift toward data-rich, interactive sports engagement that could redefine fan interaction and analytics across global sports.