TikTok has signed a multi-year global content partnership with the NBA and WNBA, combining creator access to league events with live-game discovery tools and new advertising inventory for brands.

The deal centers on TikTok GamePlan, a product suite that helps sports properties drive fans from short-form content toward live broadcasts, and TikTok Pulse Premiere, which opens advertising opportunities tied to NBA and WNBA content. Select creators on the platform will also get access to marquee league events, including the upcoming WNBA All-Star Weekend, to capture and share content from the leagues’ most notable events.

TikTok is leaning on its existing basketball audience to justify the tie-up. According to the announcement, nearly half of the platform’s over one billion users follow basketball, and one in three users has an interest in the NBA specifically. Global search interest in “NBA” and “WNBA” has risen nearly 30% and 15%, respectively, since the start of 2026, and 64% of women now choose TikTok as their preferred destination for sports content. The @NBA and @WNBA accounts carry a combined 30 million followers on the platform.

“This partnership shows how central TikTok has become to the way fans discover and engage with basketball around the world,” said Rollo Goldstaub, TikTok’s Global Head of Sport. “As the NBA and WNBA share game highlights, creators and fans can join the conversation around the biggest moments in real time, and TikTok GamePlan carries that same discovery straight through to tune-in, giving fans a direct path from the feed to the broadcast.”

TikTok points to measurable tune-in lift as the mechanism behind GamePlan: fans are 42% more likely to watch a live game after viewing sports content on the platform. During the 2026 NBA Finals, the league used GamePlan across two features, an in-app Anchor and Detail Page that generated 497 million impressions, and an NBA Finals Search Hub that delivered 426,000 referrals to the league’s Tap to Watch feature.

“TikTok has become one of the most powerful cultural platforms in the world, helping a new generation of fans discover the NBA and WNBA,” said Bob Carney, NBA Senior Vice President of Social and Digital Content. “This partnership gives us an even greater opportunity to meet those fans where they are with compelling content that celebrates the game and provides them with a seamless option to tune in to the live broadcast.”

The agreement extends a creator relationship that the NBA has been building independently of any single platform deal. At All-Star Weekend in February, the league embedded more than 200 global creators, collectively reaching over one billion followers, across broadcasts, in-arena programming and fan events, its largest creator integration for a single event to date. That event featured a dedicated Creator Court at NBA Crossover, competitive formats like the PlayStation NBA Creator Cup, and on-air roles for creators, including Jesser, who served as the league’s 360-degree ambassador.

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