WASHINGTON—The 2020-2021 NBA season kicks off tonight, and Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the ownership group for the Washington Wizards, is launching “Virtual Gameday,” a second-screen experience that fans can access on mobile or other electronic devices.
Monumental Sports partnered with Kiswe to create Virtual Gameday, a digital fan experience designed to provide an enhanced viewing experience.
As fans are still restricted from attending Washington Wizards games in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virtual Gameday offers access to traditional in-game experiences, as well as new in-game features as part of what Monumental Sports calls a “re-imagined game day experience.”
New features for Virtual Gameday will include a user-authenticated destination to watch the Wizards’ video content that will be a companion to each home game; messaging that will drive fans to the traditional game broadcast on NBC Washington; integration of live game stats; audience chat functionality; and a new interactive audience cheering feature with live visualization.
Additional content will include player warm-ups, national anthem performances, player introduction videos and starting lineups, Timeout and Quarter-break activations and entertainment performances, halftime performances and sponsorship activations. More interactive elements are expected to be added throughout the season.
“As the Washington Wizards usher in the start of a non-traditional 2020-21 season without fans in the arena, we wanted to replicate some of the excitement and content we would normally deliver at Capital One Arena,” said Hunter Lochmann, chief marketing officer, Monumental Sports & Entertainment. “We think this will be a great viewing companion with the broadcast of our games on NBC Sports Washington.”
The first Washington Wizard home game featuring Virtual Gameday will be Dec. 26 when the Wizards play the Orlando Magic.
