Sean Callanan chats with Lawrence West from National Basketball League (NBL) about his career in Hockey, Olympics, museums, sponsorship & now his role in sponsorship at the NBL.

On this podcast you'll learn about:

  • Lawrence West on how he started his career in sports and his current role at the NBL
  • What it is like to work in an Olympic sport
  • What is the NBL Next Stars program is and how it brings fresh new talent into the NBL
  • The effect of Andrew Bogut's return to Australia to plan in the NBL
  • The attention the Ball family will bring to NBL with La Melo playing for the Hawks
  • NBL's new broadcast agreement with ESPN and SBS and why it is an important step forward
  • NBL exploring plans for expansion in Tasmania
  • How NBL1 works to reach grassroots basketball and why the data is so important
Learn more about sponsorship with Lawrence West from NBL

Listen to Lawrence West on Sports Geek

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Lawrence West on how NBL's growth

NBL is very much been the challenger to or has looked itself certainly as a challenger to some of the more established codes in this country. But when you look at it now and I think where we're all keen to say we're standing on our own two feet where we're a genuine competitor to those of more established leagues whether that be BBL, AFL and NRL.

Lawrence West, National Basketball League

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About Lawrence West

Lawrence West has been working in the International and Olympic sport for more than a decade. He is currently the Commercial Manager for National Basketball League.

Shortly after finishing his sports marketing course at the University of Strathclyde, he joined England Hockey as a PR & Communications Assistant. He was then promoted to Communications and Sponsorship Manager where he oversees the organisation's external communications and media activities. He also managed their sponsorships and partnerships that contributed to the success of the London Olympics in 2012.

In 2013, Lawrence and his wife decided to move to Australia and start anew. This opened the doors for an opportunity to join Hockey Australia as a Communications Manager which established his sports career in a new country. Four years after his stint at Hockey Australia, he moved on to becoming the Corporate Partnerships Manager for Museums Australia wherein he led the corporate partnerships engagement and delivery for Museums Victoria, including thedevelopment of the corporate partnerships strategy and the fostering of new partnerships forMelbourne Museum, Scienceworks, and the Immigration Museum.

Lawrence's diverse commercial experience working across roles covering sponsorship and commercial partnerships, marketing, communications, events, brand, PR and media relations has made him an integral part of the NBL organisation.

Connect with Lawrence on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Resources from the podcast

Highlights from podcast with Lawrence West

3:56 Lawrence West on breaking into the sports business industry

7:47 Developing Hockey Nation and building a sports project for London Olympics 2012

9:43 Lawrence on moving from London and landing a spot in Hockey Australia

13:29 Exploring commercial and partnerships with Museums Victoria

22:53 How the new broadcast agreement with ESPN and SBS came about

28:27 What is the effect of Andrew Bogut’s return to NBL

31:52 The NBL Next Stars program and what opportunities it is bringing to the league

35:30 How LaMelo Ball’s signing with Illawarra Hawks affected jerseys and membership sales

38:43 NBL’s expansion plans in Tasmania

42:48 How NBL1 helps reach the grassroots basketball

45:40 How they are using their independent audience data to create content or products that fans or partners want to see

49:25 Sports Geek Closing Five

Some tweets you may have missed:

Cute flashback with Shaq

Best of luck in the International Games

The LaMelo Ball announcement

Talking about the ‘Bogut effect'

Good partnerships built with NBA

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Pick my brain

Want some help on a campaign, sponsorship or content but don't know where to start? Book in a time with Sean Callanan for a Pick my brain session.

The Pick my brain session is a two hour consulting session via GoToMeeting where you can get Sean's thoughts and opinions on ticketing or sponsorship campaigns, campaign development and digital content review.

Pick My Brain session with Sean Callanan