Lawrence West on sponsorship trends and taking NBL to next level

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

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.

• Connect with Lawrence West on Twitter @lawrencecw, Instagram and LinkedIn
• Learn more about NBL on Twitter @NBL, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
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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

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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