Samba Digital: the social media agency for international basketball

Basketball fandom no longer stops at borders. NBA franchises are chasing fans in Brazil and France, FIBA competitions travel to China, and European leagues compete for attention with every other form of entertainment on TikTok. Samba Digital runs social media for leagues, federations and NBA teams across Europe, the Americas and Asia. Here is what that work delivered over the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

Running league accounts at scale

Basketball Champions League. For the competition’s 10th season, BCL asked us to run TikTok and Instagram from the regular season to the Final Four. The goal was to make BCL a must-follow account for global fans, not only hardcore followers.

On TikTok, we went trend-first: meme formats, player edits featuring Ricky Rubio and Kostas Antetokounmpo, and the craziest game endings. Output scaled to 30 videos a month from March to ride the playoff race. On Instagram, the “Season X” series celebrated past MVPs, legendary coaches and iconic moments.

Results: 431 posts (149 TikToks, 282 Instagram), 31.7M views, 677K engagements and 17K new followers. The Ricky Rubio edit alone reached 1.1M views, and TikTok passed 2M views in both March and May 2026.

LNB Betclic ELITE. For more than two years, we have covered France’s top league live across Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok: 30 matchdays plus the playoffs. That means clipping and vertical editing during live broadcasts, and storytelling around records and key performances. In 2024-25, we covered 260+ games, generated 117M impressions and 4.3M engagements. Samba content drove 62% of the accounts’ total engagement.

Lega Basket Serie A. In Italy, we built a dedicated storytelling line and visual style for each LBA competition, with posters and templates that kept the season’s narrative consistent.

Growing NBA franchises in new markets

Orlando Magic. The Magic, and the NBA behind them, see Brazil as an expansion market. We run their Spanish and Portuguese presence on X, Facebook and Instagram, with TikTok added in 2025-26. Our team tracks Latin American calendars and culture to find the moments that resonate in each country.

In 2024-25, the Spanish-speaking Instagram grew 32% and the Portuguese one 10%, for a combined community of 400K+ followers and 32M+ impressions. In 2025-26, we published 2.2K posts, added 47K followers and generated 34M impressions and 19M video views.

San Antonio Spurs. We have supported the Spurs’ growth in France since their Paris trip in January 2025. We launched the French accounts and partnered with French media such as beIN Sports and TrashTalk. In two months: 119 posts, 6.1M views and 15K new followers.

Since then, the partnership has moved into live events. In October 2025, we covered the launch of jersey partner Ledger in Paris, following Spurs legend Bruce Bowen for a day. The aftermovie was cross-posted by the Spurs global account, the French account and Ledger. In February 2026, we covered Spurs Paris Week across five days: Spurs Academy clinics in Le Chesnay and Nanterre, the Pop Shop opening and a lifestyle format with Ian Mahinmi. In April 2026, we ran live coverage of the playoff watch party in Paris, cross-posting stories with a second watch party at the Grand Rex.

Opening markets others cannot reach

FIBA Intercontinental Cup, China. For the 2026 edition in Beijing, FIBA asked us to run its Chinese social presence. We activated four platforms, each with a clear role: Douyin for reach, WeChat Video Channel for extra views, Weibo for results and news, and the WeChat Official Account for announcements and ticketing.

Content leaned on faces Chinese fans already know, such as Yao Ming, Luis Scola and players from the Beijing and Shanghai clubs. Over September and October 2026: 189 posts, 17.5M video views (16.2M on Douyin alone) and 352K engagements.

What ties it together

Every account above follows the same playbook: native formats for each platform, content in the fans’ own language and culture, and a team fast enough to clip a buzzer-beater while the game is still on. Whether you are a league building a global audience or a franchise opening a new market, we know how to turn international viewers into fans.

Let’s talk about your next season: sambadigital.com