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Orlando Magic team selected SAS Analytics, from the leader in business analytics software and services, to enable predictive modeling, segmentation and real-time decision making to help ensure fans receive the best value for their entertainment dollar.

The step from Magic is considered as a part of the commitment of the team to bring fans the world’s best sports entertainment – evidenced by two years of sold-out games and a record-breaking 14,000 season ticket holders. SAS (News - Alert) for sports will help them continue innovating – offering fans exciting experiences far beyond the game on the court.

“Using SAS Analytics, the Magic learn more about customer preferences and behaviors at every fan interaction,” said Craig Duncan, manager of SAS for sports, in a press release. “Consolidating and analyzing data about ticket sales, operations, retail, sponsorships, fan demographics, social networks and website visits gives the Magic executives the richest possible information. Analytic insights fuel evidence-based decisions that optimize operations, increase sponsorship revenue and transform fan relationships into long-term partnerships.”

“We’re taking the Orlando Magic fan experience to a whole new level,” said Alex Martins, president of the Orlando Magic, in a press release. “The most technologically advanced arena in North America, the Amway Center supports a full-spectrum fan experience. This new facility challenges the notion that fans can have a better experience watching a game at home on their big screen television. We have the largest high-definition video board in any arena in the country along with 1,100-plus televisions throughout the building. The Amway Center truly offers compelling amenities to every type of fan. Using SAS Analytics, we can harness the technology within Amway Center to tailor the experiences we offer to each and every fan.”

With people from all over the Central Florida region coming to see the new Amway Center this season, Magic will use SAS Analytics to target those first-time patrons and ensure they continue to come back.

Orlando Magic expects to benefit from SAS for sports’ solutions, including SAS Marketing Automation, an easy-to-use solution for planning, testing and executing marketing campaigns, and SAS Enterprise BI Server, featuring portal capabilities, customizable dashboards and advanced reporting.

With these solutions, key decision makers throughout the Magic can access an arena heat map, reporting real-time ticket and suite sales during games. These solutions help them drill down into the details when sales are above or below expectations so they can make on-the-spot adjustments with higher confidence.

“With SAS for sports, we significantly enhance our analytic capabilities for solving business problems,” said Anthony Perez, assistant director of Business Strategy for Orlando Magic. “SAS Analytics gives a single view of our customers, allowing us to understand the similarities and differences in our fans so we can leverage that knowledge to improve their experiences with the Orlando Magic.’”

“We’re also becoming much more efficient,” Perez continued. “Before, we had employees running various sales reports every day, exporting to Excel, reformatting the report, checking formulas, and circulating the report to our leadership. That gave us a single view, every 24 hours, of how our business was performing. Now, we’ll have fully automated reports with dynamic data feeds providing near real-time results accessible by our leadership any time of the day. That’s something that gets us very excited.”

Rahul Arora is a TMCnet contributor. He has worked as an editor and freelance writer for several reputed organizations in India. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jaclyn Allard