The NBA has released a chat bot for Facebook Messenger, just in time for the first game of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Today David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook, wrote a Facebook post saying that you can start talking to the bot by simply visiting m.me/NBA.
Of course the NBA has a large fan base, but the launch of this bot is also significant because Facebook is specifically promoting it as one of the early examples of what’s possible what chatbots in the messaging app. Facebook has previously promoted chatbots from the likes of CNN, Poncho, and Spring.
This bot sends users highlights of top plays, the playoffs, and the last games for teams or players in the NBA Finals. The video clips are displayed in a horizontal scrollable list; when you hit the “Watch” button you’re taken to pages hosted at bot.nba.com. You can even tell the bots to send you alerts right when games end, or not.
