Start of Pro Basketball Season Highlights Intense Competition for Sports Fans in North America

With the start of the 2025/2026 NBA season tomorrow night, we’re officially in the busiest period on the annual sports calendar.  From now until the last potential World Series game on November 1, all five major North American professional sports leagues will be in action at the same time.  In addition to games in multiple sports every night, there will be a “sports equinox” on Monday, October 27, when all leagues are actually playing simultaneously.  Add in college football, NASCAR, and the PGA Tour and the number of major games and events on offer is staggering.

Only the United States and Canada have such a density of big-time sports.  In most other countries, soccer (a/k/a “football”) tends to dominate.  Other sports certainly exist – and, in some countries, even have pro leagues – but they don’t rise to the level of prominence and success that they do here.

That density also means intense competition for viewership and attendance.  Here at Evolv, we like to think that we help teams and venues vying for those critical and in-demand attendees put their best product out in the marketplace.  A bad entry experience can ruin an entire trip to a stadium, ballpark, or arena.  That’s an unacceptable business risk in such a competitive market.  Our products are intended to mitigate that risk, by enabling an entry experience that’s quick, convenient, and secure … no tradeoffs required.  It’s therefore not by chance that we’ve had such success in the big five North American leagues to date, with almost 60 customers and nearly 40 official team or venue partnerships.

That’s our view from forty thousand feet.  Zooming back in to pro basketball on the eve of the ’25/’26 season, our customer roster stands at nine.  One of those customers, Crypto.com Arena (where we are the Official Fan Screening Partner), will host the second game of tomorrow night’s opening doubleheader.  Thereafter, once the full slate of games begins the following night, Evolv Express® systems will scan an average of almost 31,000 hoops fans every night until May 2026 … almost five million fans in all if past attendance patterns continue.  We take a lot of pride in the fact that we deliver one of the first touchpoints for all those fans that choose basketball amidst all the other available options.

Good luck to our nine pro basketball partners and all their fans.  Enjoy the season … and all the other sports too!