![\"Kauffman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DKWPGQ4ECRBJPPHXTF2QPNM7UA.jpg\")
Kaufman made a name for himself working with senior NBA executives including David Stern (right) and current Commissioner Adam Silver. Courtesy of Jay Kaufman <\/p>\nFor Jay Kaufman, it\u2019s all about the data. <\/p>\n
An affinity for numbers took Kaufman, the son of two teachers, from his hometown of Grafton, Mass., to the Carroll School of Management at Boston College (sports and numbers must really run in the family, as Kaufman\u2019s brother, Brian, is also in the industry on the sports analytics side). After school, Jay found his way to the NBA Associate Program, starting on a path that would last 22 years at the league. He went on to work closely with David Stern, Adam Silver and other senior executives as head of the league\u2019s global research and insights team. <\/p>\n
\u201cPretty lucky to get a chance to understand the business side a little bit more before I transitioned into more of research strategy,\u201d Kaufman said of his start. \u201cI was able to work on some of the research-type stuff on the partnership side \u2014 helping to analyze what\u2019s working, what\u2019s not working, some of the valuation type stuff \u2014 and build relationships.\u201d <\/p>\n
After almost three years with partnership marketing, Kaufman moved to research, and at a time before data was informing most decisions on the business side. \u201cIt was understanding the information, and I did a decent job of simplifying it and telling the story,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, who joined the league just weeks apart from Kaufman, said Kaufman \u201cdisplayed the uncanny ability to adapt as the world around us, particularly the media landscape and technology, changed the way fans interact with our league. Jay continuously reinvented our research strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaufman made a name for himself working with senior NBA executives including David Stern (right) and current Commissioner Adam Silver. Courtesy of Jay Kaufman <\/p>\n
As advanced data metrics began to better inform league decisions, Kaufman and his team were bringing a number of engagement points to leaders at the NBA for major decisions, including billion-dollar media pacts. \u201cIt\u2019s not just Nielsen \u2014 there\u2019s ticket data and there\u2019s basketball ops data and social and digital, and there\u2019s all these different touch points,\u201d Kaufman said. \u201cTo David and Adam\u2019s leadership credit, they were always big proponents of data and information, and I think that trickled down across the organization. \u2026 We butted heads sometimes, but because I stayed pretty calm and just had the back-and-forth with them, I think they appreciated that.\u201d <\/p>\n
The chance to start something new<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Kaufman left the NBA to launch a sports and live entertainment practice at National Research Group, a well-respected data and consulting firm with a long history in Hollywood. \u201cPilot testing and content testing for all the big studios and networks for 40 years, and [it] had kind of built out a really strong tech practice, as well as on the gaming side,\u201d said Kaufman, now the firm\u2019s executive vice president and head of sports. \u201cNRG is pretty forward-thinking with a lot of the trends and so forth, and they were starting to see some of the trends with content. It was becoming clear to them that sports was going to be a big part of the portfolios of a lot of the clients they\u2019re already dealing with. \u2026 The thought was if you\u2019re not involved with sports, you\u2019re not going to succeed in the long term.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kaufman, who is based in the New York City region, now spends the majority of his time using his research chops developed at the NBA to consult on projects with clients. That includes a lot of work with leagues such as the NFL, NHL, PGA Tour, LIV Golf, MLS and others, as well as a number of high-profile pro teams, around strategic initiatives and brand-related efforts. NRG also works with all of the big networks and streamers, FanDuel, 2K Sports, EA Sports and even helped with the launch of ESPN Bet.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for sports and data?<\/p>\n
Storytelling and simplification are some ways Kaufman thinks sports business can be better with data. \u201cOrganizations have done a really good job of setting up data and acquiring data and housing data, but with the influx of all this new information, there\u2019s been challenges in what actually matters and what doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Can there be too much data? \u201cI don\u2019t want to say we\u2019ve gone too far from a data perspective, because I think all data can be good data, but there\u2019s a need to focus on what matters and prioritize certain data and simplify the information,\u201d said Kaufman.<\/p>\n
Three Questions With Jay Kaufman<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your favorite memory of David Stern? \u201cI had a health scare and he found out somehow \u2014 probably from a boss \u2014 that I was going through something. I get a call the next day, go up to his office and he\u2019s pissed. And I get there and first thing he says to me is, \u2018I\u2019m so f**king mad at you.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018What did I do? Sorry, I screwed stuff up.\u2019 And he\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m so mad you didn\u2019t tell me. And so you know, you have an appointment tomorrow morning with the head of oncology at NYU, and then in the afternoon, you have one with the same at Columbia. I\u2019m still mad at you. Let me know how it goes.\u2019 And that\u2019s the type of stuff that he did behind the scenes a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s life look like outside of work? \u201cI try to stay pretty active. I\u2019ve retired from adult league hockey. When you get a concussion, you have to look in the mirror. So I\u2019ve retired from that. A lot of my time is running and tennis and playing bad golf and that type of stuff. The fun thing right now is my daughter, who\u2019s going to be 8. I started to get into the coaching, which is a lot of fun.\u201d <\/p>\n
Favorite spots for dinner in Manhattan? \u201cMinetta Tavern is always great if you can get to the bar and have a burger there. Some of the old school Italian places, like Carbone. Lure Fishbar is my kind of place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Jay Kaufman, it\u2019s all about the data. An affinity for numbers took Kaufman, the son of two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,8837,99,23573],"class_list":["post-204835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-print","tag-sports","tag-upfront"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}