Guest Post: Ash Read is a social media community manager, planner and strategist focusing on the world of sports. Follow him on Twitter at @AshRead14.

“Basketball is one of the biggest participation sports in the UK, and university basketball on both sides of the Atlantic is full of passion, competition and excitement,” explains Charly Classen, Vice President and GM, ESPN EMEA.

All this passion and excitement comes to a head in March: probably the biggest month for basketball in the US and the UK, with the NCAA Tournament and the BUCS Championship both taking place.

With both competitions on both sides of the Atlantic approaching full swing, we decided to catch up with ESPN to see how the game of basketball has grown online in the UK.

UK’s Digital Fan Base Growth

ESPN player shows live and on-demand NCAA college basketball games throughout the year, including all of March Madness. The total amount of college basketball games shown per week in the regular season on ESPN Player averages about 40 games

This amount of coverage is in high-demand. This year, ESPN have seen subscriptions to their College Pass increase 16%, and total minutes of viewing has also increased more than 40% in the same period. So in short:  more people are watching, and they are watching more.

Web Growth

It’s not just ESPN Player subscriptions that are on the rise. ESPN.co.uk recorded a record year in 2013, with more users spending more time than ever. ESPN.co.uk averaged nearly 2 million unduplicated Online and Mobile unique users – a 9 percent year-on-year increase, as Total Page Views grew by an impressive 38 percent

Web video has also been a huge growth area for the company. ESPN.co.uk logged more than 7.6 million video views in 2013 – up 138 percent compared to 2012. The majority of that came in the second half of the year as ESPN ramped up digital video creation and integration.

In terms of basketball, specifically, ESPN cover an enormous amount of basketball news and information (pro and college) on ESPN.com.

In terms of UK-specific traffic to that, between NBA and NCAA college basketball content on ESPN.com, there are about 3.3 million UK visits and a little over 20 million minutes of time spent from Sep ’13 through Feb ’14. This breaks down to a bit more than half a million visits and approx. 3.3 million minutes of time from UK fans each month

What does this mean for the game of basketball in the UK?

 “It seems to me the basketball experience in the UK will be circular, in the sense that as the players get better and the coaching improves and the product becomes better, it creates more interest.” explains Fran Fraschilla, ESPN basketball analyst and former U.S. college basketball coach during an ESPN conference call.

“And more interest means media coverage. And more media coverage means that more young players want to participate in basketball, and the product continues to improve. I think it becomes a circular proposition that each aspect of the improvement of basketball will lead to the next aspect.”

Over recent years, awareness of British Basketball has also grown over in the US, according to Fraschilla; “Those of us who are actively involved in basketball are certainly aware of the continued growth of British basketball.”

There is now more UK born players in the US college system than ever before, pointing to growth of the sport in the UK and also improved standards amongst players from our shores.

Mark Jaram, Head Coach of the Loughborough Student Riders and Assistant Coach of the BBL’s Leicester Riders was also on the conference call and pointed out “there are 55 British players currently playing at the Division I level in the U.S., which is tremendous.  That’s really positive.”

Increased media coverage is certainly a key factor for the growth of basketball in the UK. The more people that are exposed to the game, the better and I certainly agree with Fraschilla when he says: “More interest means media coverage. And more media coverage means that more young players want to participate in basketball, and the product continues to improve.”

Increased interest in both NBA and NCAA coverage in the UK is a positive start and looks to point to a prosperous future for basketball in the UK. Though there are many more hurdles in the way before basketball becomes a mainstream sport in the UK, but that’s a different story…

Celebrate March Madness with ESPN

ESPN Player is hosting a charity basketball game on Friday, March 21 to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and collaborating with British Universities & Colleges Sport to celebrate university basketball on both sides of the Atlantic.

ESPN Player Hoops Madness will take place at the University of East London (UEL) SportsDock. The game will tip off at 4pm and continue for six hours, ensuring that as many people as possible can take part.

For details on the event or to make a donation participants can visit http://www.justgiving.com/ESPNPlayerHoopsMadness. All players who donate will automatically be entered into a draw to win prizes including NCAA team merchandise, ESPN Player subscriptions and more.

More on EPSN Player Hoops Madness can be found here.