"Eighteen to 20 months ago, we knew virtually nothing about predictive analytics," says Anthony Perez, director of business strategy for the NBA franchise. While his team was in fact working on predictive analytics well before that, Perez added, their tools weren't powerful enough to give them insights they needed, and the group needed to scale up its efforts. So Perez bought in new, more powerful software from SAS and began climbing the learning curve.

Today the established practice is not only helping optimize ticket sales but is also providing tools to help the coaching staff predict the best lineups for each basketball game, and which potential players offer the best value for the money.