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Ranking Which NBA Teams Have the Most Fake Followers On Twitter

Elon Musk preparing to delete 1.5 billion inactive accounts (Business Insider), which NBA team’s social media profiles could be a worse hit?

To figure this out, the guys at Gambling.com ran each team through SparkToro’s fake follower audit, creating a ranking of the worst-hit accounts.

The top 5 (in order of potential followers lost):

# Teams Number of Followers (Twitter) Percentage of Fake Followers Fake Follower Number
1 Los Angeles Lakers 11,168,725 43.5% 4,858,395
2 Golden State Warriors 8,012,942 45.3% 3,629,863
3 Chicago Bulls 4,721,589 41.4% 1,954,738
4 Miami Heat 5,047,765 37.5% 1,892,912
5 Boston Celtics 4,042,818 40.7% 1,645,427

Ranking Which NBA Teams Have the Most Fake Followers

  • In ongoing news, Elon Musk is setting his sights on clearing fake/spam accounts off Twitter, but how could this affect the Twitter following of teams in the NBA?
  • By running a fake follower audit, Gambling.com reveals which NBA team has the highest number of fake followers and is likely to lose out the most
  • The Los Angeles Lakers stand to lose the most followers in league with an estimated 4.9 million fake followers, with the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls closely behind with 3.6 and 2.0 million fake followers, respectively

In April, Elon Musk stated he would “die trying” in the fight to eradicate Twitter from spam accounts. With Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter, there has been continuing news surrounding the plans, but how could this affect the teams and players in the NBA’s Twitter followings?

Using SparkToro’s fake follower audit, the guys at Gambling.com have ranked which NBA Teams could be worst hit:

Los Angeles Lakers Set to Take the Biggest Hit on Twitter        

It’s no surprise that they have a massive social media following considering their majorly successful history, but the Los Angeles Lakers are the ones who are set to be the most affected by Musk’s crackdown on fake accounts, with 4.9 million of their 11.2 million followers estimated to be manufactured.

Musk’s plans could also massively affect the Golden State Warriors and the Chicago Bulls, with the two franchises each having an estimated 23.6 million and 2.0 million fake followers on Twitter, respectively.

The table below ranks all NBA teams in order of the number of followers potentially lost:

# Teams Number of Followers (Twitter) Percentage of Fake Followers Fake Follower Number
1 Los Angeles Lakers 11,168,725 43.5% 4,858,395
2 Golden State Warriors 8,012,942 45.3% 3,629,863
3 Chicago Bulls 4,721,589 41.4% 1,954,738
4 Miami Heat 5,047,765 37.5% 1,892,912
5 Boston Celtics 4,042,818 40.7% 1,645,427
6 San Antonio Spurs 3,522,767 41.6% 1,465,471
7 Cleveland Cavaliers 3,329,026 41.2% 1,371,559
8 Houston Rockets 3,244,142 38.7% 1,255,483
9 Oklahoma City Thunder 2,821,775 41.4% 1,168,215
10 Toronto Raptors 2,575,814 40.9% 1,053,508
11 Philadelphia 76ers 2,262,284 42.6% 963,733
12 New York Knicks 2,445,679 35.1% 858,433
13 Dallas Mavericks 2,160,741 36.6% 790,831
14 Los Angeles Clippers 1,952,472 38.9% 759,512
15 Milwaukee Bucks 1,915,883 39.6% 758,690
16 Brooklyn Nets 1,915,369 37.5% 718,263
17 Phoenix Suns 1,607,801 42.1% 676,884
18 Portland Trail Blazers 1,530,122 43.8% 670,193
19 Orlando Magic 1,602,737 39.4% 631,478
20 Atlanta Hawks 1,540,252 39.0% 600,698
21 Indiana Pacers 1,410,302 41.3% 582,455
22 Memphis Grizzlies 1,509,872 37.2% 561,672
23 Washington Wizards 1,249,316 42.6% 532,209
24 Utah Jazz 1,240,423 42.0% 520,978
25 Denver Nuggets 1,318,500 39.2% 516,852
26 Minnesota Timberwolves 1,218,652 41.3% 503,303
27 New Orleans Pelicans 1,329,038 36.9% 490,415
28 Charlotte Hornets 1,187,752 38.9% 462,036
29 Sacramento Kings 1,215,572 38.0% 461,917
30 Detroit Pistons 1,101,178 36.6% 403,031

If you’d like to find out more about Gambling.com or some of their other research, please visit: https://www.gambling.com/us

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Methodology

To collect the data, Gambling.com ran the Twitter accounts of every team in the NBA through SparkToro’s fake follower audit tool. This took a sample of 2,000 random followers and ran diagnostics found to strongly correlate with these types of fake followers (bots, spam accounts, inactive users, propaganda, or other non-engaged/non-real users).

Data is accurate as of 8th December 2022.

About Gambling.com

Gambling.com is the flagship brand for Nasdaq-listed Gambling.com Group (GAMB); a multi-award-winning provider of digital marketing services for the global, regulated online gambling industry. The Group publishes informational portals that offer comparisons and reviews of regulated online gambling websites around the world. Gambling.com Group is a media company that does not offer actual gambling services but helps online sportsbooks and casino operators acquire players. The group was US founded by Charles Gillespie (CEO) and Kevin McCrystle (COO) in 2006 and has offices in Charlotte, NC; Tampa, FL; Dublin, Ireland; and Malta