With the NBA All-Star game being played over the weekend, the Threads team took the opportunity to enhance its connection with sports fans, by hosting a significant presence at the event, and launching its first-ever in-stream mini-game based on the basketball theme.

Threads’ in-stream basketball game enables users to tap on the screen to shoot the ball, and attempt to get baskets in the app. Threads users were able to access the game by sending a basketball emoji in a DM, then tapping on that emoji after sending, which activates the mini-game.

You could then also celebrate your high scores by sending them through in a post.

Or most people could. Some users just got an error message saying that they needed to re-download the app, while others experienced glitches with the activation.

But either way, conceptually, it’s a simple but engaging way to celebrate the basketball theme, giving Threads users a way to participate in the event, and ideally help Threads make sports engagement a bigger focus. Threads’ basketball mini-game was first spotted in testing last month, and it could be the first of many themed game options to enhance seasonal participation.

Because sports is a major element of real-time discussion and engagement, with sports being the most discussed topic on X, by a significant margin.

If Threads wants to unseat X as the home of real-time discussion, then it needs to win over sports communities, which is why it’s now making sports events a bigger focus, and working with sports leagues to highlight the benefits of the app.

Threads also had a big presence at the Super Bowl, and given the importance of sports communities, you can expect to see a lot more Threads branding around major sports events, and likely many more influencers coming across to try out the app.

For example, during the NBA All-Star game, Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green partnered with Threads to promote its new Dear Algo algorithm guidance tool, to help users find more relevant content.

Expect to see more partnerships like this, while mini-games could also be a winner, with LinkedIn’s mini-games already seeing solid levels of engagement.

It’s something for sports marketers to keep an eye on either way as Threads looks to make a bigger move into X’s territory.