HomeCourt is Now Free to Play
Today, we are excited to announce that HomeCourt will now be free to play for everyone moving forward.
We’re unlocking the full library of over 140 unique HomeCourt drills, activities, and experiences, so everyone can get in the game. We’re also removing limits on shot tracking and real-time analytics so there are absolutely no barriers to getting up more, and better shots with HomeCourt.
The effects of the global pandemic have impacted our lives in countless ways. With COVID surging once again many communities are restricted, and in some cases blocked altogether from restarting in-person sports activities. High contact sports like basketball in particular have been denied a consistent return to play.
During the first wave of COVID this past spring we saw an incredible response from the community to engage in sports virtually through HomeCourt. We made HomeCourt free at that time so that anyone could stay active, practice safely at home, and continue to connect with their teams. As more than a million users signed up for HomeCourt for the first time, we realized there was a bigger role for our product to play in the sports community and we made significant investments over the summer to enable even better virtual engagement.
We also learned that accessibility is not only our core value, it’s our super power. Democratizing access to HomeCourt by making it free for youth athletes everywhere was, in many cases, the thing that kept the basketball community going. This was true even in places around the world that we never expected to see such rapid adoption.
Making HomeCourt available for free aligned perfectly with our values and our mission — to unlock athletic potential in everyone, regardless of their access to coaching, facilities, or formal programming. We quickly came to realize that if we continue to prioritize those values, the rest will take care of itself and that our business will grow (and thrive) even if many of our users never sign up for one of our paid subscription plans.
With this change, we believe everyone’s experience on HomeCourt will be better. Young players can get started more easily and see the benefits right away, more advanced players can access drills that push them further, and coaches, clubs, and camps everywhere can better enable their communities at scale.
Introducing A New Club for Committed Players
We also believe this shift will benefit our Premium subscribers, and we’re making a number of investments to provide them with even more value.
Starting this December we’ll be evolving and enhancing our current subscription with a new membership concept that adds additional benefits for the players and athletes that are committed to their craft and want to train year-round. This new membership caters to the grinders, the hustlers, the truly ambitious young athletes that want to work out with the best and be pushed to the next level.
The new membership will provide the following benefits:
- Workout Storage and Analytics: Access to your full workout history including long-term data and analytics, so you can track how you’re progressing over time. Free-to-play users can access their last 2-months of activity, club members will get unlimited year-round access.
- Exclusive Experiences: Providing a members-only training community that provides two-way interaction and feedback with guest coaches and NBA-level trainers. The community will include curated training drills, challenges, tips, and techniques for those that want to refine their skills and compete day-in and day-out. This is a virtual space where thousands of ambitious athletes can connect and push each other.
- Members-Only Rewards: Members will enjoy exclusive rewards like discounts on gear, apparel, and an expanding library of unique experiences and perks into the future.
- Premium Programming: Continued access to long-form training programs like HomeCourt Global Camp, and family-sharing benefits for up to 4 family members.
No Change in Pricing
There is no change in pricing for existing subscribers and the transition will be seamless—you’ll instantly get these new member benefits when they launch. If you’re new to HomeCourt and want to sign up early for the new experience you can subscribe today and you’ll get all the new benefits in December automatically. Even with all the new benefits, pricing will remain $69.99 per year.
Also, with the more open nature of HomeCourt, it will now be easier for subscribers to invite more family members, friends, and teammates to join in the experience. Whether you subscribe to our new membership or use the free-to-play experience, everyone benefits and wins.
Team Pricing Remains at $1.50 per player/per month.
We also have many teams and organizations around the world who have subscribed to HomeCourt and have created amazing experiences for their players. We’ve seen groups large and small activate their communities on HomeCourt — college programs like the University of Virginia and Folsom Lake College, community programs like Spokane Hoopfest and DistinXion, NBA communities like the Jr. NBA, NBA Academies, and even NBA teams like the Kings, Blazers, 76ers, Clippers, Thunder, and more.
We want to enable these organizations to grow even more on HomeCourt so we’re unlocking the full library of activities for them as well. However, to provide the best support and experience we will continue to offer our Team plans and group pricing options. Team subscription plans will continue to provide direct, personal support from the HomeCourt team and access to all the new membership benefits for their players. These plans will remain a significant discount over our individual membership plans and will continue to cost just $1.50 per player/per month.
And, even if your organization or team wants to distribute the free product without these new member benefits — you’re still getting the same quality HomeCourt drills, features, and community curation capabilities right out of the box.
To learn more about our membership offerings and stay in the loop check out our website at homecourt.ai/membership.
One more thing…
In addition to making HomeCourt free for everyone, we’re also excited to announce that we’re bringing the same technology deployed for this year’s 2020 NBA Draft Combine to players and teams everywhere through a new HomeCourt Virtual Showcase experience. It’s the best way to evaluate skills in the run-up to the basketball season and for players to get exposure to coaches and scouts. There is a Combine experience for every experience level with the Jr. NBA Combine and the Varsity Combine on HomeCourt. All you need is an iPhone or iPad to participate. Coaches can also activate their entire roster in the Combine through a turnkey integration with TeamSnap.
We couldn’t be more excited to open up HomeCourt to more players, and we encourage everyone in the community to share HomeCourt and invite their friends, family, and teammates to engage.
If you have any questions about the new direction, be sure to visit our website at homecourt.ai, and for details on the new membership visit homecourt.ai/membership. We also encourage you to sign up for our newsletter and follow our social channels. We’ll be making updates throughout the fall and into the winter on the new membership benefits and other great new programming coming to HomeCourt.
Have a great season and see you on HomeCourt.
