Helping everyone play together, even when apart.
1 Billion Dribbles. 100 Million Shots. 200 Countries.
If you would have asked us back in July 2018 when we first launched that HomeCourt would have tracked over 1 billion dribbles and 100 million shots all over the world, we would have been extremely flattered but in disbelief. Yet, here we are.
Since then, our community has expanded well beyond basketball. Over these past few months, we have welcomed over a million new users from all different sports and fitness communities onto our platform. From international footballers to olympian badminton players to roller derby enthusiasts and everything in-between. It still amazes us to see something that started out as a simple idea resonate with so many communities from all over the world.
We are so excited to continue this journey, but this month, we also wanted to take the time to remember where we started and celebrate one of our first users, Lanie Grant, who has inspired us from day one with her work ethic and passion for the game.
What started with players like Lanie and our impassioned early users has now exploded into a truly global network of players, coaches, trainers, teachers, camps, academies, and schools. Supporting this expanding community has our complete focus and attention, and we can’t wait to serve you even better now and for years to come.
Announcing Return to Play @Home
Starting today and throughout the fall sports season HomeCourt will be enabling a global community-first initiative in three core ways:
- Helping every community connect their network of players via HomeCourt for Teams by providing reduced pricing and TeamSnap integration.
- Keeping more of HomeCourt for free for everyone by unlocking more than 50% of all activities including all NBA-related programming.
- Activating everyone at home during the restart of the NBA and WNBA season through a Restart @Home global community and Jr.NBA Skills Challenge.
Community First
Sports has always been about more than just personal development and individual team success. Sports is also about community and social connections. With COVID-19 continuing to impact youth sports organizations, schools and their athletic departments, and the players and families they serve—many of these invaluable social touchpoints are being disrupted. Now more than ever, we miss the connection that sports provides for our communities.
While we can’t bring back normal sports play, through technology, we can help everyone play sports together even when they are apart.
In June we launched HomeCourt for Teams. Just like playing Fortnite or NBA2K with friends from anywhere, HomeCourt for Teams brings the same type of e-sports experience to physical sports with social features like local leaderboards, notifications, and commenting to help teams and communities stay connected through their sport.
Hundreds of teams all over the world have joined the HomeCourt platform. Organizations like the LA Clippers and 76ers are utilizing our teams feature to host their virtual camps this summer.
In addition, we are also excited to help the Jr. NBA Global Championships, Spokane HoopFest, and Cal State Games take their tournaments virtual on HomeCourt in August. We even launched our own HomeCourt Global Camp as a first-of-its-kind interactive camp program where campers from over 70 countries have recorded nearly 20m dribbles and over 700k shots in just one month.
From clubs, to camps, to virtual tournaments—players on HomeCourt don’t have to workout in isolation. You’re always connected with your friends, teammates, and other players like you from around the world.
Helping Every Community Connect
For any team, group, or school that wants to offer HomeCourt for their community, we are making group purchases of HomeCourt subscriptions only $1.50 per month per player for a yearly subscription (75% off). We are also offering a $2 per month per player option for groups that only want a 3-month pass for the fall.
To support more teams on HomeCourt, we are also launching an integration with TeamSnap, making it super easy to set up your team and get your existing roster of players onto HomeCourt through one simple sign-in. Learn more about our TeamSnap integration here.
Over the next month, we will also be making our team and community features even more accessible and useful for larger organizations and expand the use cases for soccer teams.
Keeping More of HomeCourt Free
In March, to support our community, we unlocked all of HomeCourt to help everyone #stayinthegame as we collectively took on the first wave of COVID-19. It is clear that we are not out of the woods yet going into the fall. Families are bearing the brunt of this uncertainty especially with the back-to-school season in full swing and return to fall sports up-in-the-air in many locales.
To continue to support our global community, we have unlocked ~50% of the HomeCourt app to help everyone return to play together. This also includes NBA, WNBA, and Jr.NBA programming on HomeCourt.
NBA Restart @Home
To enable these community connections and celebrate the return of professional sports, including the NBA and WNBA seasons, we’re launching a global Restart @Home initiative.
This includes all-new interactive content developed jointly with the NBA and WNBA as well as pro athlete challenges and competitions that will be hosted using the same community engagement features available to teams everywhere. Anyone can join the NBA Restart@Home community on HomeCourt here.
You can learn more about our Restart @Home initiative here.
Game on!
We have to keep the lights on like everyone else, but we know we are only as strong as our community and want to continue to play our part in supporting youth sports at home during this crisis.
We hope everyone can continue to connect, play, and share the same passion for sports we see from young players like Lanie Grant to the pro athletes so many of us aspire to emulate. Let’s build on this moment together.
HomeCourt
