Sports are a major way people across the globe build community and bond with one another. In North America alone, the consistently-growing industry is projected to reach a valuation of over $83 billion this year.
Highlighting the U.S. basketball community, Irvine-based Ballislife secured a $2.7 million Series A raise backed by lead investor Oakvale Sports Investco. Offering an array of content geared toward basketball fans, the online sports media platform plans to accelerate its vision with the new capital.
“Basketball is a sport where you can go just about anywhere in the world and play the game with people who don’t even speak the same language as you,” Matt Rodriguez, Ballislife’s CEO and co-founder, told Built in via email. “We look at basketball as one culture that looks beyond the color of your skin, the language you speak or what your socioeconomic background is. That is the same vision we pursue in being a platform that represents all [kinds] of basketball.”
Ballislife specializes in basketball-focused content production and distribution as well as event management. The company created a one-stop-shop where fans can read news, listen to podcasts and view profiles of their favorite players from any era, whether they’re high school, college, professional or streetball players.
In addition to its content offerings, Ballislife offers a line of apparel on its digital marketplace, and it hosts in-person events that focus on the joy of playing ball. Some of its events include the Ballislife All-American Game, Ballislife Jr. All-American Camp and the Eastbay Funk Dunk Contest.
The company began hosting events back in 2011 with its boy’s high school All-American game. It held one event per year for nine consecutive years as a way to give back to the athletes the Ballislife team followed throughout their high school careers, Rodriguez said. In 2022 alone, Ballislife held 15 events, including its 5v5 best of five streetball series and its 1v1 best of three King of The Court series.
As evidenced by its much busier event schedule, the company has grown significantly from its humble beginnings in 2005. Ballislife started out as a “mixtape” company where the foundering team spent much of their time converting physical tapes into digital copies. The company was even one of the first partner accounts on YouTube, according to Rodriguez.
“In our early days, we spent a lot of time on the road, in airports and in every type of hotel you can think of. When you have a passion for something like we do, you’ll do whatever you can to make it your career,” Rodriguez said. “The struggle of filming all day on tapes [and] then getting back to your home office to convert those tapes into digital video files was something many folks of today won’t know. If you didn’t convert those tapes efficiently you could find yourself with quite the backlog before you know it.”
Today, Ballislife is known by many as a basketball lifestyle brand that’s drummed up more than 5.8 billion video views across its platform and channels. As the company continues to grow, Ballislife will put its new funding toward monetizing its existing properties.
Ballislife achieved more than 940 percent year-over-year growth in revenue of partnership deals in 2022, according to the company. It wants to build on the success of its existing marketing partnerships with brands like Nike, Red Bull, Amazon, Chime and Adidas, as well as expand its athlete influencer network.
