The App Connecting Basketball Players In Liverpool And Worldwide

App Connecting Basketball Players in Liverpool and Worldwide

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Looking for a basketball playground and fellow players? With Pick-Roll App everybody can meet and challenge passionate teammates around the world.

Pick-Roll is the very first geolocated App dedicated to basketball: created to find playgrounds, arenas, gyms and specialized shops nearby, but also playmates. Pick-Roll is the innovative Italian startup founded by Dario Ferretti, an enthusiast player, that connects players in UK, with 40 playgrounds, but also Italy, USA and many more.

With more than 100,000 registered users and 50,000 active users worldwide, and with a fundraising campaign of 500,000 euros ongoing, Pick-Roll aims to expand internationally to connect more and more basketball lovers and contribute to the regeneration of urban areas.

Milan, 2024 - Followed by over 2 billion people, basketball ranks in the top 3 of the most beloved sports in the entire world. This game is gaining more and more popularity in the UK too, especially among the youngest generations. Indeed, during this year the UK is showing positive signs of growth: between 2022 and 2023, children’s participation in basketball increased to 16.3%, a figure that is expected to rise further. Also, in northern Europe, the basketball market is expected to reach a value of 19.66 million dollars by the end of 2024.

The passion of those who play this sport at amateur level boosted its popularity even more, favoring the spread of public playgrounds in major cities. But often there is a lack of adequate facilities, and that's why it isn't easy to find a playing field in good condition or companions and opponents to play with. That’s exactly why Pick-Roll (https://www.pick-roll.com/) was born, an innovative Italian startup that aims to simplify basketball fans looking for playing courts. The geolocalized App, developed by Dario Ferretti, shows users the nearest fields, lets them organize friendly matches and evaluate, by rating, teammates and opponents according to their skills.

Pick-Roll basketball courts spreading throughout the UK

Thanks to the geolocation system Pick-Roll helps its users to find playgrounds and playmates but also allows them to enter the location of a field, arena or gym and add useful information, such as the presence of lighting, the number of baskets and the accessibility for disabled people. This App maps several playgrounds in the United Kingdom too, precisely 40 sites all over the Country. Many of them are located in London, Liverpool, Bath, Shepperton, Cambridge, Wembley, Eastbourne and so on.

To facilitate the aggregation between players, Pick-Roll added the check-in button: a tool that shows the player’s presence on a specific playing field at a specific time. This way other basketball lovers will have the chance to connect and get to that specific court to play together.

“The idea was to develop a useful application to support the amazing community of basketball fans and players. In addition to showing users existing playgrounds on the map and adding new ones, we implemented a special rating system, ranging from 1 to 99, to assess the level of teammates and opponents. The higher the rating of a player is, the more their profile will appear at the top of the global ranking”, says Pick-Roll CEO Dario Ferretti.

Pick-Roll Was Born from the passion of a basketball enthusiast

The idea of founding Pick-Roll is somehow intertwined with England. Indeed, an Italian basketball lover, Dario Ferretti - class 1986 -, had this idea during a stay in Bristol. Eager to shoot the ball, he realized that finding a playground in an unknown city was very difficult, and finding someone to play with could be even more tough. Back in Italy, he decided to dedicate himself to the development of this app named after a strategic pattern used in basketball: the “Pick and Roll”.

By using his knowledge in graphics and website programming, he developed the very first landing page online dedicated to courts mapping. Once he started promoting it on Facebook, hundreds of fans began to add playing fields on the website, giving shape to the very first map of basketball courts in Italy and everywhere abroad. The success of this initiative caught the attention of some professional clubs in Serie A and A2, who promptly understood the potential and the social utility of this project, which convinced them to share their own basketball courts to enrich the offer of facilities available on Pick-Roll.

In 2018, a software development company invested in this project that finally became a real startup. In May 2019, the application was officially launched and in 2022 it reached the break-even point. The resources collected through small accelerators have been crucial and with the opening of the very first round of funding (of 500,000 euros) in June 2024, they raised more than 50,000 euros for now. As yet Pick-Roll App collects more than 100,000 registered users and more than 50,000 active users from all over the world.

Several relevant partnerships through the years

For 4 years until now, Pick-Roll has been the official app of FIP (Italian Basketball Federation) for the 3 vs 3 circuit, which has become an Olympic discipline. This year too the startup was responsible for the registration of the Federalist 3 vs 3 summer tournaments (more than 100 throughout Italy) organized by the Federation. During these basketball themed events Pick-Roll sealed numerous important partnerships, including RedBull - of which the startup is the only media partner for Italy in the discipline 3 vs 3 - Decathlon, Puma, Foot Locker, Road House, Ferrero, Wilson and Anularis. They also included many important basketball industry affiliated brands like IYB - International Young Ballers, Enbiei, DNA Hopps e Linton Johnson.

Looking forward to future projects, Pick-Roll aims to integrate a freemium model that offers some advantages reserved for users in the highest positions of the ranking, including special meetings, events and opportunities with exclusive surprises. Furthermore, Pick-Roll has been selected, along with 15 other international startups, for the Euroleague Basketball FanXP 2024: a pioneering initiative in collaboration with Sportbiz Europe that aims to redefine the experience of basketball through innovative projects.

“For the future, we would like to consolidate as a reference point regarding the creation of connections between players, with a focus on socially useful projects. One of the initiatives we are most committed to, on which we are working together with local institutions, is the territorial re-qualification starting from basketball fields. The result of this synergy will be a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment that benefits not only basketball fans but the entire community", concludes Dario Ferretti.

Founded by Dario Ferretti in 2014, Pick-Roll is an innovative startup that aims to create connections between basketball players and facilitate the possibility of playing basketball.

Thanks to the geolocalized application, one can easily find nearby playgrounds, gyms, arenas and specialized shops, share their presence, and organize matches. Pick-Roll become a startup in 2018, launched the official application in 2019 and today aims to consolidate its positioning abroad.

Currently it is the official application of 3 vs 3 tournaments organized by FIP (Italian Basketball Federation), through which you can register and check the results of the tournaments. Since its inception, Pick-Roll has collaborated with major brands in the world of sports and not, contributing to the creation of events aimed at the basketball community; among them RedBull, Decathlon, Puma, Ferrero and many others. It has also recently launched a €500,000 campaign, of which €50,000 have already been raised.