The Story of Basement Sports

This is a 40 year Vision, of a little kid, who is now a big kid – and has finally put all of the pieces together to bring to life for others what made his childhood magical.

Kids aren’t getting enough exercise, and youth sports has gotten too serious.

Some dangerous trends are afoot in the U.S. and globally, which is the subject of a real, long-term health epidemic – childhood obesity, diabetes and other negative health indicators, which have carried on into adulthood as well.

Further, aside from the ‘cream of the crop’, many kids are starting to quit hyper-competitive youth sports, due to a number of factors, which leading Think Tanks like the Aspen Institute, with the support of role models like Kobe Bryant, expose well in their initiative Project Play.

Basement Sports is an answer to that need and gap in the lives of our children.

Now Is The Time

While things have gotten worse health-wise for kids, and the advancements of technology have in some ways made it harder for them to ‘get off the couch’, the confluence of mobile technology, widespread bandwidth accessibility and stay at home scenarios (ie. Work from Home, Home Schooling, Quarantining for Pandemics like COVID-19, and Weather elements) have made it clear to us that we need to take action of some kind.

Our Founder, Arman Rousta, helped his friends launch a 501c(3) Non-Profit Organization called Sips & Kicks several years back, which is doing very good things to help kids get a healthier start in school through fitness and nutrition options that they didn’t have before.

One Venture Exit Opens the Door for a New One to Open

Back in July 2019, when Arman headed up a successful sale of a company – Ajustco – he decided to make good on a vow that he had made to himself over 15 years back…that when he sold his next company, he would finally start Basement Sports. The day after the Ajustco sale, he gathered up his core team and began charting their course. They used some of the proceeds from the exit to get the App and Product development started.

In October 2019, the Blueliner Office League began, to test drive the alpha version of the App, as well as the actual toy products. Here’s a short video highlight reel from the first ever Basement Sports corporate league, which we hosted at our Lab in Jersey City. It was loads of fun for the Big Kids!

Gaming Platform

In May 2020, we brought this concept to the world, implementing a phased roll-out that started with America’s Pastime, Baseball. Soccer and Hockey were quick to follow, and Basketball is next up!

May 2020 – Basement Baseball entered the market with its iOS and Android Apps.
Summer 2020 – Basement Baseball Starter Kit made available for purchase.
November 2021 – the 2-in-1 Soccer/Hockey Starter Kit hits the market.
December 2021 – Basement Sports adds Soccer and Hockey functionality to the Basement Sports App.
Spring/Summer 2022 – Basement Sports rolls out additional features, including video streaming and the ability to create and manage custom fields, with more sports coming soon!

Our parent company – b.labs Ventures – has already invested over $200,000 in getting Basement Baseball ready for its introduction to the market. And they are standing behind us to support the launch marketing as well.

Our team is all-in on this game-changing idea, and we love the idea of having our fans and customers as co-owners at the early stage, where the greatest opportunity for growth and a sense of meaningful contribution lies.