Basketball Australia transfers online activities to new digital home

In a move to unify the Australian basketball digital community, Basketball Australia is shifting to a new home at www.australia.basketball while the four national men’s and women’s teams will transition to new domains at boomers.basketball, opals.basketball, gliders.basketball and rollers.basketball.

The transition follows the world governing body’s move to FIBA.basketball in late 2017 with .basketball now the top level domain name and one of the most sought-after real estate in the online world.

Explaining the migration is the first step toward .basketball being offered to the broader Australian basketball community, Basketball Australia Chairman, Ned Coten stated “bringing people together and uniting our community is a powerful motivator for the move to .basketball.

“This domain defines the sport we love. Nothing could be clearer, simpler or more fitting, and we’re thrilled for the sport to have its own domain online.”

This digital revolution will deliver exciting benefits to the Australian basketball community with the .basketball domain:

• Accelerating the promotion of Australia’s basketball and stakeholder brands in a safe, secure and controlled environment

• Promoting the sport and unifying Australian basketball (as part of the global community) under a common banner online

• Ensuring the rights of basketball stakeholders are preserved by keeping domain-name squatters at bay

• Linking all participants in Australia via a specific identity and creating a recognisable digital space for all basketball-related activities online.

The process to obtain the .basketball domain began in 2012 when FIBA partnered with Roar Domains, a US-based company focused on the commercialisation of sports-related Top Level Domains, to submit its application.

Aware of the fact that domain names including .com, .net and .org were reaching saturation point, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was expanding the portfolio by making certain words available to the private sector as a generic top-level domain (gTLD).

FIBA and Roar Domains moved to secure .basketball and were successful following an extensive application process.

FIBA’s Communications Director Patrick Koller congratulated Australia on the move, adding “FIBA is thrilled that another member of the basketball family, Basketball Australia, is embracing our new digital identity.

“This is a place where the whole basketball community can feel welcome, and which will only grow from here.”