MIES, Switzerland - FIBA's official website FIBA.com has become
FIBA.basketball after the International Basketball Federation on
Thursday officially launched the .basketball domain name.
FIBA is among the very few international federations to have applied
and successfully secured the Top Level Domain (TLD) named after its
sport. As a result, basketball's world governing body is now in a
position to provide all of the sport's stakeholders and fans with a
trusted and secure domain space that is consistent with industry
standard service levels.
FIBA Secretary General
and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Patrick Baumann said:
"The .basketball domain is ideal because it is clear, specific, has a
global scale and reach and defines the sport. Ensuring that .basketball
is kept within the sport for the benefit of the global basketball
community is fully in line with one of FIBA's missions - that of
bringing people together and uniting the community."
The process to obtain the .basketball domain began in 2012, when FIBA
partnered with Roar Domains, a US-based company focused on the
commercialization 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, FIBA and
Roar Domains jumped at the chance of securing .basketball when 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).
Following an extensive process, FIBA and Roar Domains were informed of the successful outcome of their application.
Roar Founder and Chairman Ryan Nelsen congratulated FIBA on the launch
of the FIBA.basketball website, and said it was a tribute to FIBA's
vision for the future: "Creating a global digital identity for
basketball is an historic step that will unify, protect and promote the
sport for its Federations, Clubs, players and everyone in the Basketball
community. We look forward to working with FIBA to strengthen the
basketball digital identity online and strengthening links within the
community."
Roar Co-Founder Hamish Miller said:
"FIBA's commitment to uniting and developing the basketball world with
its powerful new domain makes them a great partner for Roar. We are
delighted to be working with FIBA to enhance basketball community
members' digital presence, identity and security through the .basketball
domain."
FIBA obtained the .basketball domain with a view to:
Accelerate the promotion of basketball and stakeholder brands in a
controlled environment;Promote the sport and unify the global community
online under a common banner;Make sure the rights of privileged
basketball stakeholders are preserved;Link all participants via a
specific identity and create a recognizable digital space for all
basketball-related activities online.
FIBA expects the global
basketball community to embrace .basketball and is offering priority
access to the domain names to its 213 National Federations and their
members (leagues, clubs, players, etc.) as well as key stakeholders. The
general public will have the chance to avail of the trusted and secure
domain in 2018.
