FIBA has agreed an exclusive immersive live rights deal for 3×3 basketball with ticketed social presence platform L1VE that will cover the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, Women’s Series, and World Cup.
Immersive live rights are a new class of media rights, and allow FIBA’s 3×3 basketball events to open an additional platform that complements existing broadcast and streaming activities. It creates a new engagement opportunity for fans who cannot be inside the venue, giving them another way to experience the live event.
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in New York, with its research and development in Germany, L1VE is the company behind social presence in the new rights category. It also owns a proprietary glass-to-glass technology stack and a direct-to-fan platform.
L1VE runs on every major immersive headset and one production reaches every fan at once. Its proprietary technology captures a full venue of live experience in stereoscopic 360° 3D; a real-time pipeline then fuses it into a single live scene; and a custom delivery layer keeps every fan worldwide present at the same moment.
Fans can invite friends to watch alongside them, wherever they are in the world. Tickets are available for a single day of competition, or as a tournament pass covering the full event, in the same way a fan would buy a ticket to attend in person.
Upcoming FIBA Events
L1VE will be in action for the first time at the upcoming FIBA 3×3 World Tour 2026 event in Debrecen, Hungary, on August 29—30. Fans will be able to access the experience by downloading the L1VE app on a compatible virtual reality headset at l1ve.com.
Over the course of the three-year agreement, the platform will be rolled out across FIBA’s flagship 3×3 basketball events, including the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series and the FIBA 3×3 World Cup.
“3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans,” said FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director Alex Sanchez. “Working with L1VE over the next three seasons, we are exploring new ways for audiences around the world to experience the intensity and energetic setting of our events”
“3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world,” said L1VE Chief Commercial Officer David Morgenbesser. “One court, non-stop, right in your face. That makes it a natural fit for L1VE. Over the next three years, we want to give fans a new way to be there, courtside, inside the atmosphere and sharing the real game with the people they want beside them, wherever they are in the world.”
Other Immersive Rights Deals and Broadcasts
L1VE’s platform has already been used for major live sports and music events internationally, including football, tennis, soccer, and music tours.
The Detroit Lions recently became the first NFL team to license immersive live rights by partnering with L1VE. That partnership officially launched on August 22, when the team played a pre-season game against the Washington Commanders at Ford Field.
L1VE events debuted in soccer on August 1 with a pre-season friendly match between Real Madrid and Fiorentina — a game that was only available to experience on L1VE and not on broadcast or streaming platforms.
The platform is producing immersive events with rights holders across soccer, tennis, motorsport, basketball, and winter sports, including productions around the UEFA Champions League, ATP Tour, Formula E, and MotoGP. In music, L1VE also produced its own live format called L1VE Unlimited, across concerts and festivals with real spatial sound.
Away from L1VE, Ascot Racecourse in the UK debuted the world’s first live ultra-high-resolution immersive broadcast of a horse racing event earlier this year. Ascot Racecourse partnered with Racecourse, RaceTech, Ateme, Focal Point VR Ltd, and Bluebell Opticon to bring audiences closer to the action through workflows designed for next-generation immersive video.
Euroleague Basketball Immersive Experiences
This month, Euroleague Basketball announced an immersive experiences partnership of its own with global sports technology company Sportradar, extending their data and audiovisual betting rights agreement until 2031. The rights were originally secured as part of Sportradar’s acquisition of sports data and technology company IMG Arena in 2025.
The agreement renewal begins with the upcoming 2026-27 season and extends Sportradar’s exclusive global distribution of Euroleague Basketball official data and AV betting rights through 2031. The deal covers more than 650 games annually across EuroLeague and BKT EuroCup competitions.
As part of the collaboration, Sportradar will continue to provide advanced data capabilities, proprietary technology, and its product suite to Euroleague Basketball to accelerate innovation and drive fan engagement. This will include expanded micro betting and player markets to help basketball fans connect globally with the league and their favorite teams and players, while also providing integrity services such as bet monitoring and education workshops to strengthen awareness and help prevent match-fixing.
Sportsradar’s other basketball partners include the NBA, WNBA, NBL Australia, NBB Brazil, CBA China, LNB France, GBL Greece, LBA Italy, and ACB Spain.
Immersive Live-Events Market Potential
Analysts are predicting that the immersive live-events market will more than triple in value, from roughly $8 billion in 2024 to over $33 billion by 2030. In the meantime, Gensler Research Institute’s 2025 Immersive Entertainment & Culture Industry Report estimated that the global broader market for immersive entertainment was valued at $133 billion and was projected to reach $476 billion in the next four years.
“As AI makes content infinite, the one thing that stays scarce is reality: live moments, shared, that can never happen twice,” said L1VE Co-Founder and CEO Holger Hansen, at a social presence launch event in July. “That’s what L1VE is built to deliver.”
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