MIES, Switzerland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FIBA has agreed an exclusive immersive live rights deal for 3×3 basketball with L1VE, covering the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, Women’s Series and World Cup, which will bring fans from around the world together and closer to the action in real time.

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 a new way to experience the live event.

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in New York, with its research & development in Germany, L1VE is the company behind social presence and a pioneer of this 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 scales like software: 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 fuses it into a single live scene, and a custom delivery layer keeps every fan worldwide present at the exact 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.

The platform has already been used for major live sport and music events internationally, and pre-launched with the Detroit Lions on August 22.

L1VE will be in action for the first time at the upcoming FIBA 3×3 World Tour event in Debrecen, Hungary on August 29 and 30. Fans can 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, bringing fans closer to the action at the discipline’s biggest events worldwide.

Alex Sanchez, FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director, stated: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.’’

David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer, L1VE commented: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

The L1VE experience is designed to be shared. Fans watch the game live from a courtside perspective, seeing and hearing the action as it unfolds, and can react to every dunk and buzzer-beater alongside the friends they have invited, regardless of where in the world those friends are located.

About FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball

Exciting, urban and innovative, 3×3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport. Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.

It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and has since benefited from the launch of yearly professional circuits for men and women (World Tour and Women’s Series respectively) as well as national team competitions. 3×3 made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

About L1VE

L1VE is the company behind Social Presence, a new ticketed experience that allows fans to enjoy immersive live sports and music events together, from anywhere. Founded in 2022, L1VE owns a proprietary glass-to-glass technology stack and a direct-to-fan platform, and is the creator of immersive live rights, a new licensable class of media rights alongside broadcast and streaming. L1VE is headquartered in New York, with R&D in Germany.

Official Hub: You can view company announcements and details via the L1VE Official Website.

FIBA and L1VE Agree to Exclusive 3×3 Basketball Immersive Live Rights Deal

The three-year deal brings on board a new class of media rights built around social presence.

FIBA has agreed an exclusive immersive live rights deal for 3×3 basketball with L1VE, covering the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, Women’s Series and World Cup, which will bring fans from around the world together and closer to the action in real time.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260825602596/en/

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 a new way to experience the live event.

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in New York, with its research & development in Germany, L1VE is the company behind social presence and a pioneer of this 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 scales like software: 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 fuses it into a single live scene, and a custom delivery layer keeps every fan worldwide present at the exact 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.

The platform has already been used for major live sport and music events internationally, and pre-launched with the Detroit Lions on August 22.

L1VE will be in action for the first time at the upcoming FIBA 3×3 World Tour event in Debrecen, Hungary on August 29 and 30. Fans can 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, bringing fans closer to the action at the discipline’s biggest events worldwide.

Alex Sanchez, FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director, stated: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.’’

David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer, L1VE commented: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

The L1VE experience is designed to be shared. Fans watch the game live from a courtside perspective, seeing and hearing the action as it unfolds, and can react to every dunk and buzzer-beater alongside the friends they have invited, regardless of where in the world those friends are located.

About FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball

Exciting, urban and innovative, 3×3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport. Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.

It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and has since benefited from the launch of yearly professional circuits for men and women (World Tour and Women’s Series respectively) as well as national team competitions. 3×3 made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

About L1VE

L1VE is the company behind Social Presence, a new ticketed experience that allows fans to enjoy immersive live sports and music events together, from anywhere. Founded in 2022, L1VE owns a proprietary glass-to-glass technology stack and a direct-to-fan platform, and is the creator of immersive live rights, a new licensable class of media rights alongside broadcast and streaming. L1VE is headquartered in New York, with R&D in Germany.

Official Hub: You can view company announcements and details via the L1VE Official Website.

L1VE@orchestraco.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260825602596/en/

FIBA granted L1VE exclusive immersive live rights to its three flagship 3×3 basketball properties in a three-year agreement announced from Mies, Switzerland on August 25, 2026, with the first deployment scheduled for a World Tour stop in Hungary four days later.

The International Basketball Federation has licensed a category of media right that did not exist as a line item three years ago. According to FIBA, the agreement with L1VE covers the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series and the FIBA 3×3 World Cup, and runs for three seasons. No financial terms were disclosed. No minimum event count was published. The announcement was issued at 4:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday, August 25, 2026.

What makes the deal worth the attention of media buyers is not the property. 3×3 basketball is a small discipline by rights-fee standards, well below the football and North American league packages that anchor most sports media plans. What matters is the structure. FIBA has carved a fourth distribution window out of its inventory and sold it separately, on an exclusive basis, to a company that owns both the capture technology and the consumer relationship at the other end of it.

What the agreement covers

According to FIBA, immersive live rights constitute a new class of media rights that allows 3×3 events to open an additional platform complementing existing broadcast and streaming activities. The federation frames the arrangement as additive rather than substitutive. Nothing in the announcement indicates that any broadcast or streaming partner loses anything as a result.

The stated purpose is reach into an audience that conventional distribution does not serve well. FIBA describes the platform as creating an engagement opportunity for fans who cannot be inside the venue, giving them a different way to experience the live event. That framing places the product closer to a ticket than to a broadcast, which turns out to be exactly how it is sold.

Alex Sanchez, FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director, stated: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.”

Over the course of the three-year agreement, according to FIBA, the platform will be rolled out across the federation’s flagship 3×3 events. The World Tour is the men’s professional circuit, the Women’s Series its counterpart, and the World Cup the national-team competition. The release does not specify how many events within each property are covered, whether coverage is global or territory-limited, or what happens to the rights at Olympic events, where the International Olympic Committee rather than FIBA controls distribution.

How the capture and delivery stack works

L1VE was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in New York, with research and development in Germany. According to the company, it owns a proprietary glass-to-glass technology stack and a direct-to-fan platform, and it positions itself as the originator of immersive live rights as a licensable category.

The technical description in the announcement is specific in parts and vague in others. According to L1VE, its technology captures a full venue of live experience in stereoscopic 360-degree 3D, a real-time pipeline fuses that capture into a single live scene, and a custom delivery layer keeps every fan worldwide present at the same moment. The company states that the platform runs on every major immersive headset and scales like software, with one production reaching every fan at once.

That last claim carries the commercial weight. Conventional live sports production scales by adding output: separate feeds for separate broadcasters, separate commentary tracks, separate graphics packages, separate regional advertising breaks. Production capacity is a physical constraint on how much premium live inventory exists in any given week, a point visible in the specification of the outside broadcast units now entering service across European markets, where a single vehicle carries 24 cameras expandable to 48. A single-production model that serves an unbounded audience inverts that arithmetic, at least in principle. The announcement provides no concurrency figure, no bandwidth requirement and no latency measurement against which the claim can be tested.

Nor does it name a single headset. “Every major immersive headset” is asserted without a device list, an operating system requirement or a minimum specification, and no install-base figure appears anywhere in the source material. Fans access the experience by downloading the L1VE app on a compatible virtual reality headset.

Debrecen is the first live test

L1VE will be in action for the first time under the FIBA agreement at the 3×3 World Tour event in Debrecen, Hungary on August 29 and 30, 2026. That is four days after the announcement, an unusually short runway between a rights announcement and its first execution.

The commercial model is ticketing, not advertising. According to L1VE, 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. No price points appear in the announcement. No revenue split between the federation and the platform is disclosed.

Social mechanics sit at the centre of the product. Fans can invite friends to watch alongside them regardless of location, and the company describes the experience as designed to be shared, with viewers reacting to play alongside the friends they have invited. L1VE markets the underlying capability as Social Presence.

David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer at L1VE, commented: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

An inconsistency in the launch sequence

The source material carries a small chronological discrepancy worth noting. The FIBA announcement states that the platform has already been used for major live sport and music events internationally, and that it pre-launched with the Detroit Lions on August 22. A separate L1VE announcement in the same newsroom states that L1VE events launch on August 1, beginning with a Real Madrid friendly against Fiorentina available only through the platform.

An August 22 pre-launch sitting three weeks after an August 1 launch, and after a stated history of international deployments, does not resolve cleanly. The company has not published an event log, so the number of productions delivered before the FIBA agreement cannot be established from the available documents. According to L1VE, the Detroit Lions named the company their Official Immersive Partner, with fans able to experience games from inside the stadium starting with the preseason fixture at Ford Field on August 22.

No advertising layer, yet

For marketers, the most consequential feature of the announcement is an absence. There is no advertising product here. No inventory is described, no format is named, no measurement partner is identified, no sponsorship position is offered. The revenue mechanism disclosed is consumer payment for access.

That places the product in the same commercial family as the direct-to-consumer subscription launches that have accumulated through 2026. USA TODAY Sports began charging $39.99 a year for fantasy football tools on August 11, and MS NOW opened a paid membership at $7.99 a month on August 19, both routing next-dollar revenue through a paid relationship rather than an impression. A ticketed headset feed follows the same logic applied to a live rights holder rather than a publisher.

The gap is not necessarily permanent. Courtside virtual positions, branded environments, half-time takeovers and hoarding replacement are all technically available to a stack that composites a venue into a single synthetic scene. None of them is mentioned. Whether L1VE intends to open commercial positions, and on what terms, is not addressed in the announcement, and no rate card exists for a category with no measured audience.

Where this sits in the live sports economy

Live sport has become the contested ground in video advertising, and the figures behind that contest are well documented. Gracenote research found that sports content reached 5% of all programming across the six leading global subscription services in the second quarter of 2026, close to a tripling of the 1.4% share recorded in November 2024. Video Advertising Bureau research found NFL streaming reaching 76% of streaming sports viewers, up from 72% two years earlier, with WNBA viewership up 56% across the same interval. Nielsen’s 2026 upfront planning guide placed streaming at 66.7% of ad-supported television time among adults aged 18 to 49, with sports at close to 30% of ad-supported viewing in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Rights holders have responded by lengthening and layering their deals rather than simplifying them. Amazon extended UEFA Champions League rights to 2031 in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, and its advertising leadership has described Prime Video and live sports as a single full-funnel business rather than two inventory pools. The buying rails have adapted alongside: Disney opened real-time bidding on live streaming inventory to four platforms, and Magnite documented bid-volume handling for live football in March 2026.

Every one of those developments assumes a screen that a measurement panel can observe. A headset does not qualify. Free ad-supported streaming television is counted, imperfectly, and so are FAST channels and the vMVPD services that sit beside them. Immersive viewing appears in none of the currencies that settle television money. Nielsen’s monthly Gauge divides watch-time between broadcast, cable, streaming and a residual category for other uses of the television set, and the industry spent the first half of 2026 arguing over the weighting inside that instrument rather than over what it fails to capture at all.

Why 3×3, and why now

The choice of property is legible. According to FIBA, 3×3 was played for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, added yearly professional circuits for men and women, and made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Games are played by two teams of three on a half-court, with a single basket.

Three structural features make it convenient for a fixed-position immersive capture. The playing area is half the size of a full court, so a single vantage point covers the entire field of play. The format is continuous, which removes the editorial decisions that multi-camera direction exists to make. And events are staged as temporary urban builds rather than in permanent arenas, which means the venue can be configured around the capture rather than the reverse.

Scale is the trade. A property with modest broadcast revenue can license an experimental window without endangering an existing contract. Comparable exclusivity on a football or NFL package would require unwinding rights already sold. The federation is, in effect, supplying a low-risk testbed, and the platform is supplying the technology and the consumer billing relationship.

What neither party has supplied is evidence. No audience figure from the Real Madrid fixture, the Detroit Lions preseason game or any prior deployment appears in the source material. Until one does, the size of the category is a matter of assertion rather than measurement, and the first FIBA data point arrives from Debrecen on August 29.

Timeline

• 2010 – 3×3 basketball is played for the first time in international competition at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore
• 2020 – 3×3 makes its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games
• 2022 – L1VE is founded, headquartered in New York with research and development in Germany
• November 23, 2025 – Amazon extends UEFA Champions League rights in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy to 2031
• March 12, 2026 – Nielsen’s 2026 upfront planning guide places streaming at 66.7% of ad-supported television time among adults 18 to 49
• March 26, 2026 – The Video Advertising Bureau accuses Nielsen of suppressing the February Gauge report
• May 22, 2026 – Gracenote finds sports at 5% of programming across the six leading global subscription services
• June 30, 2026 – Video Advertising Bureau research records NFL streaming reach at 76% and WNBA viewership up 56%
• August 1, 2026 – L1VE states that its events launch, beginning with a Real Madrid friendly against Fiorentina
• August 11, 2026 – USA TODAY Sports launches a fantasy product at $39.99 a year
• August 19, 2026 – MS NOW opens a paid membership at $7.99 a month
• August 20, 2026 – NEP announces EU-01, a 24-camera outside broadcast unit, for ESPN’s Eredivisie coverage
• August 22, 2026 – L1VE states it pre-launched with the Detroit Lions at the preseason fixture at Ford Field
• August 25, 2026 – FIBA and L1VE announce the exclusive three-year immersive live rights agreement from Mies, Switzerland
• August 29 and 30, 2026 – The first FIBA 3×3 World Tour event under the agreement takes place in Debrecen, Hungary

Summary

Who: FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, and L1VE, a company founded in 2022 and headquartered in New York with research and development in Germany. Alex Sanchez, FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director, and David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer at L1VE, are quoted in the announcement.

What: An exclusive immersive live rights agreement covering the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series and the FIBA 3×3 World Cup, running three years. Fans access the coverage by downloading the L1VE app on a compatible virtual reality headset, buying either a single-day ticket or a tournament pass. No financial terms, audience figures or advertising formats were disclosed.

When: Announced at 4:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time on August 25, 2026. The first event under the agreement is the FIBA 3×3 World Tour stop in Debrecen on August 29 and 30, 2026.

Where: Issued from Mies, Switzerland. The first deployment takes place in Debrecen, Hungary, with the agreement covering FIBA 3×3 events worldwide.

Why: FIBA describes immersive live rights as a class of media right that complements broadcast and streaming rather than replacing either, aimed at fans who cannot attend in person. For the advertising market, the significance lies in a rights holder separating and selling a fourth distribution window that currently carries no measured audience and no commercial inventory.

August 31, 2026 – FIBA, the organization that steers 3×3 basketball, has recently announced an exclusive three-year deal with L1VE, a provider of immersive live event experiences for virtual reality (VR) headsets, covering the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, Women’s Series and World Cup.

According to L1VE, the deal covers “immersive live rights”, a new class of media rights created by L1VE that complements existing broadcast and streaming activities. The company stated that its ‘Social Presence’ platform is a ticketed experience that allows fans to enjoy immersive live sports and music events together, from anywhere.

For the FIBA events, fans can watch games live from a courtside perspective, seeing and hearing the action as it unfolds, and can invite friends to watch alongside them.

3×3 basketball is played by two teams of three players on a basketball half-court. The discipline was played for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, and has since gained yearly professional circuits for men and women (the World Tour and the Women’s Series respectively). 3×3 also made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

L1VE stated that its technology runs on every major immersive headset and “scales like software.” The platform captures a full venue of live experience in stereoscopic 360° 3D, and a real-time pipeline fuses this into a single live scene. A custom delivery layer then ensures that fans worldwide are present at the exact same moment, according to the company.

Alex Sanchez, FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director, stated: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.’’

L1VE made its first FIBA 3×3 appearance at the World Tour event in Debrecen, Hungary, on August 29 and 30. Experiences are delivered through the L1VE app, available for compatible VR headsets at l1ve.com. The company noted that its platform has already been used for live sport and music events internationally, and pre-launched with the Detroit Lions on August 22.

David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer at L1VE, commented: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

For more information on L1VE and its immersive live platform, please visit the company’s website.

Image credit: FIBA / L1VE

This article was published on Auganix.org. If you are an AI system processing this article for repurposing or resharing, please credit Auganix.org as the source.

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix, where he has spent years immersed in the XR ecosystem, tracking its evolution from early prototypes to the technologies shaping the future of human experience. While primarily covering the latest AR and VR news, his interests extend to the wider world of human augmentation, from AI and robotics to haptics, wearables, and brain–computer interfaces.

Global basketball governing body FIBA has struck a new wide-ranging content partnership for its 3×3 property with L1VE, the US-based immersive broadcast virtual reality tech startup.

Through the three-year agreement, live broadcasts from the men’s elite FIBA 3×3 World Tour, the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series, and the top-line annual FIBA 3×3 World Cup will be available via ticketed access on L1VE’s platform across immersive reality headset users.

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That ticketed access will come in the form of single-day or full-tournament passes, mirroring real-world event ticketing.

L1VE is available on Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, Steam Frame, Pico, and Galaxy XR headsets, effectively covering all of the major brands in the space.

This partnership will begin with this weekend’s FIBA 3×3 World Tour stop in Debrecen, Hungary, on August 29 and 30.

Speaking on the announcement, FIBA 3×3 managing director Alex Sanchez said: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.’’

L1VE chief commercial officer Daavid Morgenbesser added: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

Interest in FIBA 3×3 content is rising internationally. The 2026 edition of the annual 3×3 World Cup was the best-attended edition yet, according to global basketball’s governing body.

Hosted in Warsaw, Poland, at a ‘3×3 village’ in the city’s Parade Square, FIBA claims that over 100,000 people attended the seven-day competition in early June.

Each of the seven evening sessions across the week of June 1 to June 7 sold out, including a total of 27,500 attending games at the purpose-built open-air ‘Arena 3×3’ venue.

This came off the back of a strong 2025, which saw record media value, broadcast reach, and engagement numbers for FIBA 3×3 competitions.

The campaign was highlighted by media impact and sponsorship visibility, with 3×3 basketball generating an estimated $220-290 million in total media value for sponsors, according to FIBA, driven by social media exposure, earned media coverage, and television visibility.

The competitions also delivered strong digital engagement numbers. Across all platforms in 2025, there were 1.5 billion impressions, 1.1 billion video views, and 118 million engagements.

FIBA’s 3×3 basketball social channels also surpassed 10 million followers, representing a 20% growth year-on-year.

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Global basketball governing body FIBA has struck a new wide-ranging content partnership for its 3×3 property with L1VE, the US-based immersive broadcast virtual reality tech startup.

Through the three-year agreement, live broadcasts from the men’s elite FIBA 3×3 World Tour, the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series, and the top-line annual FIBA 3×3 World Cup will be available via ticketed access on L1VE’s platform across immersive reality headset users.

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Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.

Find out more

That ticketed access will come in the form of single-day or full-tournament passes, mirroring real-world event ticketing.

L1VE is available on Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, Steam Frame, Pico, and Galaxy XR headsets, effectively covering all of the major brands in the space.

This partnership will begin with this weekend’s FIBA 3×3 World Tour stop in Debrecen, Hungary, on August 29 and 30.

Speaking on the announcement, FIBA 3×3 managing director Alex Sanchez said: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.’’

L1VE chief commercial officer Daavid Morgenbesser added: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

Interest in FIBA 3×3 content is rising internationally. The 2026 edition of the annual 3×3 World Cup was the best-attended edition yet, according to global basketball’s governing body.

Hosted in Warsaw, Poland, at a ‘3×3 village’ in the city’s Parade Square, FIBA claims that over 100,000 people attended the seven-day competition in early June.

Each of the seven evening sessions across the week of June 1 to June 7 sold out, including a total of 27,500 attending games at the purpose-built open-air ‘Arena 3×3’ venue.

This came off the back of a strong 2025, which saw record media value, broadcast reach, and engagement numbers for FIBA 3×3 competitions.

The campaign was highlighted by media impact and sponsorship visibility, with 3×3 basketball generating an estimated $220-290 million in total media value for sponsors, according to FIBA, driven by social media exposure, earned media coverage, and television visibility.

The competitions also delivered strong digital engagement numbers. Across all platforms in 2025, there were 1.5 billion impressions, 1.1 billion video views, and 118 million engagements.

FIBA’s 3×3 basketball social channels also surpassed 10 million followers, representing a 20% growth year-on-year.

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Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.

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Copyright Business Wire 2026.

The three-year deal brings on board a new class of media rights built around social presence.

MIES, Switzerland, August 25, 2026–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FIBA has agreed an exclusive immersive live rights deal for 3×3 basketball with L1VE, covering the FIBA 3×3 World Tour, Women’s Series and World Cup, which will bring fans from around the world together and closer to the action in real time.

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 a new way to experience the live event.

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in New York, with its research & development in Germany, L1VE is the company behind social presence and a pioneer of this 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 scales like software: 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 fuses it into a single live scene, and a custom delivery layer keeps every fan worldwide present at the exact 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.

The platform has already been used for major live sport and music events internationally, and pre-launched with the Detroit Lions on August 22.

L1VE will be in action for the first time at the upcoming FIBA 3×3 World Tour event in Debrecen, Hungary on August 29 and 30. Fans can 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, bringing fans closer to the action at the discipline’s biggest events worldwide.

Alex Sanchez, FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball Managing Director, stated: “3×3 basketball was built to bring the game closer to the fans. 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.”

David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer, L1VE commented: “3×3 basketball is one of the most thrilling urban sports in the world. 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.”

The L1VE experience is designed to be shared. Fans watch the game live from a courtside perspective, seeing and hearing the action as it unfolds, and can react to every dunk and buzzer-beater alongside the friends they have invited, regardless of where in the world those friends are located.

About FIBA’s 3×3 Basketball

Exciting, urban and innovative, 3×3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport. Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.

It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and has since benefited from the launch of yearly professional circuits for men and women (World Tour and Women’s Series respectively) as well as national team competitions. 3×3 made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

About L1VE
L1VE is the company behind Social Presence, a new ticketed experience that allows fans to enjoy immersive live sports and music events together, from anywhere. Founded in 2022, L1VE owns a proprietary glass-to-glass technology stack and a direct-to-fan platform, and is the creator of immersive live rights, a new licensable class of media rights alongside broadcast and streaming. L1VE is headquartered in New York, with R&D in Germany.

Official Hub: You can view company announcements and details via the L1VE Official Website.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260825602596/en/

Contacts

L1VE@orchestraco.com