Basketball debuts new courts: interactive LED screens replace wood

July 25 (Portaltic/EP) –

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has launched on a global scale during the Under 19 Women’s World Cup a new track format that changes the usual layout of the courts for interactive LED glass screens, which are adapted to the action during the game and can be adapted to other sports, such as badminton.

The Spanish women’s team faced the American team on Sunday, July 23, in the framework of the Under 19 Women’s World Cup to play FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup of 2023 in the WiZink Center of Madrid.

In place of presenting its usual basketball court, this space in Madrid launched the new system of LED screen courts on a global scale, which received the approval of the FIBA Central Board in March, after being presented in May of last year by the Federation.

It is a system that, instead of the usual wooden floor of the pitch, proposes a glass surface developed by ASB GlassFloor based on two floors: a glass floor (ASB MultiSports) that allows marking the lines of the playing area corresponding to each sport, such as the basketball, tennis or badminton; and a video floor (ASB LumiFlex) for staging and visual content.

These glass panels feature ceramic dots for gripwhich from FIBA ​​ensure that “completely equal levels of control on the entire surface without causing burns to the skin when falling, as well as greater elasticity in the same rebound of the ball.”

This system also projects other interactive content and allows you to track players to show live statistics and sports achievementswhich translates into improved interaction and greater commitment from fans to athletes, as defined by FIBA.

For FIBA ​​Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, this glass court is “an innovative surface” that meets one of his “strategic priorities of ‘Expand the FIBA ​​Family’supporting and fostering innovation in basketball”, and which also serves to display sponsorship and marketing content, such as pointed on the occasion of the premiere of this technology in an official FIBA ​​competition this Sunday.

Previously, this new floor was used on a trial basis during the 2021 Ruhr Games in Bochum (Germany) and in 2017 at a show by The Harlem Globetrotters held in Dresden (Germany).