About Courts of the World

The idea for Courts of the World came during a trip to Shanghai in 2006 when Claas Garthoff “CG” was looking for a basketball court where he could check out the local competition.

However, at the time there was no resource to find basketball courts in China and it was nearly impossible to talk to locals to get any information…. hence no hoops.

Back home in Germany, CG got thinking…. Why wasn‘t there a website that told you where to find streetball courts anywhere in the world? How good the players were? How to get in touch with them?

So, CG and his his basketball playing brother Till did some research. And found out that there actually were websites that provided lists of streetball courts, but more often than not, an address was missing and you couldn’t really get an idea of the court and the competition. Plus, the sites were always restricted to a single country (keep in mind that this was in 2006).

The brothers then asked ourselves, what a global website would need in order to acknowledge the needs of a basketball-addict that wants to:
a) connect with like-minded people and find the best courts and
b) represent his or her city, turf and skills.

Courts of the World in 2007

The result of months (in fact YEARS) of work, including the hardcore programming skills of friend Stephan Belitz, can now be experienced at Courtsoftheworld.com, where you can share anything about your favourite courts, discover new ones and connect with ballers from around the globe!

With the help of users, we have mapped nearly 40,000 basketball courts and many with photos!

In 2019, Sweden-based American Ryan O’Leary joined the team as the head of marketing. With his son Milo bugging him to find basketball courts every day during all of their family’s international travels, he thought he would become a co-owner of Courts of the World to help more people find the best courts!

Courts of the World has partnered with FIBA’s Equipment & Venue Centre in June of 2021. The cooperation will power FIBA’s new worldwide venue finder, which can be accessed through a promotion link on the FIBA.basketball website and at courtsoftheworld.com. The partnership will also come with a re-branding of the logo, including both logos visible with the tagline “FIBA Endorsed Basketball Court Finder”