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Las Vegas, NV (March 21, 2023) – SlamBall, the fast-paced, gravity-defying sport that combines elements of basketball, football and trampolines, recently closed an $11 million Series A round led by Roger Ehrenberg’s IA Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital (Owner and Advisory Board Member, Miami Marlins, Betr, Simplebet) with participation from strategic investors across sports, gaming, entertainment and media. Strategic investors include David Blitzer (Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, Cleveland Guardians, Crystal Palace), David Adelman (76ers, NJ Devils), Michael Rubin (Fanatics), Gary Vaynerchuk (VaynerX, Major League Pickleball) and Boston Celtics power forward and 6-time NBA All-Star Blake Griffin, as well as Kevin Nagel (Sacramento Kings), Lloyd Danzig (Sharp Alpha), Legends Growth Enterprises, Brian Lovell (Red Games), Jesse Sharf (Gibson, Dunn), Accelerate Sports and Eric Manlunas (Wavemaker Partners). Accelerate Sports provided investment banking services for the round. The professional league will officially “bounce off” in July with a six-week series in Las Vegas to be followed by a seventh playoff week. Distribution discussions are underway, and a docuseries is in development from Mike Tollin’s MSM, the Emmy award-winning producer of The Last Dance. 

SlamBall was invented in 1999. The professional version of the sport attracted a cult following with 2.3 million viewers watching the fast-paced, 20-minute games debut on Spike TV in 2003. That early interest pales in comparison to the recent campaign to revive the support. Amid the current resurgence of interest in alternate sports, the hashtag #BringBackSlamBall has garnered more than 200 million views on social media, offering a powerful foundation of fandom for the sport’s revival.

SlamBall was pretty sick. Infinitely better than Pickleball. Dudes would jump on trampolines and basically posterize each other.

The re-launch will include eight teams competing in a six-week regular season, followed by playoffs. Team and schedule information is supposed to be out later this month, but I know we need a Philly team. Rim protection is important in SlamBall, so you’re looking for someone like Joel Embiid and not Nikola Jokic to anchor your defense.