Watch: Sports Bytes Philippines Pick-Roll | Essential App for Basketball Players - video Dailymotion

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Connecting players, finding courts — Pick-Roll is changing the game for hoopers! Dario Ferretti shares the app’s story and future plans in this Sports Bytes Philippines interview. #BasketballApp #PickRoll #SportsBytesPhilippines

Transcript

00:00okay dario first it's an honor to talk to you i mean i like i told you earlier this is an app that

00:22intrigues me because um like i said the philippines is a basketball crazy country

00:27and it's slowly growing so before i i know you got the idea from in bristol but what really inspired

00:37you to come up with this app which i'm sure that a lot of basketball fanatics have loved to do but

00:42how were you able to pull it off yes thanks thanks brian for your time thanks for the invitation

00:49it's a i don't know an honor a pleasure to to be here with you uh so i am a very fanatic of

00:58basketball fanatic of basketball you know and when i when i was in bristol in uk i was looking for a

01:04basketball court to play and meet new people you know but i realized that not knowing the city it

01:12was practically impossible to to do it you know and so when i get when i got back home i developed a

01:24very simple website using my graphic design skills and from that point i started involving other people

01:31who are now my business my business partner and we began spreading the project through word of mouth and

01:39social media and we realized that many others had the same issue and started adding course

01:48to the site on their on their own so that's uh that's when i understood it could become a meaningful

01:57project capable of helping basketball enthusiasts around the world you know okay there were a lot i'm

02:04sure that you had to consider a lot of things to get this app up and working right because um like

02:10you said looking for players alone um is hard especially if you're you're not familiar with the area

02:18now i'm just curious um what were the the initial factors and what were the the first things that

02:23you considered before you went and went ahead with uh developing this app

02:27uh yes the um the the the picker up have uh has different functionalities very very interesting

02:38obviously for my side uh to find the nearest basketball court and that future was created

02:45by my co-founder francesco who's a big fan of me of video games in generally yes you know and he

02:54he envisioned the the the idea of having a user profile like in a video game similar to 2k for

03:02example uh and the users really like the the feature because uh no one wants uh an empty or low level

03:10profile you know and the gamification is fundamental for for picroll it motivates people to actually

03:17uh go to play on the court and not just say home playing video games uh for us this is very very

03:24important to to go to to basketball court for their uh for their wellness you know and uh with the latest

03:32update uh we've expanded this feature to include international rankings and the chance to win prizes

03:39like uh sneakers nba jerseys or basketball balls and and so on uh to we would like to give uh the real value

03:50of uh of each um other basketball fanatic on basketball courts okay dario each player has a different

04:00skill set they're they're in different levels okay how do you come with the ranking system and how does

04:06this work i mean because there's no way i mean if you're playing somewhere there's no immediate way

04:12to find out how good this player is or if you can match up properly or play well i guess how does the

04:18ranking system work uh it's very very simple very simple because you can find the basketball court where

04:26uh where where do you uh play do you play and insert a new game a new new basketball game and you can choose

04:35uh if um one to one two two two two two three three and and so on and um other other community uh can

04:47uh participate participate participate to this event and uh when the play is end is is ended you can

04:56insert the result of of different games and the system automatically update the international ranking

05:06rankings is divided by season picker all c that we we give this name a picker all season

05:15uh winter uh spring uh easter and autumn and at the end of the each season uh the first five uh players uh

05:26win these prizes very very simple okay there is data collection involved i mean other players on their

05:32performances is there data collection involved no the data is private for uh for all uh for all the users we

05:40uh um we we we we don't use uh this data for marketing or or other systems so you know uh is uh for us the

05:51gdpr system is the is the best way you know and with data we we study the data only to um improve our system

06:02improve our app you know it's very very important so for example i'm looking to play with uh i'm looking for

06:08someone to play against i won't be able to know his skill level am i right yeah okay so yeah play just

06:15play just when i lose it's just about playing yeah when i when you're losing the when you're losing you

06:22can um uh scale uh the the rankings with uh uh not the top level points you know but uh but you can

06:32scale uh these uh international rankings because for us is very very uh important to give value to

06:39each uh basketball uh player okay i understand this is a widespread over europe am i right this is just

06:46europe or have you expanded to other regions as well sure absolutely at the moment uh the the app is

06:55using in in italy obviously because uh we we are from i'm from rome in italy uh but also is

07:02is using in spain and in mexico mexico maybe is the second country that's uh more using our app

07:12but uh in 2000 in 2025 uh we would like to launch our up in different countries like france

07:21and constantly obviously consolidate uh italy spain and uh central and south america and

07:28obviously philippines philippines uh for us is a very very important partner with the 40 million of

07:35basketball fans it's america is a huge huge numbers amazing amazing yeah actually i was gonna ask you

07:43when you were gonna eat you're gonna launch it in asia because it's not going to be a very real good

07:48app to be used here in the philippines considering the large basketball base and and from what i'm

07:56hearing you've heard about it already absolutely absolutely all right so so i understand right now

08:05you have the freemium uh version right but is there what are the uh benefits if you go beyond the

08:13freemium what are the key features that you plan to intend that will be available to users

08:20in the end eventually for the for the future for the future what other striking features i mean

08:27because usually apps when you have the free version right you there's a certain number of uh features

08:33you get but i'm sure that um at some point you're going to be i don't know correct me if i'm wrong

08:40wrong you're going to ask for a fee for additional features yeah yeah yeah yeah obviously right now we

08:50are conducting internal evaluations and have started running several service with our users uh it's still

09:00too early to say but our goal is to bring something that no one has ever offered before uh let's see

09:08let's see let's see if we can pull it off because for us for example uh it it could be very very important

09:16the ar uh because uh they are uh we're very confident we're very confident could be uh great additions

09:26um for example imagine playing almost for real with someone on the other side of the world

09:33uh it it could be it could be amazing okay so do you see well right now the trend is ai artificial

09:43intelligence do you see any help you're gonna get from ai in the coming years yeah yeah for ai we

09:51we're experimenting with the to uh help map and track basketball courts and we are currently testing some

09:59tools of this uh of this side okay as far as user base is there a specific target that you're aiming

10:07for because uh i'm sure you have now i think you have hundreds of thousands of users already am i right

10:13based on what yeah permission i got so is there a certain goal that you're uh trying to reach so yeah

10:21you know our goal um so our our target is the gen z um because uh it's very very important for us

10:32to reach these uh um these users uh because the they they play they play on on basketball course and for

10:41us it is very very uh huge uh project to to do with with them and and our goal is to become the global

10:50reference point uh for street basketball and to be the basketball court up uh you know we don't we

10:59we we we we are living a dream with this uh with this project because uh living for basketball uh for

11:07us uh is very is is a dream and but we don't want to set limits uh for ourselves because as someone

11:15important one said the limits like fears are often just an illusion you know right it took you just

11:23three years to break even from your initial investment and now we're in here another this is

11:28another three years i understand it was in 2018 you broke even right yeah absolutely do you think uh

11:37you see greener greener things greener pastures ahead of you in the years that's coming

11:42uh yes i i i i don't know brian because uh uh the the the skepticism from investors and people

11:54within the italian sports world didn't didn't help but we always believed in our project and we know

12:01that hard work always pays off and we never give up and achieve the result that once seemed impossible

12:09yet uh here we are it's like uh kobe with mama mentality you know

12:16but where do you see the the pick and roll up uh at five or ten years from now where do you see

12:23yourself and uh this this app uh it's a it's a it's a good uh it's a good question it's it's a good

12:31question because uh in uh for us it's very very important to become this uh global uh reference

12:39poet for street basketball and uh our my dream is to collaborate with the important brands like you

12:46know mba and to to find the the basketball course to revitalizing the basketball courts for example

12:54um to to to understand the communities on territory because um in generally communities on territory is

13:05uh is alone is is not uh it's not the principal actor for uh to to create uh different uh projects but

13:15the territory for uh for us is is fundamental so in uh we we would like to give a a strong hand to all

13:24basketball players with brands important brands important institution and so on okay without the app

13:34italy is already a good basketball country you you you've been performing well in the world stage

13:40with this uh you're doing your own little thing trying to look for future players uh grassroots they

13:47call it grassroots here do you think this will be crucial in in helping italy become a more power in

13:56more powerhouse basketball team basketball in basketball yeah absolutely why not absolutely why not

14:03italy italy italy italy basketball team at the moment uh are growing a lot with the with the strong

14:12player in nba strong players in euro league you know and i i hope that that our national team can be

14:24stronger for the future and uh it it's it's a pleasure for us to collaborate with international with the

14:31italian basketball federation in the past uh to give a strong booster for 3x3 movement because 3x3 is

14:39the best uh the best side to play on on the basketball court you know at the moment with the

14:45participating to the olympics 3x3 is very very growing and also in uh in in the italian territory is

14:54very very growing this uh discipline and we we we are um we are we are we are organizing different

15:01events 3x3 events on the on the territory okay maybe you'll find another kobe bryant

15:09i hope so i hope so my friend i hope so i i understand i i've been working on kobe bryant he's he

15:16raised his roots there that's where he started so yeah at the rate you're going and with the app

15:22you remember the time of kobe there was there was not this kind of technology what the more now right

15:29absolutely absolutely yes i totally agree bryant all right oh dario thank you thank you very much

15:35for your time it was a pleasure uh it's a very interesting app and i can't wait to write and

15:40maybe i'll just look at it and try it on myself and i'm looking forward to that app to reach the

15:45philippines because i'm telling you it's going to be a hit here there are a lot of basketball players

15:50here absolutely yes thank you for your time thanks for the opportunity it's a pleasure and i hope we

15:57can meet in the future in the real life real life thank you thank you dario thank you too thank you

16:15so

16:20so

16:28so

16:30so

Watch: Sports Bytes Philippines Pick-Roll | Essential App for Basketball Players

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