Key Takeaways
- Teams in the new league have sold for $6 million each, with buyers also receiving league equity, according to ESPN and Sports Business Journal.
- The inaugural season runs April through August 2027 with 12 regional teams, 120 players, and 10 event weekends ending in a national championship.
- Prospects from the high school classes of 2028 through 2031 earn NIL compensation and can take it as cash, league equity, or both.
- MADE Hoops is the official operating partner, staging games inside existing youth basketball events, and the league pledged $1 million to its foundation.
The Futures Basketball League (FBL), a new spring and summer circuit for the top under-18 boys basketball players in the United States, will launch in April 2027 with 12 regional teams and 120 players, the league announced November 10, 2026. Its backers include LRMR Ventures, the firm led by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and Boardroom Sports Holdings, led by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman. Teams sold so far have gone for $6 million each, and players will earn name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation while keeping their high school and college eligibility, according to ESPN and Sports Business Journal. Grassroots events company MADE Hoops will serve as the league’s official operating partner.
The league is pitching itself as a replacement for a fragmented system. Jason Stein, the league’s chairman and co-founder, told ESPN that the top 150 under-18 players in the country currently play on more than 200 teams across seven leagues during the spring and summer. In the launch release, Stein said “the system around these athletes hasn’t risen to their level.”
Who Owns the Futures Basketball League?
SC Holdings, the sports and entertainment investment firm Stein co-founded with Daniel Haimovic, is financially backing the league. Sports Business Journal reported that FBL is seeded with tens of millions of dollars in combined direct investment and team sales, and that every team owner receives equity in the league itself.
Founding team owners named so far are former NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose, Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero, and VaynerX Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk with business partner Ryan Harwood. Rose will run the league’s Chicago team, ESPN reported. Ezra Kucharz, Chief Business and Investment Officer of Maximum Effort, is also an investor, per Sports Business Journal. Stein, Carter, Kleiman, and Haimovic will sit on the board, with a fifth member to be named.
Not every team has been sold. Stein told Sports Business Journal the league is in active conversations with buyers and will operate any unsold teams itself when the season starts. He pointed to his experience in Major League Pickleball, where he said his group bought a team alongside James for $1 million and saw teams sell for $6 million six months later. “There’s an element of not wanting to rush too many team sales too early,” Stein said.
Samin Odhwani, a former NBA executive who went on to serve as commissioner of Major League Pickleball, is the league’s president.
How Players Get Paid and Stay Eligible
Compensation is structured as NIL income, not salary. Athletes will not be paid directly by the league or its teams, a choice Stein told Sports Business Journal is meant to protect NCAA eligibility, and deals will be run through the College Sports Commission to confirm fair market value. Players can take their NIL compensation in cash, in league equity subject to administrative approvals, or in a mix of the two, according to the league’s release. They also remain free to sign with outside brands, including footwear companies.
The league has not disclosed how much players will earn. Rose told ESPN the sums could change players’ lives. Stein framed the pay as preparation, telling Sports Business Journal it is better for athletes to start managing a smaller amount of money at a younger age than to first encounter it with a multimillion-dollar college deal.
FBL said it has already signed prospects in all four eligible classes, 2028 through 2031, and will announce its first players in the coming weeks. Chris Rivers, formerly senior director of NIL recruiting at Excel Sports Management, is Vice President of Basketball Operations. Rivers previously ran grassroots basketball at adidas and Reebok, according to the release.
Ten Weekends, With July and August as the Priority
The season runs April through August 2027 across 10 league weekends in major U.S. markets, ending with a national championship weekend. The league said the calendar is built to avoid the high school season, NCAA live periods, USA Basketball commitments, and the NBPA Top 100 Camp. Stein told Sports Business Journal the commercial focus is July and August, when both television windows and player schedules are open.
MADE Hoops, the grassroots events company founded by former Nike executive Chad Babel and backed by Durant and LRMR Ventures, is the official operating partner. Under that arrangement, FBL games will be staged on grandstand courts inside convention centers that are already hosting large youth basketball events, with more elevated venues planned for tentpole dates, Stein told Sports Business Journal. The league also pledged $1 million to the MADE For All Foundation, the MADE Hoops nonprofit that funds scholarships and community programs.
On the development side, teams will be led by USA Basketball Gold-licensed coaches. HMBL Development, a Brooklyn training company founded by Justin Bright in 2014, is the official training partner and will build individualized plans for every player. Financial literacy is part of the curriculum, and Rose told ESPN he is meeting with Northern Trust about a program for his team.
Sponsorship and Media Rights Remain Unsold
FBL has no sponsor or media agreements to announce yet, Sports Business Journal reported. Connor Schell, founder and CEO of Words + Pictures and the former head of content at ESPN, is a special adviser leading media rights talks and the production of athlete-focused content. Stein said he expects coverage on both network television and streaming based on current conversations. The league’s release states that games will be streamed or distributed on national television.
Merchandise and ticket sales are the other revenue lines identified so far. The league’s pitch to brands, per its release, is one place to partner with the most-followed young athletes in American sports. Stein told ESPN that players at this level have tens of thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, of Instagram followers.
Second New League in a Month, Fourth of Its Kind in Five Years
FBL arrives a month after WorldStage Sports launched ATLAS on October 8, an international high school and academy league with 11 founding programs from the United States, Canada, and Europe, including DME Academy, Sunrise Christian, and Kevin Boyle’s SPIRE. ATLAS plays a November to February regular season across five tournament weekends in North America and Europe, with playoffs in March.
Both join a market that has been filling in fast. Overtime Elite introduced six-figure player salaries in 2021, but the model cost players their college eligibility until the league added a scholarship track a year later. Nike EYBL Scholastic, a 20-team national league of school programs, has run since the 2023-24 season and put four games on Fox Sports this year. ATLAS covers the school-year season for team programs, EYBL Scholastic holds the Nike school pipeline, and FBL takes the spring and summer window.
The Shoe Company Circuits Still Have the Players
The April-to-August window overlaps with the grassroots circuits run by Nike, adidas, and Under Armour, Forbes noted, and those circuits are where the players FBL wants currently compete. Sonny Vaccaro, the former sneaker promoter who ran a high school basketball camp for decades, put it this way to ESPN: “the question is always what the sneaker companies are going to do.” Stein said he has had productive conversations with those companies and plans to work with them.
The NBA’s own attempt, a Jr. NBA league with a broadcast deal, aired for only two years, according to ESPN.
FBL has yet to name a player, a sponsor, a media partner, or any team market other than Chicago. The league said those announcements, along with additional owners and the full schedule, will come in the weeks ahead. Tip-off is set for April 2027.
Source / Adapted From: ESPN, Ben Strauss, November 10, 2026, https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/50443078/futures-basketball-league-launch-april-u18-players
Source / Adapted From: Sports Business Journal, Rob Schaefer, November 10, 2026, https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/11/10/high-profile-athletes-investors-back-u18-futures-basketball-league/
Source / Adapted From: Forbes, Adam Zagoria, November 10, 2026, https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2026/11/10/lebron-james-maverick-carter-set-to-launch-new-youth-basketball-league-in-2027/
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How big is the youth sports market?
American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
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Youth Sports Business Report was founded by Cameron Korab, a sports marketing veteran with more than a decade in the industry and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Korab also co-founded Vertical Sports, a sports marketing advisory serving brands across youth, college, and pro sports.
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Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
Ready to build a youth sports strategy? Vertical Sports is an Advisory+ delivering integrated expertise across all levels of sport. Youth, College, Pro. Every Fan, Every Level. Brands and youth sports organizations can reach the team at info@verticalsports.us.
