The Backyard League Indiegogo campaign is now closed, thanks to all our fantastic backers!
To get your Baseball, please visit:
or our
The first Gaming Baseball have been shipped and Season 1 is live on the 29th of September. Order your gaming baseball today and we receive it in the beginning of October.
“like an arcade game, the most fun I have had playing catch”
- Alex Guilford coach and former pitcher
Get your Gaming Baseball today and join the world's first connected baseball league
The Gaming Baseball & the Backyard League App create engaging games for guaranteed fun playing catch with friends and family. The ball measures and detects your actions, giving you an arcade game feel with live commentary and sound effects.
"This ball feels like a baseball"
"It's precise and gives a great throwing experience!"
It is not about the tech, but we packed a lot of cool features into our regulation sized and weighted Gaming Baseball. The Patent Pending Gaming Baseball is based on tested and proven technology developed over the last 5 years, with 1000's of users and 15 million throws
Why players and coaches love the Backyard League
As one of the first teams in the world, the Bad News Bears from Tamiami Youth Baseball Association got a chance to try out Backyard League. They all agreed it was amazing. The gaming baseball can be a supplement to other training equipment, and is especially great at throw and catch exercises as it makes the players focus at high intensity. "Getting the chance to compete with players from around the world is great, as the boys love competition,” agrees coach Cueto.
The gaming baseball can be a supplement to other training equipment, and is especially great at throw and catch exercises as it makes the players focus at with high intensity. "Getting the chance to compete with players from around the world is great, as the boys love competition".
Backyard League is developed in collaboration with the Norwegian Softball and Baseball Association. We have a shared mission to ensure more kids play ball and keep playing for longer.
Season ONE has 6 games inspired by core fielding skills. Improve your throws and catches, accuracy and consistency, transfer time, and more. Playing the games also increases focus, concentration and gets your competitive juices flowing. Every round is a match-like experience as you compete to beat your own best or your opponents score.
A closer look at Bullseye and the in-game screen that spectators can follow while you play. Brings the thrill of target shooting to a game catch.
Paal and Eivind gives an intro to Fast Throw the high speed game of catch. Here you can also see how the live game commentary and the audience view on the screen looks. Every game is mapped against the score you are trying to beat, throw for throw.
LEAGUE MODE
Play the 6 games to unlock LEAGUE MODE. There is always a challenge waiting for you. With one click, you join real players from around the world.
LIVE VIEW
In every game you play against an existing score, your own best, or an opponent. The live commentary lets you know how you are doing. For those not playing, they can follow your performance live and cheer you on as you battle for the lead.
FINAL SCORE AND STATISTICS
When the final buzzer sounds you get your results, win or lose. You can check out the detailed stats of your game, vs the score you were trying to beat. A great way to learn and see where you can improve your next game. In league matches you also get league points based on your performance, can you get a 3 star win?
ALWAYS ON
Backyard League brings players from all over the world together. There is always someone playing out there and there is always a match waiting. The notifications are designed to motivate players to get their gloves on and get out playing ball.
HOME SCREEN
Every time you open Backyard League you enter your home screen. From here you have access to all parts of the game. Update your profile, manage your Gaming Baseball, and check out what new achievements and rewards you can get. As you rise up through the league rank you see your league score league level.
LEADERBOARDS
Follow your global placement in each games leaderboard. Tap any player and see their profile before you challenge their score, playing live as the commentator keeps you up to date on how you perform. Leaderboards are based on daily, weekly, monthly, and best score per season.
PROFILE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
As a player, your public profile can be seen by all other players and any player can follow you. Collects achievements for many different activities in the game, some for performance, some just for fun.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF
From the leaderboard you can switch to your own scores. View your progress, round for round, daily, weekly, monthly, or by season. View stats for any game and play against your best score to get a new personal best. Playing in this mode is a great way to have fun and to challenge yourself.
Eivind, co-founder and chief designer, excited as the first Gaming Baseballs have arrived. This is what you get in the box. Season 1 in a few weeks.Everything you need to join us and hundreds of pioneering players from around the world. We promise it will be an experience you want to share.
WHAT IS IN THE BOX
You get everything you need to join Backyard League in the Gaming Baseball box.
The box is just bigger than the ball, saving shipping and trees.
ASTM, FCC, and CE certified as well as child safety certified.
We offer a 12 month warranty.
PLAY SAFE
We are dads, so we designed the experience the way we want it to be for our own children. In Backyard League everyone should have fun playing together, competing, building their profile, collecting badges. All without any concerns about your privacy.
NO personal data required to play
NO personal data collected
NO subscription, extra cost or in-app purchase
NO open communication between players
We have done this before!
The founders from left:
Paal Smith-Meyer brings creative brain and 14 years of experience as creative director at LEGO
Eivind Solberg excels at attention to detail, with decades of experience as industrial designer
Stian Vælitalo’s got creator magic and experience designing and coding systems for the national bank and postal system.
Jarle Nordby-Bøe brings decades of IoT and Bluetooth experience from Texas Instruments.
In 2016 we started Playfinity to use technology smarter, to inspire active play, as it is not our kids fault they are stuck to screens, it is the way the experiences are designed. With 1000´s of players, 100 events, 40 million of throws, kick ands jumps since we released our first smart ball in 2018. We combining our experience from sports and play to bring gaming to baseball and turn backyards into the new place to game :)
Visit our company site and check out what else we have done: https://playfinity.com/
Our journey has just started and we hope you will join, play and give us input so we can bring fun back into sports and sports back to kids so they have more fun playing together and keep playing longer.
The first prototypes of the gaming baseball came to life in the fall of 2019. We have tested many material combinations to get the right durability, weight, shape, balance, grip, and overall feel. The core of the ball is a patent pending design that protects the tech and gives the ball it's qualities.
A ROBUST DESIGN
We designed and tested the ball to feel like a baseball and perform like a gaming device. Regulation size and weight, with a robust design that can take a beating. The box includes tuners for adjusting weight and balance. The core is made of an impact resistant ABS material and the PU rubber outer gets better the more you play.
QUICK CONNECT
Handle all connections from within the app. We optimized the way we use Bluetooth for active gaming. The Gaming Baseball updates the phone 70 times every second. You can play at distances of up to 70 yards from the phone. Back in range the ball will update the game.
Over-the-air upgrade your ball directly from your phone in 20 seconds making the gaming ball smarter.
SMART POWER
How to get the most play out of one standard battery? How about up to 40.000 throws.
Over the years we have optimized power management during and after play. No off button to forget. Open the app and press the button to power up the ball. The ball goes into 2 sleep modes to conserve batteries.
PRODUCTION UNDERWAY
We know we have an amazing product and we pride ourselves in delivery. So we have finished all tooling, testing, and production is under way. This means we are ready to ship the first gaming balls in September 2021 to the first backers and in October onwards to all backers.
This is not our first product and the gaming baseball is built on our proven technology that we first launched in 2018. We have since improved the core tech and the gaming experience based on 1000's of players and over 30 million throws, kicks and jumps.
We have a selection of gloves, a shirt and a cap you can add to any perk, to complete your Backyard League experience.
Having a great glove when playing is an integral part of the experience. We have chosen Rawlings to provide gloves to Backyard League. In this campaign we can offer a great Player Series junior glove for kids 5-7 years, and Renegade youth and adult gloves. Add the glove that fits your hand to any perk or select the special combination deal.
SHIPPING
Baseball is loved everywhere and we want players from all across the world to be able to join. We have established distribution from 3 hubs to ensure delivery close to your backyard. We have flat shipping rates within 3 main regions
WARRANTY AND CERTIFICATION
The Gaming Baseball has undergone all the testing required to be a safe product to bring into the home. ASTM, FCC, and CE certified with additional toy standard certification. We offer 12 month warranty or longer in countries where this is applicable.
Questions
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me on paal@playfinity.com
We look forward to sharing the experience of Backyard League with you this fall as a pioneer of a new way to play catch.
Paal, Eivind, Jarle, Stian and the rest fo the team