Key Takeaways
- Brodie Rec League raised a $3.6 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau and Golden Ventures to expand its organized adult basketball experience into Atlanta, Long Island, New Jersey, and Seattle.
- Founded by Connor Renton in 2019, Brodie now serves more than 50,000 players across 20 cities with 12-week seasons, six skill divisions, filmed games, uniforms, career stats, and leaderboards.
- Investors describe the concept as “2K in real life,” combining persistent player histories and community with social content that Brodie says has generated more than one billion views.
Brodie Rec League is taking its version of organized basketball to four more U.S. markets. The Toronto-based company has announced a $3.6 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau and Golden Ventures, as it expands into Atlanta, Long Island, New Jersey, and Seattle. The funding puts fresh money behind a league that gives adult players uniforms, filmed games, stats, and a championship to chase.
According to Forbes, founder and CEO Connor Renton started Brodie in 2019 as a side project while working at a bank. He saw a gap between the structure of the sports he played growing up and what was available to adults who still wanted to compete.
Brodie now says it serves more than 50,000 athletes and another 50,000 fans across 20 cities, with more than 600 games played each week. The company has also opened a gathering space near Toronto where players can spend time together beyond game night.
A Brodie season runs 12 weeks and offers six divisions, ranging from first-time players to former college and professional athletes. Games are officiated and filmed, giving players highlights and a record of what happened on the court.
An updated app adds career stats, leaderboards, team chats, and performance tracking. It is an unusually detailed setup for a rec league, but the appeal is easy to understand: for many adults, organized team basketball ends when school does.
“People are looking for real-life experiences,” Renton told Forbes while discussing the funding. “You show up on this day—it’s the same every single week, and you can look forward to something. It’s an anchor for people.”
Chicago player Lavese Jones offered a view from the court. The 40-year-old father of three joined during Brodie’s first season in the city and plays for the Young O.G.s, a team that has won three straight championships. “I love the community and brotherhood that it has allowed me to build and continue to build,” he said.
That connection is part of the pitch to investors, too. In an account of the deal, Golden Ventures partner Ameet Shah described Brodie’s goal as building “2K in real life”: a basketball league where a player’s progress and season history carry forward.
Brodie says its in-house content has drawn more than one billion views across social platforms, giving people a way to follow the action even when they are not in the gym.
Lerer Hippeau managing partner Ben Lerer put the challenge plainly in a statement: “Attracting users digitally is one thing, but hooking them offline is another thing entirely. Brodie’s done both.”
