Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and iCatch Labs LLC ("iCatch Labs," "we," "us," or "our"), a New York limited liability company at 418 Broadway, STE 7369, Albany, NY 12207, United States.

They govern your use of Hoopers (formally, Hoopers Ranked Play): the website at https://www.hoopersapp.com, the web app served from it, any Hoopers mobile app we make available for iOS or Android, and the related services we provide (together, "Hoopers").

By creating a Hoopers account, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use Hoopers. If you are 13 through 17, section 6 explains how your parent or legal guardian is involved.

You can reach us at support@hoopersapp.com or by mail at the address above.

2. The Hoopers documents

These Terms include, and you also agree to, the following documents, each as published by us and updated under section 17:

• the Acceptable Use and Safety Policy, which sets the conduct and safety rules for using Hoopers;
• the Competitive Rules, which explain how games, results, Skill Rating and other competitive records work; and
• the Hoopers End-User License Agreement ("EULA"), which covers your license to Hoopers software.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share personal information. Please read it. It is a separate notice, not part of this agreement.

The Accessibility Statement and the Player Safety Guide are informational. They are not part of these Terms.

If these Terms conflict with another Hoopers document, these Terms control, except where the EULA sets terms that an app store requires for a Hoopers mobile app.

3. Who can use Hoopers

Minimum age. You must be at least 13 years old to create a Hoopers account or use Hoopers. Hoopers is not offered to anyone under 13.

Adult Accounts and Teen Accounts. If you are 18 or older, you use an Adult Account. If you are 13 through 17, you use a Teen Account. Your account type comes from the date of birth on your account. It changes to an Adult Account automatically when you turn 18. Teen Accounts have additional rules and protections, described in section 6.

United States only. Hoopers is offered for use in the United States. We do not offer it in other countries. If you use Hoopers from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for following the laws that apply to you there.

Other conditions. You may not use Hoopers if we have previously terminated your account, or if you are barred from using services like Hoopers under the laws of the United States.

4. What Hoopers is, and what it is not

Hoopers lets basketball players find other players, challenge them to one-on-one games played in person, record the results, and follow a Skill Rating and other competitive records built from those results.

Hoopers is a record-keeping and competition platform. It is important that you understand what it does not do:

• Hoopers does not pick your opponent. You choose who to challenge and whether to accept a challenge.
• Hoopers does not own, operate, supervise or inspect courts, gyms, parks or other venues, including courts listed in Hoopers.
• Hoopers does not supervise, referee or attend games.
• Hoopers does not screen players, run background checks, or verify the identity of everyone who uses it. Information in another player's profile or record comes from that player and from game activity, not from an identity check.
• Hoopers does not provide emergency services. In an emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number.

5. Your account

Accurate information. Give accurate information when you create your account, including your date of birth. You confirm your date of birth yourself. We rely on it to decide whether you are eligible and whether you have an Adult Account or a Teen Account, and we may act on information suggesting it is wrong.

Date of birth corrections. You cannot change your date of birth yourself. If it is wrong, contact us at support@hoopersapp.com. We may ask for information to support the correction. A correction that would move an account between a Teen Account and an Adult Account may need additional verification before we make it.

One person, one account. Your account is for you alone. Do not share it, let someone else use it, or use anyone else's account. Do not create more than one account.

Security. Keep your password confidential. You are responsible for activity on your account unless it results from our failure or from access you could not reasonably have prevented. Tell us promptly at support@hoopersapp.com if you believe your account has been used without your permission.

Usernames and display names. Your username and display name must follow the Acceptable Use and Safety Policy. We may require you to change, or may reset, a username or display name that breaks that policy, impersonates someone, or is misleading.

Your account is not your property. Your account is a personal, limited right to use Hoopers under these Terms. You may not sell, transfer, rent, give away or otherwise deal in an account, and any attempt to do so is void. This does not mean we own your personal information. How we handle your personal information is described in the Privacy Policy.

6. Teen Accounts

This section applies to Teen Accounts, and to Adult Accounts that interact with them.

Parent or guardian. A Teen Account must be set up with a parent or legal guardian (a "guardian"), who is linked to the account through the guardian setup process in Hoopers. By completing that process, the guardian confirms that they are the Teen's parent or legal guardian, that they have read these Terms, and that they permit the Teen to use Hoopers under them. Hoopers relies on that confirmation. We do not check guardianship against government records, and an email address alone does not prove that someone is a parent or legal guardian. If you are a Teen, please read these Terms with your guardian.

What a guardian does. After setup, a guardian does not approve each game or ordinary action. We notify the linked guardian about significant safety events described in this section, such as a new connection with an Adult Account. A guardian can contact us at support@hoopersapp.com about the Teen Account, and can review or remove the Teen's connections with Adult Accounts where Hoopers provides that control.

Competition. Teen Accounts play rated games under the same Competitive Rules as everyone else. Skill Rating is calculated the same way for every player, whatever their age. There is no separate rating, formula or ladder for Teen Accounts, and a valid game affects both players' Skill Rating in the usual way.

Boards and Standing. While a player is under 18, their Teen Account does not appear on Hoopers boards (leaderboards) and does not hold a Standing on any of them, including Metro, State, Region, national and organization boards. A Teen Account can still view boards, and keeps its Skill Rating, rank and game history.

Finding players. A Teen Account can find other Teen Accounts and Adult Accounts in Hoopers. An Adult Account cannot find Teen Accounts through player search, boards, suggestions, nearby players or any other discovery feature. Teen Account profiles are not shown to people who are not signed in. We do not show a Teen's date of birth or exact age to other players.

Connections between Teen Accounts and Adult Accounts. A connection between a Teen Account and an Adult Account (a "Play Connection") can only be started by the Teen, through a deliberate step Hoopers provides, such as entering the Adult's exact username, scanning the Adult's QR code or using the Adult's invite link. An Adult Account cannot start a connection with a Teen Account. When a Teen asks to connect, we tell the Adult that the request comes from a Teen Account, and the Adult may accept or decline. Once a Play Connection exists, either player may challenge the other to Hoopers games. When a Teen establishes a new Play Connection with an Adult Account, we notify the Teen's guardian.

No private messaging. Hoopers does not offer player-to-player messaging. A Play Connection does not permit private messaging. If we add messaging in the future, a Play Connection alone will not allow messaging between a Teen Account and an Adult Account.

Courts. Teen Accounts cannot submit courts to Hoopers, and cannot create, publish or verify courts in Hoopers. Teen rated games may still be played at courts that are not listed or not verified in Hoopers, as the Competitive Rules explain.

Turning 18. When a Teen Account holder turns 18, the account becomes an Adult Account automatically. Skill Rating, rank, game history, records, friends, blocks, reports and existing Play Connections all remain. The account may then appear on boards if it meets the usual eligibility requirements. As an Adult Account, it cannot find or start connections with new Teen Accounts, and an existing relationship does not gain any new privilege because one player turned 18.

Age misrepresentation. Giving a false date of birth to be treated as a Teen or as an Adult breaks these Terms. The Acceptable Use and Safety Policy explains how we respond, including the serious consequences for an adult who pretends to be a Teen.

7. Your license to use Hoopers

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use Hoopers, and the account assigned to you, for your own personal, non-commercial use.

The EULA governs your use of Hoopers software, including the web app and any Hoopers mobile app. App store terms may also apply to a mobile app, as described in the EULA.

Updates and supported versions. We may update Hoopers at any time. For a Hoopers mobile app, we may require you to install an update, or to use at least a minimum supported version, before you can keep using Hoopers. We may do this when a security need, a legal requirement, a change to how the app and our servers work together, or a change to a supported feature requires it. An older version may stop working once it is no longer supported.

We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you.

8. Competitive records

Hoopers produces competitive records from games played through it. These include Skill Rating ("SR") in each format, Overall SR, rank, Standing, provisional status, win-loss records, rating history, game status and classification, rated-play eligibility, geographic membership, organization affiliation, Everest and any other competitive distinction Hoopers creates. The Competitive Rules describe them in detail.

Not property. Competitive records, and vouches as they appear in platform records, are records kept by Hoopers. They are not property, currency or a prize, have no monetary value, and cannot be bought, sold, traded or transferred, including with an account.

Our authority over competitive records. We may calculate, hold, recalculate, correct, reverse, restore or void competitive records, exclude them from boards and standings, and change the methodology used to produce them, for the reasons set out in the Competitive Rules. Those reasons are: system or calculation error; invalid, incomplete or inconsistent evidence; dispute resolution; integrity findings; fraud, duplicate activity, manipulation or abuse; account or safety enforcement; inaccurate records; and methodology changes.

Game review. We may hold a game or result for review. Authorized Hoopers administrators may review disputed, invalid, unverifiable or integrity-flagged games, and may resolve, restore, correct or void how a game counts. Competitive records then follow that decision.

Evidence, not guarantees. Location readings, result submissions, reviews and other signals are evidence we use to decide how a game counts. They do not guarantee that a game happened as recorded, that a player is who they say they are, or that meeting another player is safe.

Competition metrics only. SR, rank, Standing and other Hoopers competitive records measure results within Hoopers' own rules and methods. They are not a scouting evaluation, a certification or a guarantee of anyone's basketball ability, and you should not rely on them as one.

We do not currently offer a formal appeal process for competitive decisions. You can contact us at support@hoopersapp.com if you believe a record is wrong.

9. Conduct

You must follow the Acceptable Use and Safety Policy and all laws that apply to your use of Hoopers. That policy includes rules against false results, rating manipulation, multiple accounts, age misrepresentation, interfering with integrity measures, harassment, threats, stalking, conduct that puts minors at risk, and misuse of information from Hoopers.

10. Real-world play and your safety

Hoopers records basketball games that you choose to play in person with other players. Please read this section carefully.

Physical activity carries risk. Basketball is a physical sport. Playing, and traveling to and from games, can lead to injury, illness, property loss or damage, and in rare cases death. You choose whether to play, where, when and with whom. You are responsible for deciding whether you are fit to play and for taking reasonable care for your own safety. If you have a Teen Account, your guardian shares that responsibility with you.

Other players. You are responsible for your own interactions with other players, on and off the court. We do not control, and are not responsible for, what other players say or do, including before, during or after a game. Players are not our employees or agents.

Venues. Courts and other venues are owned and controlled by others. A court appearing in Hoopers is not a statement that it is safe, open, well maintained, suitable for play or that you are allowed to use it. Follow the venue's rules and posted hours.

No screening. As stated in section 4, we do not screen players or run background checks. Use your own judgment about who you meet.

Emergencies. If you are in danger or someone is hurt, contact 911 or local emergency services first. Reporting a player in Hoopers is not a way to get emergency help.

The Acceptable Use and Safety Policy contains the binding safety rules for in-person play. The Player Safety Guide offers practical suggestions.

To the fullest extent the law allows, you accept the risks described in this section, and sections 20 and 21 apply to them.

11. Information you provide

What you provide. Hoopers accepts a limited set of information from you, such as your username and display name, game challenges and results, location readings for games, vouches, court submissions (including a court name, location and notes), reports and their details, guardian details for a Teen Account, and messages you send to us ("Your Content"). Hoopers does not currently accept photos, videos, audio or other media uploads.

Your rights. You keep whatever rights you have in Your Content.

The license you give us. You give iCatch Labs a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, reproduce, process, display and share Your Content only as needed to operate, display where Hoopers is designed to display it, moderate, secure, maintain and improve Hoopers, and to comply with law. For example, your username and display name are shown to other people as described in the Privacy Policy, and a court you submit may be listed for other players. This license lasts while we keep Your Content under the Privacy Policy. Where Your Content has become part of a shared record, such as a game result that is part of another player's history, the license continues for as long as that record is kept.

Your responsibility. Your Content must be accurate and must follow the Acceptable Use and Safety Policy. Do not submit anything you do not have the right to submit.

Moderation. We may review, edit, restrict or remove Your Content, including court listings and profile names, when it breaks these Terms or the Hoopers documents, or when we need to for safety, security or legal reasons. We are not obligated to monitor Your Content.

12. Feedback

If you send us suggestions or ideas about Hoopers, we may use them without restriction or payment to you. This does not give us any right to your personal information beyond what the Privacy Policy describes.

13. Our intellectual property

Hoopers, including its software, design, text, graphics, and the Hoopers name and logos, is owned by iCatch Labs or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. Except for the license in section 7, these Terms give you no rights in it. Do not copy, modify, distribute, sell or create derivative works from Hoopers, or use our names or logos, without our written permission.

Copyright complaints. If you believe something in Hoopers infringes your copyright, contact us at support@hoopersapp.com with enough detail for us to find and assess it.

14. Notices and communications

Account Mail. Account Mail is Hoopers' in-app notice channel. We use it for legal updates and for important notices about your account and the service. Check it regularly.

Email. We may also send notices to the email address on your account where we have that capability for the kind of notice involved. Today, the email Hoopers sends to players is limited to account emails such as sign-up confirmation and password reset.

Guardian notices. If you have a Teen Account, we also send the notices described in section 6 to your linked guardian.

Electronic communications. You agree to receive agreements, notices and other communications from us electronically, through Hoopers or by email, and agree that they satisfy any requirement that they be in writing.

15. Changes to Hoopers and availability

We may add, change or remove features of Hoopers, and may limit access to some features, for example during a beta or early-access period. We do not promise that Hoopers will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free. We may suspend Hoopers for maintenance, security or other operational reasons.

We may stop offering Hoopers entirely. If we do, we will give reasonable notice where we can.

16. Paid features and goods

Hoopers does not currently charge for use, and we do not sell physical goods through Hoopers. Before we introduce any paid feature, we will publish updated terms that describe it.

17. Changes to these Terms and the Hoopers documents

We may update these Terms, the Acceptable Use and Safety Policy, the Competitive Rules and the EULA. When we make a material change, we will tell you through Account Mail and by posting the updated document, and by email where that capability exists. Material changes take effect 30 days after notice, except that a change needed for security, to comply with law or a court order, or to address fraud, abuse or risk to users or to Hoopers may take effect sooner, including immediately.

For some changes, we may ask you to accept the updated document before you continue using Hoopers. If you do not agree to a change, stop using Hoopers and delete your account.

Each document shows the date it takes effect. A document that has been published but is not yet in effect is marked as upcoming.

18. Suspension, termination and deleting your account

By you. You can deactivate your account, or request deletion, in your account settings. A deletion request has a 7-day cancellation period. The Privacy Policy explains what happens to your information when deletion is completed, including records that are kept.

By us. We may restrict features, suspend or terminate your account, or refuse access to Hoopers if we reasonably believe that you have broken these Terms or the Hoopers documents, that your account creates a risk to other people, to Hoopers or to us, that you are under 13, that your account's age information is false, or if the law requires it. We may act without notice where notice would be unsafe, would help someone avoid enforcement, or is not practical. The Acceptable Use and Safety Policy describes enforcement in more detail.

If we terminate your account, do not create a new one without our written permission.

What survives. Sections 5 (your account is not your property), 8 (competitive records), 10, 11 (for Your Content already part of shared records), 12, 13, 19 through 23, and any other terms that by their nature should survive, continue after your account ends.

19. Third-party services and app stores

Hoopers relies on services from other companies, such as hosting, authentication and bot protection. If you download a Hoopers mobile app from an app store, that store's terms also apply to your use of the store. We are not responsible for third-party services or websites we do not control.

20. Disclaimers

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HOOPERS IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE ABOVE, WE DO NOT WARRANT: THAT HOOPERS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; THE ACCURACY OF INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PLAYERS OR GUARDIANS, INCLUDING GAME RESULTS, IDENTITY, AGE, GUARDIANSHIP OR LOCATION INFORMATION; THE CONDUCT OF ANY PLAYER; THE CONDITION, SAFETY, AVAILABILITY OR ACCESSIBILITY OF ANY COURT OR VENUE; OR THAT ANY COMPETITIVE RECORD REFLECTS A PLAYER'S REAL-WORLD ABILITY.

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THESE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

21. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ICATCH LABS AND ITS MEMBERS, MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO HOOPERS OR THESE TERMS, INCLUDING DAMAGES ARISING FROM IN-PERSON GAMES, OTHER PLAYERS' CONDUCT, OR VENUE CONDITIONS, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THEIR POSSIBILITY.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO HOOPERS OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US $100).

NOTHING IN THESE TERMS LIMITS LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, SUCH AS LIABILITY FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT WHERE THE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW IT TO BE LIMITED. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THESE LIMITATIONS, SO THEY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS.

22. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless iCatch Labs and its members, managers, employees and agents from third-party claims, losses and reasonable legal fees arising from: your breach of these Terms or the Hoopers documents; Your Content; your violation of any law or of anyone else's rights; or your conduct toward another player, including in person. We may take over the defense of a claim at our own expense, and you will cooperate with us.

23. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except where the law of your state of residence gives you protections that cannot be waived.

Any legal action arising out of or relating to Hoopers or these Terms must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Kings County, New York, and you and we consent to the jurisdiction of those courts. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Before bringing a claim, please contact us at support@hoopersapp.com so we can try to resolve it informally.

24. California users

If a complaint is not resolved satisfactorily, California users may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, California 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210 or (916) 445-1254.

25. General

These Terms, with the documents listed in section 2, are the entire agreement between you and us about Hoopers. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control. Headings are for convenience only.

26. Contact

iCatch Labs LLC
418 Broadway, STE 7369
Albany, NY 12207
United States

support@hoopersapp.com