Welcome to the New Sportando

After so many years, we have decided to take another step forward.

The new version of Sportando will be online shortly.

At first glance, not much will change, because we have chosen to keep the graphics very similar to the version you are used to. Sportando is also this: a simple, immediate and recognizable website.

But behind the scenes, the changes are much more significant.

We have upgraded the server and the backend, improving the infrastructure and several technical aspects that you may not see directly, but that will make Sportando faster, smoother and more responsive.

And this is only the beginning.

Several new features are planned over the next few weeks. The biggest one will probably concern our comment system.

Goodbye Disqus, Welcome Community

For now, we will continue using Disqus for comments. We decided not to change too many things at once and to make the transition as simple as possible.

Within the next few weeks, however, we will say goodbye to Disqus and move to a new system called Community.

For many users, this will feel like going back to the old Sportando, because Community will be much closer to what Sportando used to be: not just a place to comment on news, but a real community.

Among other things, Community will allow private comments and private messages between registered Sportando users, making interaction between members much easier.

A new registration will be required to use Community.

Don’t worry: the process will be very simple. When the time comes, we will guide you through it step by step and explain exactly what you need to do.

Sportando Without Advertising

Another important new feature will be the possibility to browse Sportando completely ad-free through a new subscription system.

There will be several options available: monthly, six-month, yearly and two-year subscriptions, all at a reasonable price.

And here I want to spend a few words on something that is important to us: ad blockers.

Yes, we know. Advertising can be intrusive. We have absolutely no problem admitting that.

But there is another side to the story.

Sportando has been around for 18 years. For 18 years, we have been publishing basketball news in Italian and English, every day, throughout the day. People work on this website and dedicate their time and energy to keeping it alive and producing content.

Sportando has never asked its readers to pay a cent to access our news.

Our model has always been very simple: you visit the website, we provide the content for free, and advertising helps us keep Sportando running.

That’s why, personally, I find it quite strange when someone proudly says that they browse Sportando using an ad blocker.

It’s not because we want to force anyone to see advertising. It’s because there is a very simple reality that needs to be understood:

If everyone used an ad blocker, Sportando could not continue to exist.

And that would be a shame.

Especially at a time when the entire online media landscape is changing dramatically.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, it is now much easier to ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or other AI tools for a piece of news, a result or a summary instead of visiting a website, as people traditionally did.

That means editorial websites are receiving fewer visits and, as a result, have an increasingly difficult time covering the costs of producing content every single day.

This is why we have decided to offer an alternative: if you don’t want to see advertising, you will be able to subscribe and browse Sportando completely ad-free.

If you want to continue using Sportando for free, you absolutely can. We simply ask you to disable your ad blocker when visiting the site.

I believe that’s a fair compromise that will allow Sportando to continue doing what it has done for the past 18 years.

And Now, We Move Forward

The new Sportando is therefore arriving with a new infrastructure, but with the same goal as always.

Cover basketball.

Every day. All day. In Italian and in English.

And over the next few weeks, we will continue working to introduce new features and improve the website even further.

As always, if you have suggestions, problems, ideas or simply something you want to tell us, leave a comment or send us an email at sportandobasket@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone who has been following us for 18 years.

Thank you to those who joined us yesterday.

And thank you to everyone who will continue reading Sportando tomorrow.

Welcome to the new Sportando, and enjoy the new website.

Good basketball to everyone!