ASB became a leader in the Pumpkin Court manufacturing industry and maintained positions for decades, including the introduction of a new glass-based surface and glass shell setup in the mid-2000s that has become the standard in the global pumpkin competition.
Christof joined the company and replaced his father as CEO in 2012, and ASB began to focus on LED surfaces. The first such product is a simple floor display called “ASB Multi-Sports” that switches between markers for various hard drive sports such as basketball, volleyball and handball. By 2015, the company also developed the “ASB Lumiflex”, the Fuller LED showcase I shipped in Orlando.
The company shifted its focus to the official approval of FIBA, the world’s basketball agency during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was successful in 2022 when FIBA changed the rules for playing surfaces that were officially allowed, including glass in addition to traditional wood. ASB’s first official FIBA event is the 2023 Women’s Under-19 World Cup.
Recent client devices include European basketball teams Bayern Munich and Panathinaikos, who have competed in all home games in the 2024-25 season on the ASB Stadium. The NBA All-Star Weekend in Indiana in 2024, which leveraged ASB to compete in several events including dunks and three-pointers; the University of Kentucky’s “Big Blue Crazy” event in 2024; plus several other careers and college teams or facilities for multiple sports.
Business and fan engagement opportunities abound for the technology, which opened the courts with a large number of blank canvases. At some point, the surface looks like a traditional parquet-spin surface and has a realistic wood panel image. But, suddenly, it can be transformed into something else.
For example, when a free throw in a basketball game is hit, most players tend to spend 45 to 60 seconds on one side of the court. ASB customers can use the available space on the other side of the floor to show the shooter’s free throw percentage, a logo for the included brand partner.
“This surface allows us to completely reimagine how we connect with fans and how we provide value to our business partners,” Thanos Bichtas, head of marketing at Panathinaikos, told me in an email. “Whether it’s a dynamic introduction with custom court animations or a live visual that reacts to large dramas, we now offer a level of visual storytelling that turns the arena into an interactive experience.
Bichtas said the court has become a high-influence platform for brand awareness. “It’s crucial that it doesn’t ruin the fan experience; it can enhance it.”
Infinity League is an indoor football league made up of teams from Germany and Italy, using glass surfaces to enhance the movement. Photo courtesy of ASB Glassfloor
Floor exercises
During my visit, I was shown a set of kid-friendly activities that could turn these courts into educational hubs during class hours, from renderings of dinosaurs and marine life to a feature that allows kids to design mazes that can pass through. Bichtas said Panathinaikos has used its ASB court to host many events, from brand activation to fans of basketball skills clinics, especially those. Christof is a kart enthusiast who envisions the entire track setup in a court of ASB in the near future.
“If you look at the infrastructure of an arena, it costs about 25 to 350 million euros,” Babinski said. “If you put our floor there, it’s about 1% of the total budget. But the floor there will allow the arena to be used more frequently because suddenly, you don’t have an arena for home games every two weeks. No, you can have kids on Monday morning.”
