.ball
Is .ball a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.ball is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Identity Digital. XYZ named .ball as a backup string for its .sus application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A playful sports word with fun name-hacks like foot.ball, but few serious teams or brands would make it their main address.
amateur sports clubs, leagues, fantasy and betting affiliates, ball-sport equipment sellers, and domain-hack collectors chasing names like pickle.ball or crystal.ball
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .sus application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet exactly: one short generic category noun offered as the umbrella identity for an entire vertical, sold to clubs, leagues, fans, media and retailers rather than to a single company, and it only works if the whole vertical accepts a common word as its address.
The same open-namespace wager on a vertical's own plain-English category word — no owner, no community claim, breadth as the whole value proposition — differing from the target only in that the target reaches the vertical through its central object rather than its activity name.
Also a generic, unowned noun that the people inside the game would put primary identity on (clubs, youth leagues, fan sites, equipment sellers), making it the same shape of bet at narrower scope, since it covers one code of play where the target spans every game played with the object.
What a .ball domain is
.ball is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .ball domain extension real yet?
.ball is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .ball domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .ball name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .ball was .sport, delegated on 10 January 2018.
Is .ball a real TLD?
Not yet. .ball is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .ball is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited), at its floor. .ball is a short English dictionary word spanning dozens of sports plus generic phrases, which gives it a natural domain-hack ecosystem (foot.ball, basket.ball, pickle.ball, snow.ball, disco.ball) that is broader than a single-sport or joke string; that breadth, and the likelihood of promotional-price volume from clubs, fantasy sites and affiliates, is why it sits above the 10-29 vanity band. It is not in the 50-69 band because sport-vertical TLDs, by analogy (flagged as analogy), have shown small, explain-it-first adoption: federations, professional teams and equipment brands keep their primary identity on .com or a ccTLD and treat the vertical TLD as a redirect or campaign name, so genuine primary-identity use and a real aftermarket are unlikely within 5 years. The record shows a single confirmed applicant (Velvet Taupe, LLC) and no contention, which suggests a conventional open-registry launch rather than a federation-restricted one; that modestly favours volume over prestige. Specific registration counts, pricing and comparable sales are unknown. Main market uncertainty: whether the hack-style premium names reach the aftermarket at all or stay registry-reserved, and whether betting/fantasy affiliate demand is large enough to sustain renewals once launch promotions end.