A sports app born from a late-night text between brothers during John Antonelli's freshman year at Duke has peaked at 1 million daily active users.
Antonelli, a 2023 Duke computer science graduate and participant in Duke's Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs program for student founders, co-founded Real with his brothers Louis and Jimmy. The fan-engagement platform delivers real-time play-by-play data and community interaction across major professional and college sports leagues.
"My oldest brother, Louis, texted me an idea: a real-time sports app to discuss and react to NBA play-by-play data," Antonelli wrote in Duke Magazine's April 30, 2025 issue. "Duke fueled this vision with like-minded peers and mentors from Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Fuqua, Duke Wrestling, and the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs program."
That text arrived on Wednesday, February 19, 2020. The platform launched in March 2021.
By the February 2025 Super Bowl, Real had 411,000 simultaneous live viewers, according to Duke Magazine. In a LinkedIn post following Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals, Antonelli reported that Real peaked at 1 million daily active users for the first time. The app also surpassed 1 million monthly active users, achieved without any platform advertising spend, according to a separate LinkedIn post.
In December 2021, the app had 9,000 monthly active members. By November 2022, that figure had reached 124,000, according to Antonelli's Duke I&E profile. The Antonellis bootstrapped the venture from personal savings before securing a strategic investment from The Chernin Group. Investors also include NBA players Tyrese Haliburton, Grayson Allen, and Tre Jones, according to Antonelli's LinkedIn.
The current five-person team consists of John on growth, Louis leading engineering with two engineers, and the brothers' mother handling finance. The company is expanding into tennis, Formula 1, and global soccer. Real generates revenue through a virtual currency called Rax and a subscription-based Pro tier.
