How Overtime Secured $80 Million Funding From Drake And Other Investors
How Overtime Secured $80 Million Funding From Drake And Other Investors. How Overtime Secured $80 Million Funding From Drake And Other Investors. Sports media company Overtime has secured an $80 million fundraising round with investors including Jeff Bezos’ investment firm, global entertainer Drake, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and several National Basketball Association players.
The company will use a portion of the funds to fuel its basketball league that pays 16-to-18-year old players at least $100,000 per year. “The breadth and diversity of this investment group, including leaders from business, entertainment, technology and sports, speaks to Overtime’s remarkable growth and our future trajectory,” co-founder and CEO Dan Porter said in a statement. “We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, as we develop new ways for Overtime to engage with and entertain the next generation of athletes and fans.”
To date, the Brooklyn-based Overtime says it has raised more than $140 million. In March, the company made headlines when it announced Overtime Elite, a basketball league for 16-to-18-year-olds that allows them to earn at least $100,000 per year.
“Overtime has built an unrivalled brand and global community from scratch in just five years. This fundraise reflects the incredible growth opportunities associated with such a market leading position, including the opportunity to bring Overtime Elite into the world,” Michael Spirito, a partner at investment firm Sapphire Sport, who led the funding round told CNBC.
Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of the Amazon CEO, is one of the companies tied to this funding round. Global investment firm Blackstone, Morgan Stanley and many NBA stars, including Devin Booker, Trae Young and Klay Thompson, joined the investment round. WNBA star Chiney Ogwumike is also an investor.
Overtime is a distributed sports network. Instead of offering content through a single channel, Overtime’s programming is available across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, on TV (through a partnership with regional sports network SportsNet New York) and through Overtime itself. Overtime’s coverage helped introduce a number of young high school athletes to national audience, including Rex Cassady, Trae Young, Jordan McCabe and Shareef O’Neal. Its short-form programming is provided by a network of paid contributors, who attend games and upload highlights in real-time from their mobile phones using a special app that makes it easy to capture and produce highlights.
