The company they invest in together is called Overtime.
On the long list of investors, in addition to the major well-known investment institutions, there are also the management funds of Terre Young, Thompson, Gasol, Booker, and Stern.
What kind of company is this that can make so many big guys in different industries and different backgrounds favor it?
Tencent Sports had an exclusive interview with co-founder and CEO Dan Porter before the All-Star to hear his entrepreneurial story and what kind of company it is.
Co-founder Dan Porter
"Reinventing a Sports League"
According to the 2022 draft simulation by US media NBC, John Montello will be selected at no. 18th place in the first round.
Unlike other players involved in the draft, he is neither in the elite teams of universities such as Duke and Kentucky, nor in the elite team of the development league where Zeng Van Bo is located, but in the overtime elite team.
This elite team, which belongs to the overtime basketball league under the overtime company, has just been established for two years.
The overtime league has three teams with a total of 27 players, all of whom are training at the corporate headquarters in Atlanta. Wenhorst, who has visited the headquarters, told Tencent Sports that their facility level is far more than that of the general high school, better than the vast majority of universities, even if it is placed in the NBA, it is certainly not the worst, it should be the middle level.
Located at the Extra Time Arena in Atlanta
Porter told Tencent Sports that after communicating with a number of top players and parents, they found that there are some flaws in the current system for elite players. Elite players can't concentrate against other elite players, which is not conducive to growth; most college training and nutrition measures are relatively lagging behind, and players who play at college have no income. Because of this, many high school graduates choose to go to overseas leagues, such as three-goal.
"There is something wrong with this system", the overtime elite alliance came into being.
As a newly formed league, in order to attract high-level players, the overtime league has introduced a series of attractive policies. Each player earns $100,000 a year, and if a player doesn't play professionally later, they offer a scholarship of up to $100,000 to the player. In addition, whether it is a coach, or physical fitness, nutritionist, etc., it is a high standard.
"Faced with a high school student, how do you convince him to join the overtime league? Tencent Sports asked.
"You're going to be in a place where you're going to get your basketball skills, your basketball IQ, your physical fitness improving in a year, you can play four or five hours a day, you get the best training, you get the best treatments and diets, you have the best coaches, you can compete with 25 people who are just as good as you, and you can build the skills that make your dreams come true." Another point is that if someone is interested in their personal brand, they will have a lot of followers on social media and we will make sure their name is exposed. I'm hearing more and more that the younger generation cares about basketball and also about business. We will do our best to provide opportunities to expand their fan base and learn how to operate business. The impression of athletes used to be that they were running around on the field, and now we're trying to give the impression that athletes can also control their business. ”
The stars who have come all the way from high school probably know how tempting this rhetoric is.
In last year's Series C financing, the overtime elite received $80 million in financing from Drake, Booker, Thompson and others, and the current financing scale of overtime has reached 140 million US dollars.
Speaking about the next step, Porter is ambitious, "Our business model will change from a media model, similar to ESPN, to a league model like the NBA, the NFL, the Premier League, etc." ”
There are many people who have tried to recreate a basketball league and have failed. Why do Durant, Booker, Thompson, and others believe That Porter can do it?
Because Porter and his team have proven themselves in another area, and are closely related areas, the most enticing argument for their financing is that they understand young people
"Sports Community for Young People"
Before founding the Overtime Elite Alliance, Extra Time was a media company.
According to Porter, Overtime has more than 50 million followers on major social media and more than 1 billion video views per month. They are not simply sports MCN, the younger generation of users when it comes to overtime, they can immediately think of the culture behind overtime. Porter said that once he went to Silicon Valley to raise money, the investor's child happened to be there, and his son said, "I know you guys, I watch your show a lot."
That was one of Porter's easiest fundraising experiences.
Every time I do an offline activity in overtime, the crowds are crowded and the fans are extremely enthusiastic. "I'm on overtime," like on ESPN, is a capital that young people can brag about.
Overtime accounts, involving all major platforms, Youtube, Instragram, etc. After the success of the main account, overtime hatched many sub-accounts, including sneakers, rugby, women's basketball, etc., each account has a group of loyal fans.
The main account has about 6 million followers on Instagram, and the pictures and videos posted are all-encompassing, ranging from exciting game footage to very social events, such as coaches yelling at referees and students spoofing in the audience. According to the popular saying at the moment, they have mastered the traffic code of young sports fans. Many videos, after being processed and forwarded by them, exploded on the Internet.
Overtime offline activities
"We're sometimes a social media distribution, but we're all labeling the original publisher," Extra-hour PR Carla told Tencent Sports.
Overtime videos on Youtube are another feature. In addition to the easy-to-disseminate videos, there is a lot of content that they shoot themselves, similar to the documentaries of the stars. Before Trae Young and Jaylen Green entered the NBA, they were filmed in overtime. Right now the top players in the United States, they all have relevant content.
This may be the key to their mastery of traffic passwords.
"Young people don't watch live TV anymore, it's an opportunity"
If you look at the background of the founder Porter, it is extraordinary: his uncle is a Nobel Laureate in economics, his father is a professor at Penn, he himself graduated from Princeton University, and he studied a master's degree in Latin American studies at New York University.
However, his work experience after graduation is more open-minded.
Porter first chaired a nonprofit organization, recruited and distributed American teachers with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and then began his entrepreneurial career. I have done online ticket sales, music services and other projects, and each project has been successful. The real take-off was the launch of the "You Draw I Guess" game, which became an overnight hit and sold $200 million to Zynga. In its heyday, almost every mobile phone user was playing the show. After more than a year at Zynga, he was the head of the mobile business, joining the well-known brokerage company WME, responsible for the digital business. During his time at WME, Porter spoke to a lot of customers who complained that the younger generation was no longer watching live television. The younger generation of sports fans, who also love sports, no longer stay on the couch and watch three hours of live streaming. The current way of disseminating sports content can no longer attract young people who grew up in the mobile phone era.
Customer complaints made Porter smell the opportunity, and he decided to start a business again to attract these 16- to 25-year-olds.
Many people start a business by having a good product in their hands and then looking for users to promote it. The opposite is true for Porter, who knows who the user is, but is not clear about what product his user wants. As a first step, he had to find a partner who really understood young people, and he pulled up WME colleague Weiner. As former chess champions, Wei Na and Porter hit it off, and Overtime's founding team was formed.
"Knowing the energy of these young superstars, we know that we have found the excitement of the fans"
At the beginning of the project, Porter was ambitious. Their initial idea was to aggregate young people's own sports highlights and push them to these young people. The specific approach is to use the way you shoot yourself, or let the fans shoot, edit the highlights of high school games, hoping that the players of these games, or classmates, parents, etc. will come to watch. If enough high schools can be pooled, they can become a high school version of ESPN.
Porter and Wei Na soon discovered that fans weren't buying it.
Those players who participate in the game feel that their appearance is not good, and their desire to promote and distribute themselves is not so strong. Similarly, for the parents and classmates of the players, they have little interest in watching a highlight that is not at a high level.
So Potter began experimenting with other content, and they found that one rising star, Williamson, had more video views than many high school video collections combined.
"Young people love these young superstars, pinning their hopes and dreams on them because they are similar in age."
After experiencing the benefits of young superstars, Overtime began to focus on young stars and tell young people's stories in the way that young people liked. With WME's experience in digital content, the Porter team moved away from the traditional ESPN way of producing content, producing a form that was easy to spread on mobile phones. Overtime's fans on social media have increased rapidly. Originally, Porter wanted to let social media drain their apps, but found that this method was not ideal, so they decided to abandon their apps and concentrate on developing major social media. Once they have their own brand, they have the bargaining chip with social media, and if one day Instagram blocks their account or increases the advertising share, they can also go to platforms such as Youtube.
After a gradual increase in fans, Porter began to raise funds. Relying on their achievements, coupled with Porter's background, Overtime quickly gained the favor of some investors, including Durant.
After the success of social media, overtime began to do offline basketball games. They changed the rules of the game to make the game smoother and more exciting. All matches will not be broadcast live on any platform, but will be made into easy-to-disseminate video content after the end of the game. The league, which is slowly overtime, has also gained word of mouth, and every time it comes to the game, it has become a hot topic for local young fans to discuss on social media.
Gathered a group of loyal young sports fans, with a brand, with culture, overtime can tell investors: they understand young people.