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Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in

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Speaker 1: which we speak with some of the brightest minds working

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Speaker 1: in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety.

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Speaker 1: The fast growing team sports empire known as Overtime just

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Speaker 1: announced this week it has raised one hundred million dollars

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Speaker 1: in Series D funding. To find out more about what

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Speaker 1: this means for this fascinating media venture, I spoke with

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Speaker 1: its CEO, Dan Porter, for this episode is Strictly Business

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Speaker 1: stick around and we'll be back with Dan in just

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Speaker 1: a moment. I'm talking to Overtime CEO Dan Porter, who

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Speaker 1: is fresh off a one hundred million dollar funding infusion.

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Speaker 1: For those count at home, that's a total of two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars raised since Overtime began in

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Speaker 1: two Thanks Dan for coming on to talk about what

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Speaker 1: this new development means. Thanks for having me. So h

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Speaker 1: question one is obviously, what is over Time going to

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Speaker 1: do with all this money. It's interesting to trace its

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Speaker 1: evolution over the years, and this seems like a whole

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Speaker 1: new place for growth. Yes, So answer I tell the

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Speaker 1: investors is we're going to invest in very carefully, wisely

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Speaker 1: and cautiously. But the actual answer is that we have

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Speaker 1: kind of we kind of started out as almost like

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Speaker 1: a pure media company evolved into what we would describe

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Speaker 1: almost more of a community. Um. We've always kind of

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Speaker 1: focused on putting our audience and our fans first and

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Speaker 1: at the center of what we do. And then on

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Speaker 1: top of that, starting last year, we've invested in launched

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Speaker 1: two sports leagues, when a basketball, one in football, and

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Speaker 1: so the investment of capital that we've just raised goes

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Speaker 1: into continuing to grow those leagues because the number one

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Speaker 1: goal of those leagues is to have a huge audience.

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Speaker 1: What makes sports successful, It makes anything successful, as a

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Speaker 1: lot of people are passionate about it and they watch it,

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Speaker 1: and so operating owning it and then really investing in

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Speaker 1: audience development so that we can bring in media rights

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Speaker 1: and sponsors. That's the core of what we're going to

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Speaker 1: do with this money over the next two to three years. Well,

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Speaker 1: you've definitely got an audience. I see the latest numbers here,

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Speaker 1: sixty five million followers across all the leading platforms, which

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Speaker 1: is tremendous. And we'll get to media rights in a second,

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Speaker 1: but I want to talk more about this investment strategy.

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Speaker 1: It just seems very aggressive, a lot of money coming in,

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Speaker 1: and I'm curious, what is it like in this economic

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Speaker 1: climate to even raise that kind of money? Was it?

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Speaker 1: Was it difficult this time around? It was a norm

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Speaker 1: mostly difficult. I'm not gonna lie. I think that the

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Speaker 1: level of capitalization of companies previously, when interest rates were

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Speaker 1: phenomenally low, was very high. Early on, I had investors say, well,

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Speaker 1: can I give you more money? Like, what would you

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Speaker 1: do if we wrote a check for three X instead

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Speaker 1: of X? And we used to think, like, we can't

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Speaker 1: really spend that money, And now things have shifted the

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Speaker 1: other way. So it feels like we've raised this incredible

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Speaker 1: amount of money, but there's an enormous pressure to make

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Speaker 1: this last for a very very long time so that

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Speaker 1: you're somewhat insulated from the ups and downs of where

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Speaker 1: the market is and where the economy is. But there's

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Speaker 1: no doubt that there were people where we were talking

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Speaker 1: to them in the middle of the process and they

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Speaker 1: would say, Hey, we love what you're doing, but our

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Speaker 1: own portfolio is just getting crushed right now, and we're

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Speaker 1: going to either have to sit this one out or

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Speaker 1: write a smaller check. And there are other people who

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Speaker 1: were still investing and we're ready. But it's just I

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Speaker 1: can't even compare it to any fundraising environment I've been

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Speaker 1: in the last five years. I'm sure what was interesting

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Speaker 1: about this round also correct me if I'm wrong Liberty

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Speaker 1: Media coming in as as the lead for the first

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Speaker 1: time is were they new to the table this year?

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Speaker 1: They're a new investor, for sure. I had met them,

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Speaker 1: and I had met Robin hicken Looper about a year

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Speaker 1: and a half ago over Zoom and so I think

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Speaker 1: they had been tracking what we were doing. And obviously

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Speaker 1: they own the Atlanta Braves in Formula one, and so

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Speaker 1: people who have exposure to media and sports and a

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Speaker 1: huge amount of success. It's not a lot of those people,

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Speaker 1: and they're not a lot of them that are also

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Speaker 1: just kind of aggressive and forward thinking. So we were

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Speaker 1: just like when we were talking to them, we were

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Speaker 1: very honed in because it's not it's not a big group.

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Speaker 1: If you talk about venture capitalists in private equity, there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of people who have money, um, but

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Speaker 1: there's not a lot of people who kind of play

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Speaker 1: in the lane that we've play. Sure, and of course

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Speaker 1: we should know when it comes to venture capital and

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Speaker 1: the like there there may be no venture out there

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Speaker 1: with the with a cooler group of investors. Over the years,

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Speaker 1: when you've got I think you said, six percent of

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Speaker 1: NBA players like Carmelo Anthony, you've got Drake, have you

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Speaker 1: continued to be this magnet for a list names from

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Speaker 1: sports and entertainment we have? We definitely I think about

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Speaker 1: it less about kind of getting checks from those folks,

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Speaker 1: especially in the days when you know you can get

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Speaker 1: checks from anybody, but almost like as partnership development. So

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Speaker 1: when you talk about, oh, well we launched a basketball league, well,

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Speaker 1: we brought in six percent of active NBA players to

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Speaker 1: essentially invest and be partners. So some people will come,

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Speaker 1: some people we can pick their brain. Same in music,

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Speaker 1: same in culture. Uh. And so being able to work

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Speaker 1: with athletes like in in this new round, Trey Young

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Speaker 1: wrote another check and he's somebody we covered when he

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Speaker 1: was in high school. He's in the Atlanta market. Where

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Speaker 1: in the Atlanta market, you know he's done basketball runs

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Speaker 1: at our our venue, And so being able to build

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Speaker 1: partnerships across sports and culture is really important to us.

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Speaker 1: And I think at the core, you're just like, well

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Speaker 1: those people they also follow us like they see us

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Speaker 1: on social media, they see what it is. It's not

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Speaker 1: like they're looking at a business plan and they have

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Speaker 1: no idea who we are. UM. But it's always going

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Speaker 1: to be an important part across sports and culture for

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Speaker 1: us to bring in partners like that. So I guess

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Speaker 1: really the biggest question is, you've got a hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollars on top of what you've already made. What are

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Speaker 1: the next growth steps? What are what is this money

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Speaker 1: going towards? Could we see yet another league beyond what

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Speaker 1: you've done in basketball and football. So to answer the

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Speaker 1: second question, first, it's possible. We're definitely in the early

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Speaker 1: state page of exploration in a couple of other areas

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Speaker 1: where we could launch. In general, we try to focus

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Speaker 1: on very mainstream sports sports. I would describe that in

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Speaker 1: a hypothetical world where you're turning the channels, which nobody

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Speaker 1: really does, but for the sake of argument, if you're

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Speaker 1: turning the channels anywhere in the world and it popped up,

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Speaker 1: you'd know what the sport was and you didn't need

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Speaker 1: to understand what the rules are to watch it or

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Speaker 1: participate in it. UM. And I'd say a sport where

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Speaker 1: there's an opportunity to really uh follow kind of the

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Speaker 1: development of the next generation of athlete, where there's an

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Speaker 1: opportunity for athlete empowerment and where there's an opportunity for storytelling.

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Speaker 1: So they're they're definitely sports and aspects of sports that

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Speaker 1: fit that, and there are sports that don't, So we

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Speaker 1: will do that. And then on the former, um, it's

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Speaker 1: about just continuing to expand and invest both in basketball

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Speaker 1: and football and to develop the audience around that. You know,

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Speaker 1: we should explain how your company makes money, which from

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Speaker 1: what I could tell, is a mix of sponsorships and commerce. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Why this, I guess early stage, is that not enough

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Speaker 1: to be self sustaining? Why, uh is there still such

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Speaker 1: an aggressive funding strategy that needs to be implemented to

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Speaker 1: keep you guys going. I think, like a lot of companies,

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Speaker 1: it could be self sustaining. But then in a way

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Speaker 1: do you stop growing, Like if you don't produce more

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Speaker 1: content or more sports or anything else like that, you

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Speaker 1: kind of hit your natural ceiling to some extent. And

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Speaker 1: so if we turned off twenty faucets in the company

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Speaker 1: right now, we could be great even but we might

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Speaker 1: be stuck at that size without the ability to grow

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Speaker 1: because how are you essentially marketing And for us, we

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Speaker 1: don't really think of it as marketing. We think of

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Speaker 1: it as, you know, using content and social platforms to grow.

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Speaker 1: And so, because the upside is so big, because sports

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Speaker 1: teams and sports leagues are so incredibly valuable, there's the

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Speaker 1: understanding that if you invest that money and you build

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Speaker 1: something that's really big, you're going to get a bigger return. Now,

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollars sounds like a lot of money. It's

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Speaker 1: not going to be spent in a month. It's going

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Speaker 1: to be spent over time. But audience development and passion

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Speaker 1: and engagement, it's not linear. It's not like your Starbucks

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Speaker 1: are Uber and you're in one city and then you

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Speaker 1: add another city, and then you add another city. You've

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Speaker 1: got to go out and emotionally grab fans and and

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Speaker 1: convince them or build a partnership with them, to be

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Speaker 1: passionate about what you're doing and remind them to tune

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Speaker 1: in and all of those things like that. And so

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Speaker 1: over a five year period it might look up into

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Speaker 1: the right, but the reality is in a shorter period

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Speaker 1: it looks up and down depending and that's even true

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Speaker 1: in professional sports. You know, ratings for a championship game

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Speaker 1: go through the roof, and then the next year a

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Speaker 1: less popular team plays it and the ratings go down,

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Speaker 1: and so, uh, you're always going to have to kind

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Speaker 1: of focus and mitigate that. But but the end game

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Speaker 1: is massive, Like if you look at the different parts

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Speaker 1: of culture, obviously on a global basis, sports is just

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Speaker 1: a massive, massive part of culture and people's time and

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Speaker 1: energy and passion, no doubt. But I want people to understand,

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Speaker 1: and so for you to explain to the uninitiated what

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Speaker 1: your leagues how they are different. Of course, you know,

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Speaker 1: clearly it's a younger group. It's you know, sixteen to

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Speaker 1: nineteen year olds that have in the case of for instance, basketball,

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Speaker 1: they've bypassed, uh maybe some of high schools, some of

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Speaker 1: college they're doing this instead as their road to the NBA.

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Speaker 1: But what differentiates your sports from the NFL or the

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Speaker 1: NBA that makes it uniquely compelling? Yeah, so so, first

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Speaker 1: of all, obviously, the NBA and the NFL are elite

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Speaker 1: products run by very smart people with massive, massive audience

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Speaker 1: spaces um and firmly established in American culture. I would

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Speaker 1: say for us it's probably three things. Number one is

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Speaker 1: we kind of when we were a media company and

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Speaker 1: even as a sports league, have focused on making more

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Speaker 1: extensible kind of the twelve to twenty four months almost

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Speaker 1: were you as an athlete, um, exist and play and

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Speaker 1: compete before you become famous, so to speaker, before you

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Speaker 1: become a professional, before you become the quarterback of Ohio

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Speaker 1: State or anything else like that. And that part of

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Speaker 1: the equation is really fragmented in long tail. There's no

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Speaker 1: really place where you can consume that. And so if

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Speaker 1: you are a massive set ball fan or a massive

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Speaker 1: football fan, you may care about watching you know, the

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Speaker 1: story before it gets there. The same way if you're

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Speaker 1: a massive music fan, you may subscribe to a lot

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Speaker 1: of places, listen to podcasts, go to see a band

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Speaker 1: when they're playing for ten thousand people instead of a

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand people, um, And we think there's a very

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Speaker 1: interesting and attractive market there. The second is really focused

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Speaker 1: on the empowerment both of the athlete and the fan.

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Speaker 1: Like we kind of always are asking the question like,

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Speaker 1: how is the fan first? In this How is the

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Speaker 1: audience at the center of what we're doing. I think

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Speaker 1: traditional sports, much like almost all of traditional media, honestly

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Speaker 1: is about taking something that's interesting, putting it on a

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Speaker 1: screen and telling you to sit back and watch it.

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Speaker 1: And what is your job as a fan. It's to subscribe,

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Speaker 1: it's to buy a jersey, it's to buy a ticket.

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Speaker 1: I think when we launched over Time, it was clear

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Speaker 1: that the audience felt that they were our partner, that

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Speaker 1: they were at the center of the content. And we

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Speaker 1: responded to probably over two million direct messages and comments

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Speaker 1: in our first three years. And so as we launched

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Speaker 1: these leagues, we constantly say, before we play a game,

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Speaker 1: or you know, do a you know, make a post,

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Speaker 1: how do you put the fan at the center of this.

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a small example, which is at the

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Speaker 1: end of one of our basketball games, the winning team

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Speaker 1: walks around and essentially shakes hands or DAPs up or

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Speaker 1: however you want to describe it. All the fans who

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Speaker 1: are sitting around the court, and those fans paid seven

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Speaker 1: dollars for a ticket. And so the idea that you

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Speaker 1: might be fifteen or sixteen years old and some seven

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Speaker 1: foot guys coming and saying thanks for coming to the game,

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Speaker 1: like you're shrinking the distance between the audience and that um.

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Speaker 1: And I say that because I will say to the team,

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Speaker 1: that's a metaphor for what we're trying to do on

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Speaker 1: the internet. So how we can put the fan more

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Speaker 1: at the center of the game, how we can talk

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Speaker 1: about covering a kind of next up audience and athlete empowerment.

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Speaker 1: And I'd say the third thing is all things that

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Speaker 1: we're able to do around the production of that media,

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Speaker 1: which is leaning into culture as much as we can.

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Speaker 1: Who calls the game? You know, when we launched O

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Speaker 1: T seven, when you score and get a phone pit

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Speaker 1: that you could jump into and celebrate. Every sport has

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Speaker 1: its own culture, and I think that every generation wants

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Speaker 1: to see that culture reflected in that sport. And while

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Speaker 1: I think that traditional broadcast networks and sports are incredible,

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Speaker 1: they can't disappoint the traditional audience, right. They can't make

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Speaker 1: something where the forty or fifty year old audience said,

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Speaker 1: I don't really understand what that is, Like I'm happy

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Speaker 1: the way I am. For us, we don't have those limitations,

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Speaker 1: so we have to push ourselves in terms of creativity

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Speaker 1: and social distribution, and ultimately, like we want to you know,

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Speaker 1: the final thing I'll say is like we really want

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Speaker 1: to compete and win on access. I would say that

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Speaker 1: you know, when you ask anybody in the media business

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Speaker 1: about social media, they'll say, once you let the genie

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Speaker 1: out of the box, once you let somebody into the

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Speaker 1: locker room, once you let an athlete or a politician

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Speaker 1: or a musicians speak directly to their fans, nobody ever

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Speaker 1: wants that to go away and go back in the

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Speaker 1: day where all media consumption was mediated through a small

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Speaker 1: number of channels. And for us, we constantly say, like,

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Speaker 1: how do we give access? Like we've taken training and

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Speaker 1: workout and stuff with the coach, and we've put it

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Speaker 1: on the internet for people to watch uncut and live

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Speaker 1: and so the more that you can not only empower

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Speaker 1: the fan, but you can give them access to the

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Speaker 1: product because we own the league. A team can't do that.

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Speaker 1: A team can't do that because the competitors to the

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Speaker 1: team are gonna be like, oh, I see what plays

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Speaker 1: they're running. Now we're going to compete against them. Were

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Speaker 1: all the teams were the whole league. And so we're

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Speaker 1: able to do that in a specific way. And I

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Speaker 1: think that that's where we really push ourselves off for

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Speaker 1: something of unique value to the fans. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: in just a moment with more with Dan Porter from Overtime,

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Speaker 1: and we're back with Overtime CEO Dan Porter, who is

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Speaker 1: walking us through his I was about to say new league,

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Speaker 1: but it's it's six years old now. And what I'm

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Speaker 1: also wondering about as we talk about monetization is it's

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Speaker 1: not as if the league that the league's I should

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Speaker 1: say that you're running are in how we traditionally think

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Speaker 1: of leagues, which is teams in separate cities traveling to

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Speaker 1: each other. Um, is that weird? You guys are going

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Speaker 1: to go and does fans showing up at local arenas

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Speaker 1: or in your case, you have one big complex for

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Speaker 1: the basketball league in Atlanta. For football, it's in Las Vegas.

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Speaker 1: But it doesn't seem like attendance at these events is

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Speaker 1: sort of a significant revenue stream for you. And so

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Speaker 1: I was curious about how you look at the future

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Speaker 1: of all that. Correct, it's a It's an important distinction.

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Speaker 1: We are playing for the internet. We do not have

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Speaker 1: city based teams. We're not looking to make money from

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Speaker 1: parking and the sale of beer and hot dogs and

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Speaker 1: season tickets and thirty local markets. We play for one stage,

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Speaker 1: which is the global Internet everywhere in the world. We

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Speaker 1: obviously play in a physical location. You mentioned Atlanta in

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Speaker 1: Las Vegas, but I think of those almost like you

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Speaker 1: think of a sound stage. That's the place you play

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Speaker 1: in front of an audience, but it's consumed everywhere, and

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Speaker 1: it's a fundamentally different business model. On on the one hand, sure,

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Speaker 1: you lose the aspect to monetize on a local level,

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Speaker 1: you lose local sponsors, you don't make money from parking.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, you're not flying all over the place.

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Speaker 1: You're trying to mitigate costs on that basis, and you're

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Speaker 1: also saying like you can be a fan of any

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Speaker 1: of these teams. It has nothing to do with whether

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Speaker 1: you live in Los Angeles, Boston, Brooklyn, Memphis, anywhere else

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Speaker 1: like that. These are the potential for you on a

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Speaker 1: global basis. So it's a slightly different way of thinking

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Speaker 1: about it, and there's not a lot of precedent for that.

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Speaker 1: If you look at your sports fandom, the vast majority

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Speaker 1: of it, for for for everybody in the United States

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Speaker 1: is tied to you know, a city where they grew up,

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Speaker 1: a college that they went to, you know, or anything

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Speaker 1: else like that. And we're really trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: a different model around that, and and so it has

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Speaker 1: you know, cost savings, but hopefully it has a larger

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Speaker 1: audience space. And then the revenue drivers are threefold. Number one,

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Speaker 1: you have sponsorship. Our founding sponsors were Meta State Farm

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Speaker 1: and Gatorade. And it also has group licensing, so we

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Speaker 1: have an incredible deal with ops. You can buy trading

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Speaker 1: cards are available on Target, Walmart. And the third is

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Speaker 1: eventually you're creating a media rights product that consists of

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Speaker 1: essentially three things, live games, tempole events. We think of

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Speaker 1: tempole events is the NBA All Star Game of the

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Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, but like we try to really create a

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Speaker 1: tempole event that feels different. And the third is essentially

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Speaker 1: all the storytelling around it, the hard knocks that drive

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Speaker 1: to survive. We we embed that in the entire league,

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Speaker 1: and so are kind of consumable media product. We're trying

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Speaker 1: to make something that's broader than just thinking about raw

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Speaker 1: tonnage of live events. Well, but that is so to

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Speaker 1: some degree counter intuitive. I mean, I get that everything

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Speaker 1: is playing out right now on the social platforms, uh

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Speaker 1: and advertising comes into that, but isn't the big money

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Speaker 1: to be made at it, especially at a time where

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Speaker 1: UH sports is not commanding top dollar out there from

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Speaker 1: license ors, but you've got big tech companies out there

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Speaker 1: just dying for good products. I would assume frankly that

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Speaker 1: you're you're turning your back right now on what could

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Speaker 1: be the biggest revenue spiggott you've got. I wouldn't say

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Speaker 1: we're turning our back. I'd say we're adding a plus

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Speaker 1: to the end of it. So when you talk to

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Speaker 1: us about the playoffs are a live game package globally

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Speaker 1: or in the United States, we're also saying like there's

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Speaker 1: more than just the live games, Like we're going to

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Speaker 1: create the documentary around it, We're going to create ten

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Speaker 1: pole events, We're going to do other things like that,

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Speaker 1: and so the overall package is potentially larger and in

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Speaker 1: a way that exists right the NFL Draft is hugely

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Speaker 1: watched and consumed, like all the professional sports leagues have

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Speaker 1: worked to create essentially teenpole moments and events in addition

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Speaker 1: to the live games. We're just doing it in our

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Speaker 1: own special fashion. But yeah, we think that that's going

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Speaker 1: to be valuable and it's going to be a way

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Speaker 1: to watch it, and we also think that there's a

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Speaker 1: large opportunity for discovery based on our social platform. If

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Speaker 1: we're doing billions of video views and we have tens

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Speaker 1: of millions of followers, that becomes a more effective way

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Speaker 1: to find and introduce us to a new fan than

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Speaker 1: buying billboards or doing other things like that in the

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Speaker 1: traditional marketing realm. One more question on the monetization front,

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Speaker 1: which is I think when your serious funding came in

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Speaker 1: last year, uh n f T S became part of

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Speaker 1: what you were planning to do. Have you gotten to

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Speaker 1: market with that yet? How are how are you thinking

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Speaker 1: about cracking that, especially at a time where the blue

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Speaker 1: maybe off the rows. Yes, we've been active in the

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Speaker 1: n f T space. UM. We have an n f

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Speaker 1: T project called Bracket X where we've created gets around

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Speaker 1: the n c A tournament and n B A and

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Speaker 1: the rub was that you could sell your bracket to

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Speaker 1: somebody else. So, if you think about from a game

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Speaker 1: design standpoint, participating in a bracket is a one dimensional game.

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Speaker 1: You fill it out, you participate, and you sit and watch.

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Speaker 1: But what happens if you think that your bracket is

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Speaker 1: great and you want to sell it to someone else

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Speaker 1: who's bracket is is not as good? You had a

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Speaker 1: second dimension to the game design. So we've been active

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Speaker 1: in that space, and we're going to be active in

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Speaker 1: the space around the sports that we do on the

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Speaker 1: n f T side, but going forward some things that

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Speaker 1: are not yet announced. But the goal isn't really to

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Speaker 1: sell an n f T for the sake of n

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Speaker 1: f T. It's to use Web three as a platform

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Speaker 1: to continue to develop and expand the i P we have.

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Speaker 1: So if Web three is an end in and of itself,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna dump a lot of stuff there and you

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Speaker 1: might make money in the short term. It might fall apart,

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Speaker 1: as you've mentioned, But if it just becomes another tactic,

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Speaker 1: if it's another district aribution channel, the same way that

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Speaker 1: social is a distribution channel, the same way that emails

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Speaker 1: the distribution channel, I think you can get a lot

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Speaker 1: of leverage from there, and that's really where our focus is. Well,

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Speaker 1: what I'm wondering is if you're thinking about it in

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Speaker 1: terms of the way some Web three evangelists speak of

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Speaker 1: how n f T s come together with i P

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Speaker 1: in the sense that fans have a sense of ownership.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps you know, a typical overtime fan actually has a

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Speaker 1: piece of their favorite team. Are you going that far

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Speaker 1: with your thinking? I think those things are super interesting.

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Speaker 1: We're already basically trying to do that independent of n

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Speaker 1: f t s because if you want to give fans

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Speaker 1: a chance to participate and kind of own the league, like,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to limit it to those who just

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Speaker 1: have crypto wallets. You want to you want to be

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Speaker 1: able to engage fans across the board. So I think

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Speaker 1: there's part of that, UM, and I think those things

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Speaker 1: are interesting. There's a lot you can't have a fans

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Speaker 1: determine who's on your team or make the calls because

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Speaker 1: you're a competitive sports team and and you want to win. UM,

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Speaker 1: but there's definitely a way that web three facilitates a

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Speaker 1: sense of ownership. And then I would add that we're

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Speaker 1: just gonna do some things that nobody have ever done before,

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Speaker 1: and it's going to kind of blow your mind when

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Speaker 1: we announce it. All right, I can't wait for that, UM.

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Speaker 1: I also can't wait for what I think will be

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Speaker 1: sort of the transformative moment for at the very least

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Speaker 1: your basketball league, which is I think what I wonder

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Speaker 1: if you agree that minting sort of the next generation

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Speaker 1: of stars who turn pro will be the moment that

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Speaker 1: probably puts your league on the map more than anything else.

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Speaker 1: And there's already a lot of hype around a pair

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Speaker 1: of brothers known as the Thompson Twins in your league. Um,

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Speaker 1: who when an NBA draft comes in three next summer,

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Speaker 1: they're probably going to be up there at the at

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Speaker 1: the top picks. Uh. Do you see that in terms

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Speaker 1: of being sort of a big moment for the future

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Speaker 1: of overtime? I do in the sense that there are

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Speaker 1: a number of drivers of interest. There's no doubt that

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Speaker 1: there is a part of the audience who says, I

433
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:23,400
Speaker 1: want to see the next generation of NBA or NFL players,

434
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 1: and when you prove it that's true. Look at our

435
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:30,479
Speaker 1: OT seven event, we had four of the top five

436
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: ranked high school quarterbacks, all major commitments to Power five schools,

437
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 1: and that's that's interesting to people. There are other people

438
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,840
Speaker 1: who say, you know, I want to see my favorite

439
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:43,920
Speaker 1: player because I love them on the internet and maybe

440
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: they're gonna go pro, and maybe they're not going to

441
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:47,360
Speaker 1: go pro, but I want to see them right now.

442
00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 1: And there are other people who are going to say,

443
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: like this is my league, Like that's my dad's league.

444
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 1: Or that's my grandfather's league, Like I have my own

445
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: thing and this is what I'm into, And whether these

446
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:59,440
Speaker 1: guys go to the draft or not are in material.

447
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: So it's not a make or break moment. But I

448
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,199
Speaker 1: think any new league looks for a level of validation

449
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,600
Speaker 1: across a number of factors. So I think that that's important.

450
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,199
Speaker 1: But I would also say selling out trading cards in

451
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: tops in Walmart. I've walked into a number of them

452
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:17,880
Speaker 1: and we're completely sold out and you can't buy them

453
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,199
Speaker 1: is also a validation factor. And having you know, a

454
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 1: quarter of a million and a half a million people

455
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 1: watch your championship is also a validation factor. So they

456
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 1: all matter. There's not a single kind of you know,

457
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 1: you know, silver bullet that makes that difference, but collectively

458
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: they're valid and that I didn't one other thing that

459
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:41,480
Speaker 1: I think I forgot to say earlier, which is, you know,

460
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,000
Speaker 1: I love football. Let's say, for example, and I do.

461
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 1: I'm a big football fan, but I'm not so much

462
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: of a fan that if I'm turning the channel and

463
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 1: there's two professional teams or there's two college teams where

464
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 1: I don't know a single player on that team, where

465
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: I'm going to be motivated to watch. I give you

466
00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: an extreme example. Montana is playing South Dakota. I don't

467
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:01,880
Speaker 1: know those schools. I don't know the teams, I don't

468
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: know the players. I love football, but I don't love

469
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: it so much that I'll watch something I don't know about.

470
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:09,719
Speaker 1: But to give you another extreme example, if either of

471
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,120
Speaker 1: my sons were playing, I would be in the front

472
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 1: row for that and it would be the greatest game

473
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 1: I'd ever watched because I love them more than I

474
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,680
Speaker 1: love any other player. And so the ability to tell

475
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: stories and create narratives and invest the fans and those players,

476
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 1: whether they're going to the NBA or whether they're not,

477
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: I think is the game changing element. I worked on

478
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: the New League Investment Team. I was a participant in that.

479
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 1: When I worked at w m ME, we looked at

480
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 1: a lot of projects, and at the end of the day,

481
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 1: if you can't make people care about the athletes and

482
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: understand their stories, and that's something the Olympics does an

483
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,719
Speaker 1: incredible job of. Right now, I'm in the house with

484
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,119
Speaker 1: Michael Phelps and his mom and his swimming pool, and

485
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: now I care about Michael Phelps, even though I can't

486
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:52,919
Speaker 1: tell you the difference between one stroke and another stroke

487
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: like that becomes the opportunity. And so even a lot

488
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,840
Speaker 1: of what gets distributed on social platforms isn't always highlights

489
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 1: and games. It's like the real stories of these guys

490
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: that get you sucked in the same reason you get

491
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,200
Speaker 1: sucked in the Last Chance You or Cheer or any

492
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 1: of those other non scripted shows. And that's a massive

493
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 1: opportunity for us, and that's where we focus a lot

494
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 1: of time and energy. You mentioned William Morris being on

495
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: your resume. You you've been there in the talent agency world,

496
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: and I'm curious what you picked up from your experiences

497
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:32,680
Speaker 1: there that helped inform the strategic outlook you've brought to Overtime.

498
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 1: So William Mars Endeavor w IM, which is now Endeavor

499
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:43,160
Speaker 1: was was really the top flight platform for what I

500
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: would call I p amplification. UM. They built a really

501
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: team based approach where I might sign you and you

502
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: come in and now you have a team, and it's

503
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: about speaking and writing books and being on television shows,

504
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: and it's really understanding your I P and how to

505
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: take that and oild that out in as many places

506
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:05,800
Speaker 1: as possible. UM and it's been enormously successful for everyone

507
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,240
Speaker 1: from Lebron James to the Rock UM and so being

508
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 1: able to participate in that environment and understand that it's

509
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: not just about a league and winning and losing, but

510
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 1: it's like, here's your valuable I P and how do

511
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 1: you think about the amplification of the growth of that

512
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:23,680
Speaker 1: is huge. I'd say that the other thing is that

513
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 1: I worked there and built the digital department at a

514
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: time when you know, YouTube went from dogs on skateboards

515
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: to creators. And really being able to participate and understand

516
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 1: the creator economy and learn how the traditional agents represented

517
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,560
Speaker 1: movie stars and TV stars and how that kind of

518
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 1: flow down into representing digital talent who had their own

519
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: distribution I think was incredibly interesting. UM and I learned

520
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: a ton from the agency, and honestly I learned a

521
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: tome from the clients as well. One last question, looking

522
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 1: ahead to the next twelve months, how crucial do you

523
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: think this will be in terms of the future and

524
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: evolution of overtime? I would say that pulling off the

525
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: two leagues was a game changer. To use a pun,

526
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: maybe um in uh in the sense that we all

527
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: have ideas about things, but when you're actually sitting there

528
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 1: and you're watching a quarterback, or you're in a venue

529
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 1: and it's packed and people are screaming, and like I

530
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,040
Speaker 1: was at the championship game and like a number of people,

531
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,040
Speaker 1: including my own wife, was like this was like this

532
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 1: is what you thought about and now it's actually real. Um,

533
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty incredible, and it it has actually nothing

534
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: to do with me, and everything to do with the

535
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: hard work of like a hundred people who are behind

536
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:56,040
Speaker 1: making that happen. Um. And so that's like, you know,

537
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 1: that's like you got halfway up the mountain from that

538
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: alone by you. You can't rest there. And so the

539
00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 1: next twelve months for us, both on the product, on

540
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 1: constantly refining the in game experience, the digital experience, the

541
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 1: social experience, the quality and level of players is massive

542
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: for us. But but it's also going to be really

543
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,640
Speaker 1: important for us to bring in new sponsors and new

544
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: categories because sponsorship is a massive, massive revenue driver. It's

545
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: a multi year deal. We want to show these brands

546
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 1: that this is the place to be to support your brand,

547
00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: to reach the audience. UM, and we absolutely need to

548
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: execute on that. And so if we ended up in

549
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: a year with no new sponsors and no new audience,

550
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: but a couple of people went to the NBA. It

551
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 1: would be great for them, but it wouldn't be great

552
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: for our business. If we end up in twelve months

553
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 1: with two to three new huge sponsors um and our

554
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: audience has doubled like that's that's very meaningful to us,

555
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,160
Speaker 1: not out well, It'll be very interesting to see what

556
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 1: comes next for you and overtime. Dan, thanks for talking

557
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,560
Speaker 1: to me today, thanks for having me, and thanks for

558
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 1: all the tough questions. This has been another episode of

559
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 1: Strictly Business. Tune in next week for another helping of

560
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 1: scintillating conversation with media movers and shakers, and please make

561
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 1: sure you subscribe to the podcast to hear future episodes.

562
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,080
Speaker 1: Also leave a review in Apple Podcast let us know

563
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 1: how we're doing