網紅聯賽搖身一變成為NBA天才養成基地

Overtime，the company behind high school basketball highlights that attracted millions of fans, has gradually gained recognition in the market and among fans. Surprisingly, it is not a traditional powerhouse like Duke or Kentucky, nor is it a foreign force from Europe or Australia. It is a five-year-old internet sensation league called Overtime Elite (OTE).

If you follow high school basketball in North America, you are probably familiar with Overtime. As traditional media declines and Generation Z's influence in the sports audience grows, people's way of following sports has changed. Overtime was ahead of the curve, starting with editing and publishing high school basketball highlights and expanding into more than 20 social media accounts that have accumulated over a hundred million followers. In six rounds of funding, they have raised nearly 300 million dollars, with the likes of Jeff Bezos, Kevin Durant, and Carmelo Anthony participating.

OTE is a new business venture created by Overtime based on its own advantages. It is a professional basketball project for talented players between the ages of 16 and 20. Compared to regular high school, OTE offers student athletes a minimum salary of $100,000 USD with no salary cap. It also provides better resources, a stronger team lineup, and more attention from NBA scouts.

For a long time after the NBA prohibited high school players from entering the league directly, the NCAA and overseas leagues became the necessary route for young talents before the draft. However, OTE, which emerged in 2019, offered them a new choice. The Thompson Brothers, who were chosen fourth and fifth in last year's draft, came out of the OTE league.

When talking about the founding of the league, Overtime founder Dan Porter said, "Many NBA players did not have professional training resources before the draft, including contracts and checks that can be overwhelming once they become professional players. We want to change that." Although OTE is a professional league, they still provide players with high school courses to keep the option of entering college leagues open. They also offer draft preparation courses, such as finance management, media handling, and sports management, so that players can better adapt to the transition from students to professionals while ensuring they receive a high school diploma.

Alexander Saar, the second overall pick, and Rob Dillingham, the eighth pick, both embarked on their basketball careers after experiencing OTE.

In fact, when OTE was founded, the concept was not well-received. Many industry insiders, including Yahoo journalist Terrence Keeley, saw it as an ambitious challenge from this "internet celebrity organization" to an established basketball ecosystem. Now, with several lottery picks and twelve OTE players receiving contracts from NBA teams, as well as top sponsors such as Adidas, Gatorade, State Farm, and GMC, it is clear that the market recognizes this "unicorn" league.

Just like this illogical success, "imagination" has always been a key word in Overtime's entrepreneurial journey. Since 2016, Overtime's founders, Dan Porter and Zack Weiner, established social media as their core content platform. They delved into high school sports, which seemed to have no benefits at the time but were closer to young people, and discovered talents in high schools and AAU tournaments, sharing them on Overtime's accounts. With the appearances of high school students like Trae Young, Zion Williamson, and the Ball brothers, they gradually gained the attention of young audiences and expanded into different sports such as football, rugby, and esports.

Today, half of Overtime's 300 employees are still on high school campuses every day, creating content, while the other half focuses on developing their new league ecosystem.

In addition to OTE, Overtime has launched high school girls' basketball league Overtime Select, 7-on-7 football league OT7, and boxing league OTX in recent years. They continue to expand their influence through their social media logic and have further collaborated with platforms such as DAZN, Youtube, and Prime Video to broadcast games.

The process of transitioning from online to offline always requires a lot of investment. Although Overtime's leagues have made varying degrees of impact, the rapid expansion led them to prepare for a new round of funding this year, which will be invested in league development. The question remains whether they can find an organic and sustainable link between their social media empire and new ventures and further develop their unique advantages. We wait and see.