August 20, 2025 • 38 mins
What happens when you design a sports league for the next digitally-led generation instead of adapting for an old one? You get Overtime—a media and sports company rewriting the rules. EJ Lawrence, Head of League Partnership Development, joins Laura to unpack the strategy behind its four leagues (including Overtime Select, its women’s basketball property), the content engine driving a tidal wave of content every week and the sponsorship model built for storytelling. They get into what Gen Z wants from sports, how Overtime is closing coverage and funding gaps, and why building a fan community (150MM+!!) means listening as much as talking.
01:41 EJ Lawrence's Journey in Sports
05:38 From Traditional Sports to Digital Media
09:25 Joining Overtime and Its Unique Model
12:09 Overtime's Audience and Content Strategy
18:52 Building Brand Relationships in Basketball
19:42 Reimagining Sponsorship at Overtime
22:43 Empowering Athletes On and Off the Court
25:42 Overtime Select: Structure and Success
32:27 Parental Involvement and Feedback
34:54 Expanding Storytelling and Crossover Events
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
We say competition, we say exposure, which we talk a
lot about. Education we touched on, but then we also
had this bucket that I like to talk about, which
is just we call the inspiration and it's inspiration through
the lens of athletic participation in girls.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Because we've talked about this stat.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're all talking about the stat and you see this
drop off that is just staggering. That also comes from
not seeing yourself on the court. So shining the overtime
spotlight and that overtime megaphone effect on these athletes round
and in a foundation of empowerment and positive influence and
active listeners really creates an amazing environment that allows them
(00:42):
to grow.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Welcome back to courtside where we get into the business
of women's sports with the people building What's next. I'm
your host Laura creenty. Today we're talking about how a
digital first media company evolved house multiple sports leagues across basketball, football,
and even boxing. My guest is EJ Lawrence, head of
League Partnership Development at Overtime. Since joining the company in
twenty twenty one, EJ has helped scale its footprint across
(01:04):
sports markets and media. It's a strategy that centers community,
especially the relationships between fans and the players, and if
you're a brand looking to partner with women's sports, you
want access to that community. In this episode, we talk
about how Overtime is redefining what a sports league can
offer their sponsors. No logo slapping here. We also talk
about what gen Z wants from sports leagues and brands,
(01:26):
how the women's game is growing, and how Overtime is
working to close the coverage and funding gaps between the
men's and women's respectively.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Let's get into it with EJ. Lawrence. EJ. Lawrence, always
a pleasure, So great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh thanks for having me, so happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Before we get into the state of women's basketball, of
which we could go on and on, I want to
start with you and ask a question that I love
to start the show with, which is when did you
fall in love with sports and more specifically basketball.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
That was definitely one of those kids who was just
interested in everything, you know, if it wasn't tap dancing
or playing the saxophone or horseback riding. Like when I
say horseback riding, I'm like, how did my parents find
a horse for me to ride?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Horse?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That I got on it is funny to have a
question as one of my fun facts that no one believes,
but it is very, very true. And then I kind
of found my way into soccer actually, and then from soccer,
I got into basketball and played basketball through high school.
And it was it's kind of looking back at that evolution,
it was a little bit of you know, solo sports
or solo into this team environment. And I was like
(02:30):
the team camaraderie and all the great things that you
hear about sports and having each other's back. I was
I kind of, I can't believer forgot about this, and
I was as I was preparing to have this conversation.
My nickname on my high school basketball team was coach
because I was very much that person. So it's like
so on brand, right, I was so that person who
was just focused on applying the things that we were
(02:52):
working on, Like I was that person in your ear.
I was on the court doing that. I liked being coached.
I also saw my younger brother was a really talented
basketball player. My dad played basketball. We spent most of
our childhood hearing about if I hadn't injured my knee,
I was going to the NBA I'm like, I'm telling you, so,
I definitely carried I carried a lot of that with me,
(03:13):
and then I got into sports about twenty years ago,
right after I graduated from from Rutgers.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Shout out Jersey, Shout out Jersey.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I was part of the six percent out of state
students who went to Rutgers University. At the time, I
like to teut that step people do, where are you from,
I'm like, from Massachusetts, They're like, how did you find us?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I was one of the probably six percent of in
state students who told my parents, I'm absolutely not going
to Rutgers since.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, I was there because it was so close to
the city. I injured at Viacom, I was at Nickelodeon,
I did VH one Save the Music, and then I
sort of found my way.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I was very lucky.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I was plucked from the internet, I'd always say. And
I worked at Fox Broadcasting and it was a small team.
It was it was a very team oriented, family environment
where I was a sales assistant there and that was
big Fox, and that was it's like, you don't even
talk like that when you talk about television networks anymore.
And I was exposed to so much working across what
(04:13):
we called championship sports, and so that was anything from
you know, managing a commercial inventory in the format and
working with the folks in the lot or working with
our I was a sales sistant, working with our lawyers
on our contract deals with the league.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Right, And this is a lot of exposure.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, it was because it was a small team and
we're talking in the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, college football at
the time. So even think I was thinking more about
this the Super Bowl, the sequencing of the halftime is
like this delicate ballet of exact timing of everything, and
like working across that postseason baseball at the time, we
(04:50):
called it October because at that point in the deal,
every game and every round of the series in post
season baseball was on Fox and I imagine a very
small team all that.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So October was, right.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I learned a lot. I was exposed to so much.
I had a lot of great guidance and mentorship. And
as I was saying, it's you stop saying things like
TV network and you were like a content company. And
then the evolution exactly, I'm like, and now we're saying linear,
we don't say TV and digital was growing, and I think,
thinking back at that time, how much we thought it
(05:24):
was changing then, like, look at where we are now
and everything that's happening.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
The format hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's just a distribution mechanism has completely evolved to our
screens and tablets and every other device beyond just you know,
your standard television box. But I do want to go
back to something you touched on because the transferable skill
set that we acquire as athletes, regardless of the level
of competition, and that we carry with us. I was
fortunate enough to sit at a part of aroundtable discussion
(05:51):
and a few young players, and I was sharing with
them that I have a number of entry level positions
that will open and candidates who come forward that will say, well,
I don't have any professional skills, like I was just
a insert player here.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
No no, no, no, no, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The level of skills that you acquire, whether you're you know,
known as coach or otherwise, that you bring from leadership, teamwork, communication,
problem solving, right, getting consensus buy in from the locker room.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Can you talk a little bit.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
About what you experience going from coach to the head
of League Partnership Development.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
As I was rounding out my career at Fox, I
decided to get my MBA. I did that part time.
So I think taking some of that skill set in
just how I'm naturally programmed to I like figuring things out,
and I like partnering with teams to figure things out,
and whether it is on the court and everyone. When
I was coaching at Summer Camp, on my team being
(06:48):
able to do a lefty layup or we're working on
a pitch because we're going into a brand and we
need to demonstrate that we understand the challenges that they're
looking to solve and help them understand what are offering
is and have an informed conversation. I think just trusting
in your instincts really has helped me. In addition to
I'm just curious, so I'm like, teach me about a thing.
(07:10):
I want to layer that into what I know at
this other thing. Had me read this book what's in
my toolkit? Because then I can leverage it when the
time is right. I think that same mindset is what
carried me to go to a company called full Screen,
which was you know, it's a joint venture of at
andt in the turning group at the time, many iterations ago.
It was an influencer marketing and social strategy and very
(07:32):
different from coming from traditional sports. But I was like,
there are other categories, there's other conversations happening, there was
other spaces, and I feel like all of this is
connected somehow. But that inquiring mind sort of took me
in that direction and learning influencer marketing, social strategy and
audience work and audience strategy. And I believed we were
doing that very much at Fox at Fox Sports, but
(07:54):
it was just through a different lens. It was a
very different conversation. So taking that in going into full
screen and learning, hey, there's a real media and marketing
opportunity when you leverage social media intentionally, right, And I
think that was also something that was disruptive for me.
The CEO at the time said these YouTubers are going
to be the next TV shows. So imagine coming from
(08:17):
the television world and hearing something like that, It's like,
what is this happening? And then when I got presented
with an opportunity to go to overtime, a company that
had very carefully get still very carefully built a relationship
with and a brand for an entire community of the
next generation of sports fans. I was like, and it's
anchored in social media, like hello, WHOA. I was very
(08:39):
I was very nerdy in my interview. I can think
in a test.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I always loved telling people when I first came into
the world of advertising, digital was a side show on
some like fourth floor deep in an agency, and your
only buying options were truly AOL and Yahoo and how
I was like, well, I love digital, I love the Internet.
So for me, it was like, I'm going to go
after this thing. But in bringing that forward, I was
(09:03):
reading this article Fortune had put out not that long ago,
recapping a conversation that Melinda Gates had at an event
Billy jen King put on around leadership in women's sports,
talking about the connective thread for women in the C suite,
and the only corlative point they could really reference was
that sport was a consistent through line, with one of
the main themes or thesis being that it was because
(09:25):
women weren't afraid to fail. Who had played sports, and
I have to imagine coming into a startup that was
formed less than ten years ago in twenty sixteen, you
joined in twenty one into Overtime, very new model, one
that you could argue as a media company that houses
basketball versus a basketball league that has media. What was
(09:46):
the catalyst in Going, and then we'll get into the model.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, so definitely a catalyst in Going was I
felt like I had come from this traditional sports background
and then I sat in social media in strategy and
influencers and creators, and then here's this company that was
a publisher, influencer, storyteller that was leveraging all the best
(10:12):
practices that we had been working with brands to leverage.
Because we would talk a lot about this caring economy, right,
we need this audience to care about you, to invest
in your brand so you can succeed and you can
sell them things, et cetera, et cetera. The business behind it,
of course. And so when you look at Overtime what
it was doing then when I first joined, even now
(10:32):
when we talk about what we're doing now, it's so
different from where it was in twenty twenty one. Right,
So right now, I would say to you, over time
builds disruptive new sports leagues and IP aimed globally. Kalin
and I were talking about this aimed globally at the
next generation sports fan and athlete. Like it's kind of
like programmed into us because here we are sitting here today,
we have four sports properties, and we're about making sports
(10:56):
more inclusive, dynamic, and tailor for the digital age. Rather
than a lot of leagues that are trying to move
into that digital space. We're almost like reverse engineered in
terms of how we showed up.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Right, So let's get into the model, because I think
for anyone who doesn't know, especially because over eighty percent
of your audience is under the age of thirty five,
which is that coveted growth audience. Can you talk about
at the highest order the thesis, what is the business
model for over time?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And what are those four leagues that you just touched on.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, definitely, I'm not going to do the history lessons
very tempting, but our co founders identified a market opportunity
where the teams, leagues and rights holders were not actively
engaging with a whole group of consumers, this next generation fan.
They found that their audiences were aging up. They weren't
sure where they were going. We we're looking at it now.
We could see it was their content consumption behaviors. When
(11:48):
we look at the average age of the sports that
we host across our channels were mid to late twenties,
whereas you're looking at legacies sports teams and leagues who
we love, but they're sitting in the fifties and the
upper forties, and you know, it's just a different audience.
And so now in talking about what overtime is doing,
(12:10):
like today, everything is still in service of this next
generation audience, right, So we have Overtime Elite, and we
have Overtime Select in basketball. We've got OT seven in football,
and we have OTX in boxing. And we have super
super talented teams on our content side, on our social side,
I mean really across the board and our events team.
(12:32):
Who are our content teams producing one hundred pieces of
original sports content daily, right, and they are doing everything
in service of this fan community that's up to I
just checked, it's up to one hundred and fifteen million
across all of our channels.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Which you could argue is the same, if not more
than Sunday Night Football, which is the largest audience in
sports and entertainment on TV period.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I Mean, if somebody else said it, I would agree
with it. But it's massive. It's massive.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Talk about that content and because what we're still pushing
for in women's sports specifically, and we're still at the
professional level fighting for primetime, let alone pregame, halftime, postgame coverage. Meanwhile,
you're pumping out how many pieces of content talk about
the insight behind that and why it's important to build
that one hundred and fifteen million rabid fanbase.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It's very much a special sauce.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I'd say, if you know the audience that you are
engaging with and that you're programming for, right there is
an expectation that you are posting at a certain cadence
across the platforms through this very specific voice and maintaining
this ongoing dialogue with them. So even when we say
we have four sports properties, we're not grounded in the
(13:58):
seasonality of gameplay. It's always on right and it is
about that coverage. Coverage can mean so many different things
for us. It's doing long form content on YouTube and
bringing this access to this fan community who wants to understand. Okay, yes,
I want to know how you're a sick hooper, but
I also want to know what fuels you. What you're
(14:18):
interested in, is that do we have shared interests because
you feel like, my friend, I can see myself in
the content, I can see myself on the court, and.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So you have that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
You also have the fact that when we are doing
our on court coverage and covering the athletes, the athleticism
is amazing. I said, people were laughing at me. I
think I felt like I was floating around o t
Arena last year during the overtime select season because every
play just felt like the last ten seconds of a
tie game, like every that was the kind of energy.
(14:49):
But then off the court, I'd be walking around and
we have the players filming tiktoks, propping their phone up
and plus.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Durl it on that. Yeah, curious to know what is
the split?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Would you say, you to the specifics, but average split
between recap highlights versus original content coverage that sort of
lifestyle fan engagement format.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, I don't even know that we break it down
that way. It's like there's lead up content and a
conversation and maybe it's tied to a trend and maybe
they said something funny when they were warming up, and
it goes off and off and off and off, and
it's this other snowball of outside of the lines that
just drives this ton of engagement and that's the really
the crux of a lot of the value. And then
(15:33):
on court, sick place, sick highlights come out, but it's
like something funny that also happened that's tied to it,
or the players had a meaningful moment that you want
to celebrate and showcase, or it's just it can take
all these different lanes based on what's popping across the
platforms themselves. But then after the content, after the live
(15:54):
event happens, it's the halo effect of looking back at
the game, yeah, by way of highlights, but also what
was the lead up and what was the outcome and
what was the innovative play and what did coach say
and what did they say in the locker room, and
you know, what did they eat after or what was
the snack that they have. It's like you learn more
about even the rituals before they got on the court
and then the TikTok that they did when they got
to the center of the court. It's just this other
(16:16):
relationship that you're building with the community that pulls you
in because then you're invested in the players. Right our
CEO Dan Porter. He likes to say that sports media
is about talking to the audience. Overtime is about listening.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Important distinction.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
If this All Star weekend had was any proof of concept,
there's seventy two our live stream that the stud buds
brought us through that level of up close and personal
action with their teammates, with their peers, with the fans,
even with the commissioner. I think we are in this
era where it's easy to apply the legacy model, but
over time has completely flipped it on its head and
(16:51):
is evidenced by the Rabbit community that you're developing when
compared with other major sports leagues equally if not more
in terms of scale, reach and overall engagement that extends
into commercial partners and you have so many incredible ones.
What was the reason why they said, Hey, if we
have a dollar to spend, we're going to invest here
in the growth and what you're building, as opposed to
(17:12):
going to where the sort of sayer maybe sure bet
would have been at the professional level.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It really keeps coming back down to this audience piece
and the fact that we launched with overtime a lead.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm telling you, I remember when we launched it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
We will get a lot of questions, well, where's the
women's OTE, and we're like, well, it is drastically different
than this. This is based on our teams doing a
ton of research and due diligence to figure out exactly
what's needed for these specific athletes, and even developing a
strategy of playing for the internet versus playing for a
local team. That increased our audience potential. And then you
(17:48):
have things like the ability to lean into the fact
that we've got this framework of hosting all the athletes
and our facility, creating team identities in partnership with the
lead players themselves, and just creating this community that felt
like this is a part of me. I feel like
I'm watching my friends on the court. I've got this
(18:10):
immediate aspirational benefit of these athletes are sixteen to twenty
years old on thete side, and I want to be
a part of that in my league.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Right if I'm the next generation.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I saw the early players and then Nassar Thompson absolutely
going off.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
In the NBA on the Pistons and the Rockets. Those
are my players.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
They're still talking about their experience inside of OTE, and
that's just from building the relationship and surrounding them with
this foundation of trust, in keeping that open communication, and
I think having that model and then pointing to those
examples to if I'm a marketer who's trying to understand
what is it that Overtime's doing, it's you can start
that journey with these athletes earlier. Right they are building
(18:53):
their brand relationships and formulating their opinions of how they're
approaching this basketball space as a business right now. Yeah,
and you actually have a chance to develop that relationship
with them right now. And so going to Overtime select,
same due diligence, same homework, talking to this advisory community
of incredible athletes, you know, Brandon Stewart, Clear Copper, Flaje Johnson, Page,
(19:15):
like they're all part of investing in these girls and
these women because this is the future of the game together.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It's all connected.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
So I feel like whenever it's a question of oh,
should I lean into this professional path in terms of
sponsorship opportunity, I kind of challenge it to say, I
think you have an opportunity to own this end to end,
and you can start that journey earlier with this age
group because we get them and we can help usher
in that type of partnership.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So talk about the sponsorship model EJ. Because what you're
describing is absolutely the antithesis of a logo slap in
engaging over eighty percent of an audience that is thirty
five and below. I anticipate that your rules of engagement
look a lot different from the traditional sense.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
What a sponsorship mean it over?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
TI, Oh, great question.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I think for us, whenever we say sponsorship, it's trying
to find this balance between speaking to a traditional marketer
who's used to hearing sponsorship and hearing league and understanding, okay,
there are hard assets that are in consideration and signage,
but for us, it's totally different. It's anchored in storytelling,
custom content, social first outcomes, understanding how to integrate an athlete,
(20:26):
how to integrate media. It's vertically integrated for us. And
so because we're one stop shop and we own everything
end to end, and we can literally what are the
things that everyone's telling you know we're going to tell
We're probably going to tell you yes. Because we control
the broadcast, we control the social, we work with the
athletes directly, we have the media. It's all end to
end connected and that works much harder, and so when
(20:47):
you have this reimagined sponsorship offering, you can imagine that
takes a lot of conversation, a lot more education. And
the brands that are leaning in with us, they understand, Oh,
I have a live event component, and I have story retailing,
and I have athletes, and I have broadcasts and AM
media and it's all housed in one thing that's going
to drive the brand health metrics. You're going to see
(21:08):
those performances metrics pop, and then you're going to see
the impact among this audience in a way that really
moves the needle.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Who's doing it well?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Just give us an example of one that's really capitalized
on this, you know, looking at through a different colored lens.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Our founding partners in Gatorade and State Farm, I know
we talk a lot about them.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We love them.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
They worked with us before we even launched any of
these lead properties. Gatorades integration into our facility being that
point of sweat when you come off of our Pro
Development Center, which is like the practice area where you
see tons of content coming through when we have a
closed practice for a pro sports team, when we have
Quavo come in and play horse with the Overtime select
girl like these are things that are happening. But then
(21:49):
as you go from that area of training, you pass
through the Gatorade Fuel Bar. You have all of these
amazing products that help you understand what your hydration, what
your fuel, what your protein pre workout. All of it's
housed in one really elevated footprint. Then you make your
way to the recovery weight room. That part is really
something to see and you really have to come check
(22:09):
out our arena.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I missed my prime. We did not have that when
I was playing. I probably still needed today if I'm
being honest. You have some incredible partners like State Farm, Gatorade,
and Visline. The list goes on who are champions of
the full funnel, I would say, and are part of
the fabric of what this industry is and will continue
to become. But you are playing in a relatively new
(22:31):
space when it comes to brand partnerships, which is nil
and having gotten to me a number of the athletes
who are part of the overtime program, knowing that growth
and trajectory is going to come faster than ever before.
One of the things I love about what you all
are building is the development and preparation side, getting these
athletes ready not just from a skills standpoint on the court,
(22:51):
but equally important off the court. Can you talk about
that off court component and how brands are coming in
and helping to support that not just from a financial
person spective, but also perhaps a resource one as well.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
One of the things that we think a lot about
is preparation. We just we want the athletes to feel
empowered to go to the next level, whatever that next
level may be. Certainly on the women's side, we know
there's a ton of opportunity through NIL and when you
get to the collegiate level that can start earlier, right
and because of how specific the schedule is on the
(23:23):
girl side, we had to figure out how this all
fit into a pretty condensed timeline for programming like in
real life programming, competition in gameplay, a secondary curriculum or
pro habits. What are the component parts of prohabits? So
then we have an open dialogue where you're learning about
brand building and growing your following, and we talk a
(23:44):
lot about social currency. That's something that you take with
you because you also are learning about the business of basketball,
the business of working with brands. We host events for
the parents. I've been very blessed to be able to
attend some of those events with the parents and they're
just trying to figure out what there is to figure out,
and we are here to facilitate a conversation, learn more
(24:05):
about what they're worried about, and then help them understand
how to navigate it. So it's just again back to
building that toolkit where you're presented with a brand opportunity
and you're like, this doesn't really feel like me. Do
I have to You don't have to do it. You
should feel empowered to be you because brands want to
understand you, versus feeling like how do I be more
like such and such player they have all of these
(24:28):
sponsorship deals. It's that that's not the that's not the goal.
You just have to find the right path for yourself.
And we as part of our programming when we were
in Indie this this past weekend, we had a brunch
with some Overtime select alums.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
We had the Mea and Maya Paldo, who I know
you love.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Oh my Jersey girls, They're They're amazing and saying with
the Chalice Fisher and they were just talking about when
reflecting on Overtime Select and why it meant so much.
They said it was the details. They're like, the food,
the snack, the conversations we had. We had this sisterhood
that we built with our teammates. We did a movie night,
(25:06):
and then fast forward we did amazing on court competition,
right to the point where talking to us, I didn't
get to talk about Sasha and Shay. Actually, so Sasha Malas,
who is a head of Overtime Select in Shay Dawson,
who's the head of athlete Relations. If you spend two
minutes talking to them, you walk away being like, this matters.
(25:26):
What we're doing completely matters.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Can you sidebar on that a second, because there is
such a dynamic nature of your portfolio, the specificity of
Overtime Select and its role in the broader women's basketball ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So when you look at Overtime Select, it is a
carefully structured league where we've just expanded the number of
players that are going to be participating this year. Last
year was sixty four. I think we're like seventy two
because of the structure of the teams. We have eight
teams that are here this year. We have eight captains.
(26:13):
But the reason I say all that is because when
year one we did one hundred and seventy five million
views in like fifteen million engagements and had eight sponsors
before we even launched the league, because of all of
the due diligence that went into how it was structured,
and so after the gameplay and after everything was said
and done, we were able to say, okay, we had
(26:35):
forty five of the ESPN Top twenty five players within
their respective classes. We had eleven McDonald's all American players,
so like almost half the players on playing in the game, right,
and we had players who were invited to Team USA
Mini camp. Right, So the twenty three of those players,
and then Kate Harpring, who ended up being the inaugural
season's MVP whos and one of our captains this year,
(26:57):
she jumped in the rankings from like nineteen to number two.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
So you have all of this influencing the actual outcome
of the trajectory of these players. And so when you
then translate that to fast forward, Tasha was just having
a conversation with a top collegiate program and they were
saying that as part of their recruitment criteria, they look
to see it's like GETAD Player.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Of the Year.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
McDonald's All American participation in overtime select is now listed
as part of that.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Growing up playing basketball through high school, AAU was such
this critical next step. Now, obviously the world has evolved
tremendously another level higher because of the curation.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Would you argue, I would argue that we were very
careful to say it's additive to that system.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
And that's why it's even architected to take place during
a very specific window where historically it's been kind of
a quiet time from like a recruitment.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
It's not seating as additive.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Got it correct?
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Because even in doing that homework, it was like, and
love my AAU team, and I want to compete for
a state championship. I want to not relocate and uproot
my life and my family.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I want to go to my prong.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Those were things that we learned from the team, learned
from the girls, that carried forward into how this leak
was structured.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Let's talk about how you and the team are managing
just the influx of attention and has that forced you
to perhaps reevaluate the model or you're iterating in real
time what's new this year that didn't exist last year?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
For example, yep, yep, love it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Actually the end of twenty twenty three, you came to
our the launch event, I was very palpable the energy
right that was that wasn't that long ago, so as
everything was intentionally designed to be different. Sasha Mallas and
Shade Dawson, they're just the really special complement of how
the path for overtime select is being forged forward back
(28:43):
to the off court empowerment and encore competition. Those are
like the main pillars, but then extending it and going
a little bit further. We say competition, we say exposure,
which we talk a lot about. Education we touched on,
but then we also had this bucket that I like
to talk about, which is just we called the inspiration
and it's inspiration through the lens of athletic participation in girls.
(29:04):
Because I know we've talked about the stat We're all
talking about the stat and you see this drop off
that is just staggering. That also comes from not seeing
yourself on the court. So shining the overtime spotlight and
that overtime megaphone effect on these athletes rounded in a
foundation of empowerment and positive influence and active listeners really
(29:27):
creates an amazing environment that allows them to grow. So
this year, because of the success of last year so
I mentioned one hundred and seventy five million views, fifty
million engagements, tons of sponsors, watch time, engagement time on
the long form, on the games, through the chart, over
the charts, we felt like, how do we create more
touch points from an event's perspective? Almost event tized events
(29:50):
throughout the calendar, right because we have always on storytelling
and the content. We have the coverage when you're not
with us competing, but what are those other moments?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
So this year we.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Had some events start in May and then carry us
into June. We did a Ross reveal and revealing the captains,
then we went into so this always on, this storytelling
and coverage begins then so we're building momentum. We introduced
the first ever Dream Tryout as dream Tryout is something
that we had tried on.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
The OTET side.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
First ever dream tryout done for Overtime Select sponsored by ELF,
which we love, and that was formalizing this interest that
Shay and Sasha were getting inbound dms, like thousands of
dms from players from around.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
The world just wanting to try out.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Just give me a chance I can compete, and this
would mean so much to me. So we decided to
formalize this into a dream tryout. All in we got
over five hundred applications through the application, this is like
separate from DMS, and eighteen contestants were invited to Atlanta
for this curated experience inside our facility, our state of
the ur facility that we built back in twenty twenty one.
(30:58):
We hosted them, we hosted their family is. We ended
up choosing five winners We're supposed to choose one. It
was just like an amazing weekend, So that was one
touch point. Then we go into June. June is when
we did the draft and then the roster reveal that
was actually sponsored by State Farm. Then we go into
the Takeover, which is our version of an exhibition weekend.
So we have Queen of the Court which is one
(31:20):
on one sponsored by Stafe Farm. We had Trede Ball Challenge,
three point contest, and then we had this next step fives,
which is this fivey five format.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
We had the.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Coaches of the teams, Juju Watkins and Vlaje Johnson, so
it was like grudge a match for Flage. Juju came
out on top, but we're gonna keep this thing going.
On your four page, it was Paige Offlage. Angel Reyes
came and was in the broadcast booth. This year we
had Nia Simone and kk Arnold and Close. It's all
in the broadcast booth. So it's like, you see this
(31:50):
connectivity by way of mentorship. You see it on the court,
you see it off of the court. Everyone's leaning in
on how do we help this at the community going
to the next phase. I'm looking back, I'm taking you
with me. I want to keep that all connected, and
I think there's a huge opportunity for brands to consider
that when building out their women's sports strategy.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
And I think that's the part.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
I want to drill in on that because it's incredible
what you just described, and certainly the eventizing and commercial
monetization of it from a business perspective feels like a
no brainer. But it's a lot of those intangibles that
you don't see in terms of what that investment unlocks.
Curious to know the constituents in which you're having to
onboard and engage in as much as it's the athletes,
it's the parents. Going back to that roundtable I mentioned
(32:35):
earlier on in the chat, and I mean top tier
college athletes.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
They're number one trusted advisor mom, mommy. Can you talk.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
About some of the input that you're getting from parents
and navigating this new front tier, especially those that are
maybe not familiar with the business of basketball, the world
of brand partnership and development, media rights, media training.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Can you talk.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
About what those intangibles are and mom, parent, guardian, etc.
Are asking of overtime that might not have been in
the business plan.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
They're asking all types of questions that are specific to
their family circumstance or specific to their daughter, their son,
or whatever league we're focused on.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
But it's also.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I think taking is zooming out even further. They have
someone that they can ask questions to, and I think
that is a big differentiator. Whitney, who runs our comms
for Overtime Elite. She sits in Atlanta and Overtime Select
with Joseph. They were in partners with Kayla, and they
were just talking about how they have almost like a
communications structure in place where after a game, emotions can
(33:41):
be high and we'll have a period of time before
we all reconvene and discuss things and ask our questions,
and it's helping them have the right conversations, ask the
right questions because as they advance, they're not going to
have that phone call to be able to make that
is directly tied to whatever their son or daughter's experience
is on the field around the court, and that's the differentiator.
(34:04):
It's like having this group of active listeners who want
to know what is it that you're concerned about. Even
we were getting feedback asking about dietary restrictions, how to
pronounce names, nicknames like things like that were down to
the details because we care about how we're representing you
as we're talking to brands, as we're broadcasting. That just
(34:25):
makes them feel seen in a very different way.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Right, and talking about listening being a big part of
this league and the business of overtime, what are you
hearing that is setting you up for the back half
of twenty five into twenty six as we start thinking
about temples like LA twenty eight and Tmosa basketball. I'm
always quick to remind people the women's team hasn't lost
the game since nineteen ninety two. You're contributing to the
(34:48):
future of that excellence. What's on the roadmap for overtime
specific to the women's game.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
So I'd say a few things.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
In addition to the way that we've been expanding some
of the seasonal touchbow poins throughout the calendar on the
overtime select side, that carries through into we want to
do more storytelling with these players. There are other areas
and there are other parts of their journey that we
want to celebrate and we want a spotlight. We want
to do that in partnership with brands, right and there
are ways for us to integrate brands into that experience
(35:17):
that are meaningful that then everybody benefits from featuring that athlete.
We also started doing we have some crossover events where
we're taking the might of different areas of our business
and we're joining forces for crossover events. We just recently
on the football side of our business inside OFT seven,
(35:38):
we did a quarterback challenge that was sponsored by State Farm,
another partner who's always like challenging all of us to
think about how we expand what it is that we're doing.
The quarterbacks that we're competing OT seven athletes and women's
flag athletes who we're going to see in LA twenty eight, right,
let crossing over and that joining of forces to celebrate
the game in sponsorship with State Farm. That was awesome
(36:00):
on the overtime select side. How do we then continue
what is twenty twenty six and beyond even look like?
And we're seeing more of that, even crossover, not even
cross pollination. But we have Kate Harpring, who's local to
Atlanta join us for the playoffs for OTE, and we're
spotlighting her, and she's in the broadcast, she's in the booth.
It shouldn't be separate the way that I think sometimes
(36:22):
the leagues can be structured. It should all feel connected
because even in doing audience research, our fan community of
one hundred and fifty million followers, they want to see
elite basketball play, They want to see elite sportsmanship, right,
They want to see that competition. They don't really care
who's playing. So it's on all of us to keep
pushing how we celebrate who those athletes are and keep
(36:44):
telling their stories and just train ourselves to know that
we don't have to wait to get to know them
and build that relationship with them.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
I am so appreciative of the work.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
You and the entire team are doing it overtime to
create this very critical piece of the pipeline, which is
development from the If you haven't had a chance to
check out an overtime game, I encourage you go to
the website, follow along on social become part of that
one hundred and fifty million plus strong eg. I'm looking
forward to seeing what the competition looks like this year
and beyond.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Thanks so much, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
I'm your host Laura Crenti, Founder and CEO of Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz,
and this show is produced by Ryan Martz along with
associate producers Meredith Barnes and Rachel Zuckerman. Court Side is
an Iheartwomen's Sports production and partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(37:36):
wherever you get your podcasts. Want more, follow, rate, and
review court Side wherever you get your podcasts, and stay
in the game by following us on social media at
Iheartwomen's Sports, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter.
In the show notes, thanks for listening, We'll see you
next time. Court side,
We say competition, we say exposure, which we talk a
lot about. Education we touched on, but then we also
had this bucket that I like to talk about, which
is just we call the inspiration and it's inspiration through
the lens of athletic participation in girls.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Because we've talked about this stat.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're all talking about the stat and you see this
drop off that is just staggering. That also comes from
not seeing yourself on the court. So shining the overtime
spotlight and that overtime megaphone effect on these athletes round
and in a foundation of empowerment and positive influence and
active listeners really creates an amazing environment that allows them
(00:42):
to grow.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Welcome back to courtside where we get into the business
of women's sports with the people building What's next. I'm
your host Laura creenty. Today we're talking about how a
digital first media company evolved house multiple sports leagues across basketball, football,
and even boxing. My guest is EJ Lawrence, head of
League Partnership Development at Overtime. Since joining the company in
twenty twenty one, EJ has helped scale its footprint across
(01:04):
sports markets and media. It's a strategy that centers community,
especially the relationships between fans and the players, and if
you're a brand looking to partner with women's sports, you
want access to that community. In this episode, we talk
about how Overtime is redefining what a sports league can
offer their sponsors. No logo slapping here. We also talk
about what gen Z wants from sports leagues and brands,
(01:26):
how the women's game is growing, and how Overtime is
working to close the coverage and funding gaps between the
men's and women's respectively.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Let's get into it with EJ. Lawrence. EJ. Lawrence, always
a pleasure, So great to have you here.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh thanks for having me, so happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Before we get into the state of women's basketball, of
which we could go on and on, I want to
start with you and ask a question that I love
to start the show with, which is when did you
fall in love with sports and more specifically basketball.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
That was definitely one of those kids who was just
interested in everything, you know, if it wasn't tap dancing
or playing the saxophone or horseback riding. Like when I
say horseback riding, I'm like, how did my parents find
a horse for me to ride?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Horse?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That I got on it is funny to have a
question as one of my fun facts that no one believes,
but it is very, very true. And then I kind
of found my way into soccer actually, and then from soccer,
I got into basketball and played basketball through high school.
And it was it's kind of looking back at that evolution,
it was a little bit of you know, solo sports
or solo into this team environment. And I was like
(02:30):
the team camaraderie and all the great things that you
hear about sports and having each other's back. I was
I kind of, I can't believer forgot about this, and
I was as I was preparing to have this conversation.
My nickname on my high school basketball team was coach
because I was very much that person. So it's like
so on brand, right, I was so that person who
was just focused on applying the things that we were
(02:52):
working on, Like I was that person in your ear.
I was on the court doing that. I liked being coached.
I also saw my younger brother was a really talented
basketball player. My dad played basketball. We spent most of
our childhood hearing about if I hadn't injured my knee,
I was going to the NBA I'm like, I'm telling you, so,
I definitely carried I carried a lot of that with me,
(03:13):
and then I got into sports about twenty years ago,
right after I graduated from from Rutgers.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Shout out Jersey, Shout out Jersey.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I was part of the six percent out of state
students who went to Rutgers University. At the time, I
like to teut that step people do, where are you from,
I'm like, from Massachusetts, They're like, how did you find us?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I was one of the probably six percent of in
state students who told my parents, I'm absolutely not going
to Rutgers since.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Well, I was there because it was so close to
the city. I injured at Viacom, I was at Nickelodeon,
I did VH one Save the Music, and then I
sort of found my way.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I was very lucky.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I was plucked from the internet, I'd always say. And
I worked at Fox Broadcasting and it was a small team.
It was it was a very team oriented, family environment
where I was a sales assistant there and that was
big Fox, and that was it's like, you don't even
talk like that when you talk about television networks anymore.
And I was exposed to so much working across what
(04:13):
we called championship sports, and so that was anything from
you know, managing a commercial inventory in the format and
working with the folks in the lot or working with
our I was a sales sistant, working with our lawyers
on our contract deals with the league.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Right, And this is a lot of exposure.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah, it was because it was a small team and
we're talking in the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, college football at
the time. So even think I was thinking more about
this the Super Bowl, the sequencing of the halftime is
like this delicate ballet of exact timing of everything, and
like working across that postseason baseball at the time, we
(04:50):
called it October because at that point in the deal,
every game and every round of the series in post
season baseball was on Fox and I imagine a very
small team all that.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So October was, right.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, I learned a lot. I was exposed to so much.
I had a lot of great guidance and mentorship. And
as I was saying, it's you stop saying things like
TV network and you were like a content company. And
then the evolution exactly, I'm like, and now we're saying linear,
we don't say TV and digital was growing, and I think,
thinking back at that time, how much we thought it
(05:24):
was changing then, like, look at where we are now
and everything that's happening.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
The format hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
It's just a distribution mechanism has completely evolved to our
screens and tablets and every other device beyond just you know,
your standard television box. But I do want to go
back to something you touched on because the transferable skill
set that we acquire as athletes, regardless of the level
of competition, and that we carry with us. I was
fortunate enough to sit at a part of aroundtable discussion
(05:51):
and a few young players, and I was sharing with
them that I have a number of entry level positions
that will open and candidates who come forward that will say, well,
I don't have any professional skills, like I was just
a insert player here.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
No no, no, no, no, yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The level of skills that you acquire, whether you're you know,
known as coach or otherwise, that you bring from leadership, teamwork, communication,
problem solving, right, getting consensus buy in from the locker room.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Can you talk a little bit.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
About what you experience going from coach to the head
of League Partnership Development.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
As I was rounding out my career at Fox, I
decided to get my MBA. I did that part time.
So I think taking some of that skill set in
just how I'm naturally programmed to I like figuring things out,
and I like partnering with teams to figure things out,
and whether it is on the court and everyone. When
I was coaching at Summer Camp, on my team being
(06:48):
able to do a lefty layup or we're working on
a pitch because we're going into a brand and we
need to demonstrate that we understand the challenges that they're
looking to solve and help them understand what are offering
is and have an informed conversation. I think just trusting
in your instincts really has helped me. In addition to
I'm just curious, so I'm like, teach me about a thing.
(07:10):
I want to layer that into what I know at
this other thing. Had me read this book what's in
my toolkit? Because then I can leverage it when the
time is right. I think that same mindset is what
carried me to go to a company called full Screen,
which was you know, it's a joint venture of at
andt in the turning group at the time, many iterations ago.
It was an influencer marketing and social strategy and very
(07:32):
different from coming from traditional sports. But I was like,
there are other categories, there's other conversations happening, there was
other spaces, and I feel like all of this is
connected somehow. But that inquiring mind sort of took me
in that direction and learning influencer marketing, social strategy and
audience work and audience strategy. And I believed we were
doing that very much at Fox at Fox Sports, but
(07:54):
it was just through a different lens. It was a
very different conversation. So taking that in going into full
screen and learning, hey, there's a real media and marketing
opportunity when you leverage social media intentionally, right, And I
think that was also something that was disruptive for me.
The CEO at the time said these YouTubers are going
to be the next TV shows. So imagine coming from
(08:17):
the television world and hearing something like that, It's like,
what is this happening? And then when I got presented
with an opportunity to go to overtime, a company that
had very carefully get still very carefully built a relationship
with and a brand for an entire community of the
next generation of sports fans. I was like, and it's
anchored in social media, like hello, WHOA. I was very
(08:39):
I was very nerdy in my interview. I can think
in a test.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
I always loved telling people when I first came into
the world of advertising, digital was a side show on
some like fourth floor deep in an agency, and your
only buying options were truly AOL and Yahoo and how
I was like, well, I love digital, I love the Internet.
So for me, it was like, I'm going to go
after this thing. But in bringing that forward, I was
(09:03):
reading this article Fortune had put out not that long ago,
recapping a conversation that Melinda Gates had at an event
Billy jen King put on around leadership in women's sports,
talking about the connective thread for women in the C suite,
and the only corlative point they could really reference was
that sport was a consistent through line, with one of
the main themes or thesis being that it was because
(09:25):
women weren't afraid to fail. Who had played sports, and
I have to imagine coming into a startup that was
formed less than ten years ago in twenty sixteen, you
joined in twenty one into Overtime, very new model, one
that you could argue as a media company that houses
basketball versus a basketball league that has media. What was
(09:46):
the catalyst in Going, and then we'll get into the model.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, so definitely a catalyst in Going was I
felt like I had come from this traditional sports background
and then I sat in social media in strategy and
influencers and creators, and then here's this company that was
a publisher, influencer, storyteller that was leveraging all the best
(10:12):
practices that we had been working with brands to leverage.
Because we would talk a lot about this caring economy, right,
we need this audience to care about you, to invest
in your brand so you can succeed and you can
sell them things, et cetera, et cetera. The business behind it,
of course. And so when you look at Overtime what
it was doing then when I first joined, even now
(10:32):
when we talk about what we're doing now, it's so
different from where it was in twenty twenty one. Right,
So right now, I would say to you, over time
builds disruptive new sports leagues and IP aimed globally. Kalin
and I were talking about this aimed globally at the
next generation sports fan and athlete. Like it's kind of
like programmed into us because here we are sitting here today,
we have four sports properties, and we're about making sports
(10:56):
more inclusive, dynamic, and tailor for the digital age. Rather
than a lot of leagues that are trying to move
into that digital space. We're almost like reverse engineered in
terms of how we showed up.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Right, So let's get into the model, because I think
for anyone who doesn't know, especially because over eighty percent
of your audience is under the age of thirty five,
which is that coveted growth audience. Can you talk about
at the highest order the thesis, what is the business
model for over time?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
And what are those four leagues that you just touched on.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, definitely, I'm not going to do the history lessons
very tempting, but our co founders identified a market opportunity
where the teams, leagues and rights holders were not actively
engaging with a whole group of consumers, this next generation fan.
They found that their audiences were aging up. They weren't
sure where they were going. We we're looking at it now.
We could see it was their content consumption behaviors. When
(11:48):
we look at the average age of the sports that
we host across our channels were mid to late twenties,
whereas you're looking at legacies sports teams and leagues who
we love, but they're sitting in the fifties and the
upper forties, and you know, it's just a different audience.
And so now in talking about what overtime is doing,
(12:10):
like today, everything is still in service of this next
generation audience, right, So we have Overtime Elite, and we
have Overtime Select in basketball. We've got OT seven in football,
and we have OTX in boxing. And we have super
super talented teams on our content side, on our social side,
I mean really across the board and our events team.
(12:32):
Who are our content teams producing one hundred pieces of
original sports content daily, right, and they are doing everything
in service of this fan community that's up to I
just checked, it's up to one hundred and fifteen million
across all of our channels.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Which you could argue is the same, if not more
than Sunday Night Football, which is the largest audience in
sports and entertainment on TV period.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
I Mean, if somebody else said it, I would agree
with it. But it's massive. It's massive.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Talk about that content and because what we're still pushing
for in women's sports specifically, and we're still at the
professional level fighting for primetime, let alone pregame, halftime, postgame coverage. Meanwhile,
you're pumping out how many pieces of content talk about
the insight behind that and why it's important to build
that one hundred and fifteen million rabid fanbase.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It's very much a special sauce.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I'd say, if you know the audience that you are
engaging with and that you're programming for, right there is
an expectation that you are posting at a certain cadence
across the platforms through this very specific voice and maintaining
this ongoing dialogue with them. So even when we say
we have four sports properties, we're not grounded in the
(13:58):
seasonality of gameplay. It's always on right and it is
about that coverage. Coverage can mean so many different things
for us. It's doing long form content on YouTube and
bringing this access to this fan community who wants to understand. Okay, yes,
I want to know how you're a sick hooper, but
I also want to know what fuels you. What you're
(14:18):
interested in, is that do we have shared interests because
you feel like, my friend, I can see myself in
the content, I can see myself on the court, and.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So you have that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
You also have the fact that when we are doing
our on court coverage and covering the athletes, the athleticism
is amazing. I said, people were laughing at me. I
think I felt like I was floating around o t
Arena last year during the overtime select season because every
play just felt like the last ten seconds of a
tie game, like every that was the kind of energy.
(14:49):
But then off the court, I'd be walking around and
we have the players filming tiktoks, propping their phone up
and plus.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Durl it on that. Yeah, curious to know what is
the split?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Would you say, you to the specifics, but average split
between recap highlights versus original content coverage that sort of
lifestyle fan engagement format.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Oh, I don't even know that we break it down
that way. It's like there's lead up content and a
conversation and maybe it's tied to a trend and maybe
they said something funny when they were warming up, and
it goes off and off and off and off, and
it's this other snowball of outside of the lines that
just drives this ton of engagement and that's the really
the crux of a lot of the value. And then
(15:33):
on court, sick place, sick highlights come out, but it's
like something funny that also happened that's tied to it,
or the players had a meaningful moment that you want
to celebrate and showcase, or it's just it can take
all these different lanes based on what's popping across the
platforms themselves. But then after the content, after the live
(15:54):
event happens, it's the halo effect of looking back at
the game, yeah, by way of highlights, but also what
was the lead up and what was the outcome and
what was the innovative play and what did coach say
and what did they say in the locker room, and
you know, what did they eat after or what was
the snack that they have. It's like you learn more
about even the rituals before they got on the court
and then the TikTok that they did when they got
to the center of the court. It's just this other
(16:16):
relationship that you're building with the community that pulls you
in because then you're invested in the players. Right our
CEO Dan Porter. He likes to say that sports media
is about talking to the audience. Overtime is about listening.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Important distinction.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
If this All Star weekend had was any proof of concept,
there's seventy two our live stream that the stud buds
brought us through that level of up close and personal
action with their teammates, with their peers, with the fans,
even with the commissioner. I think we are in this
era where it's easy to apply the legacy model, but
over time has completely flipped it on its head and
(16:51):
is evidenced by the Rabbit community that you're developing when
compared with other major sports leagues equally if not more
in terms of scale, reach and overall engagement that extends
into commercial partners and you have so many incredible ones.
What was the reason why they said, Hey, if we
have a dollar to spend, we're going to invest here
in the growth and what you're building, as opposed to
(17:12):
going to where the sort of sayer maybe sure bet
would have been at the professional level.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It really keeps coming back down to this audience piece
and the fact that we launched with overtime a lead.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm telling you, I remember when we launched it.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
We will get a lot of questions, well, where's the
women's OTE, and we're like, well, it is drastically different
than this. This is based on our teams doing a
ton of research and due diligence to figure out exactly
what's needed for these specific athletes, and even developing a
strategy of playing for the internet versus playing for a
local team. That increased our audience potential. And then you
(17:48):
have things like the ability to lean into the fact
that we've got this framework of hosting all the athletes
and our facility, creating team identities in partnership with the
lead players themselves, and just creating this community that felt
like this is a part of me. I feel like
I'm watching my friends on the court. I've got this
(18:10):
immediate aspirational benefit of these athletes are sixteen to twenty
years old on thete side, and I want to be
a part of that in my league.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Right if I'm the next generation.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I saw the early players and then Nassar Thompson absolutely
going off.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
In the NBA on the Pistons and the Rockets. Those
are my players.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
They're still talking about their experience inside of OTE, and
that's just from building the relationship and surrounding them with
this foundation of trust, in keeping that open communication, and
I think having that model and then pointing to those
examples to if I'm a marketer who's trying to understand
what is it that Overtime's doing, it's you can start
that journey with these athletes earlier. Right they are building
(18:53):
their brand relationships and formulating their opinions of how they're
approaching this basketball space as a business right now. Yeah,
and you actually have a chance to develop that relationship
with them right now. And so going to Overtime select,
same due diligence, same homework, talking to this advisory community
of incredible athletes, you know, Brandon Stewart, Clear Copper, Flaje Johnson, Page,
(19:15):
like they're all part of investing in these girls and
these women because this is the future of the game together.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It's all connected.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
So I feel like whenever it's a question of oh,
should I lean into this professional path in terms of
sponsorship opportunity, I kind of challenge it to say, I
think you have an opportunity to own this end to end,
and you can start that journey earlier with this age
group because we get them and we can help usher
in that type of partnership.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So talk about the sponsorship model EJ. Because what you're
describing is absolutely the antithesis of a logo slap in
engaging over eighty percent of an audience that is thirty
five and below. I anticipate that your rules of engagement
look a lot different from the traditional sense.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
What a sponsorship mean it over?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
TI, Oh, great question.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I think for us, whenever we say sponsorship, it's trying
to find this balance between speaking to a traditional marketer
who's used to hearing sponsorship and hearing league and understanding, okay,
there are hard assets that are in consideration and signage,
but for us, it's totally different. It's anchored in storytelling,
custom content, social first outcomes, understanding how to integrate an athlete,
(20:26):
how to integrate media. It's vertically integrated for us. And
so because we're one stop shop and we own everything
end to end, and we can literally what are the
things that everyone's telling you know we're going to tell
We're probably going to tell you yes. Because we control
the broadcast, we control the social, we work with the
athletes directly, we have the media. It's all end to
end connected and that works much harder, and so when
(20:47):
you have this reimagined sponsorship offering, you can imagine that
takes a lot of conversation, a lot more education. And
the brands that are leaning in with us, they understand, Oh,
I have a live event component, and I have story retailing,
and I have athletes, and I have broadcasts and AM
media and it's all housed in one thing that's going
to drive the brand health metrics. You're going to see
(21:08):
those performances metrics pop, and then you're going to see
the impact among this audience in a way that really
moves the needle.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Who's doing it well?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Just give us an example of one that's really capitalized
on this, you know, looking at through a different colored lens.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Our founding partners in Gatorade and State Farm, I know
we talk a lot about them.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We love them.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
They worked with us before we even launched any of
these lead properties. Gatorades integration into our facility being that
point of sweat when you come off of our Pro
Development Center, which is like the practice area where you
see tons of content coming through when we have a
closed practice for a pro sports team, when we have
Quavo come in and play horse with the Overtime select
girl like these are things that are happening. But then
(21:49):
as you go from that area of training, you pass
through the Gatorade Fuel Bar. You have all of these
amazing products that help you understand what your hydration, what
your fuel, what your protein pre workout. All of it's
housed in one really elevated footprint. Then you make your
way to the recovery weight room. That part is really
something to see and you really have to come check
(22:09):
out our arena.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I missed my prime. We did not have that when
I was playing. I probably still needed today if I'm
being honest. You have some incredible partners like State Farm, Gatorade,
and Visline. The list goes on who are champions of
the full funnel, I would say, and are part of
the fabric of what this industry is and will continue
to become. But you are playing in a relatively new
(22:31):
space when it comes to brand partnerships, which is nil
and having gotten to me a number of the athletes
who are part of the overtime program, knowing that growth
and trajectory is going to come faster than ever before.
One of the things I love about what you all
are building is the development and preparation side, getting these
athletes ready not just from a skills standpoint on the court,
(22:51):
but equally important off the court. Can you talk about
that off court component and how brands are coming in
and helping to support that not just from a financial
person spective, but also perhaps a resource one as well.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
One of the things that we think a lot about
is preparation. We just we want the athletes to feel
empowered to go to the next level, whatever that next
level may be. Certainly on the women's side, we know
there's a ton of opportunity through NIL and when you
get to the collegiate level that can start earlier, right
and because of how specific the schedule is on the
(23:23):
girl side, we had to figure out how this all
fit into a pretty condensed timeline for programming like in
real life programming, competition in gameplay, a secondary curriculum or
pro habits. What are the component parts of prohabits? So
then we have an open dialogue where you're learning about
brand building and growing your following, and we talk a
(23:44):
lot about social currency. That's something that you take with
you because you also are learning about the business of basketball,
the business of working with brands. We host events for
the parents. I've been very blessed to be able to
attend some of those events with the parents and they're
just trying to figure out what there is to figure out,
and we are here to facilitate a conversation, learn more
(24:05):
about what they're worried about, and then help them understand
how to navigate it. So it's just again back to
building that toolkit where you're presented with a brand opportunity
and you're like, this doesn't really feel like me. Do
I have to You don't have to do it. You
should feel empowered to be you because brands want to
understand you, versus feeling like how do I be more
like such and such player they have all of these
(24:28):
sponsorship deals. It's that that's not the that's not the goal.
You just have to find the right path for yourself.
And we as part of our programming when we were
in Indie this this past weekend, we had a brunch
with some Overtime select alums.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
We had the Mea and Maya Paldo, who I know
you love.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Oh my Jersey girls, They're They're amazing and saying with
the Chalice Fisher and they were just talking about when
reflecting on Overtime Select and why it meant so much.
They said it was the details. They're like, the food,
the snack, the conversations we had. We had this sisterhood
that we built with our teammates. We did a movie night,
(25:06):
and then fast forward we did amazing on court competition,
right to the point where talking to us, I didn't
get to talk about Sasha and Shay. Actually, so Sasha Malas,
who is a head of Overtime Select in Shay Dawson,
who's the head of athlete Relations. If you spend two
minutes talking to them, you walk away being like, this matters.
(25:26):
What we're doing completely matters.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Can you sidebar on that a second, because there is
such a dynamic nature of your portfolio, the specificity of
Overtime Select and its role in the broader women's basketball ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
So when you look at Overtime Select, it is a
carefully structured league where we've just expanded the number of
players that are going to be participating this year. Last
year was sixty four. I think we're like seventy two
because of the structure of the teams. We have eight
teams that are here this year. We have eight captains.
(26:13):
But the reason I say all that is because when
year one we did one hundred and seventy five million
views in like fifteen million engagements and had eight sponsors
before we even launched the league, because of all of
the due diligence that went into how it was structured,
and so after the gameplay and after everything was said
and done, we were able to say, okay, we had
(26:35):
forty five of the ESPN Top twenty five players within
their respective classes. We had eleven McDonald's all American players,
so like almost half the players on playing in the game, right,
and we had players who were invited to Team USA
Mini camp. Right, So the twenty three of those players,
and then Kate Harpring, who ended up being the inaugural
season's MVP whos and one of our captains this year,
(26:57):
she jumped in the rankings from like nineteen to number two.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
So you have all of this influencing the actual outcome
of the trajectory of these players. And so when you
then translate that to fast forward, Tasha was just having
a conversation with a top collegiate program and they were
saying that as part of their recruitment criteria, they look
to see it's like GETAD Player.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Of the Year.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
McDonald's All American participation in overtime select is now listed
as part of that.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Growing up playing basketball through high school, AAU was such
this critical next step. Now, obviously the world has evolved
tremendously another level higher because of the curation.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Would you argue, I would argue that we were very
careful to say it's additive to that system.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Got it?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
And that's why it's even architected to take place during
a very specific window where historically it's been kind of
a quiet time from like a recruitment.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
It's not seating as additive.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Got it correct?
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Because even in doing that homework, it was like, and
love my AAU team, and I want to compete for
a state championship. I want to not relocate and uproot
my life and my family.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I want to go to my prong.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Those were things that we learned from the team, learned
from the girls, that carried forward into how this leak
was structured.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Let's talk about how you and the team are managing
just the influx of attention and has that forced you
to perhaps reevaluate the model or you're iterating in real
time what's new this year that didn't exist last year?
Speaker 4 (28:21):
For example, yep, yep, love it.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Actually the end of twenty twenty three, you came to
our the launch event, I was very palpable the energy
right that was that wasn't that long ago, so as
everything was intentionally designed to be different. Sasha Mallas and
Shade Dawson, they're just the really special complement of how
the path for overtime select is being forged forward back
(28:43):
to the off court empowerment and encore competition. Those are
like the main pillars, but then extending it and going
a little bit further. We say competition, we say exposure,
which we talk a lot about. Education we touched on,
but then we also had this bucket that I like
to talk about, which is just we called the inspiration
and it's inspiration through the lens of athletic participation in girls.
(29:04):
Because I know we've talked about the stat We're all
talking about the stat and you see this drop off
that is just staggering. That also comes from not seeing
yourself on the court. So shining the overtime spotlight and
that overtime megaphone effect on these athletes rounded in a
foundation of empowerment and positive influence and active listeners really
(29:27):
creates an amazing environment that allows them to grow. So
this year, because of the success of last year so
I mentioned one hundred and seventy five million views, fifty
million engagements, tons of sponsors, watch time, engagement time on
the long form, on the games, through the chart, over
the charts, we felt like, how do we create more
touch points from an event's perspective? Almost event tized events
(29:50):
throughout the calendar, right because we have always on storytelling
and the content. We have the coverage when you're not
with us competing, but what are those other moments?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
So this year we.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Had some events start in May and then carry us
into June. We did a Ross reveal and revealing the captains,
then we went into so this always on, this storytelling
and coverage begins then so we're building momentum. We introduced
the first ever Dream Tryout as dream Tryout is something
that we had tried on.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
The OTET side.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
First ever dream tryout done for Overtime Select sponsored by ELF,
which we love, and that was formalizing this interest that
Shay and Sasha were getting inbound dms, like thousands of
dms from players from around.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
The world just wanting to try out.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Just give me a chance I can compete, and this
would mean so much to me. So we decided to
formalize this into a dream tryout. All in we got
over five hundred applications through the application, this is like
separate from DMS, and eighteen contestants were invited to Atlanta
for this curated experience inside our facility, our state of
the ur facility that we built back in twenty twenty one.
(30:58):
We hosted them, we hosted their family is. We ended
up choosing five winners We're supposed to choose one. It
was just like an amazing weekend, So that was one
touch point. Then we go into June. June is when
we did the draft and then the roster reveal that
was actually sponsored by State Farm. Then we go into
the Takeover, which is our version of an exhibition weekend.
So we have Queen of the Court which is one
(31:20):
on one sponsored by Stafe Farm. We had Trede Ball Challenge,
three point contest, and then we had this next step fives,
which is this fivey five format.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
We had the.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Coaches of the teams, Juju Watkins and Vlaje Johnson, so
it was like grudge a match for Flage. Juju came
out on top, but we're gonna keep this thing going.
On your four page, it was Paige Offlage. Angel Reyes
came and was in the broadcast booth. This year we
had Nia Simone and kk Arnold and Close. It's all
in the broadcast booth. So it's like, you see this
(31:50):
connectivity by way of mentorship. You see it on the court,
you see it off of the court. Everyone's leaning in
on how do we help this at the community going
to the next phase. I'm looking back, I'm taking you
with me. I want to keep that all connected, and
I think there's a huge opportunity for brands to consider
that when building out their women's sports strategy.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
And I think that's the part.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
I want to drill in on that because it's incredible
what you just described, and certainly the eventizing and commercial
monetization of it from a business perspective feels like a
no brainer. But it's a lot of those intangibles that
you don't see in terms of what that investment unlocks.
Curious to know the constituents in which you're having to
onboard and engage in as much as it's the athletes,
it's the parents. Going back to that roundtable I mentioned
(32:35):
earlier on in the chat, and I mean top tier
college athletes.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
They're number one trusted advisor mom, mommy. Can you talk.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
About some of the input that you're getting from parents
and navigating this new front tier, especially those that are
maybe not familiar with the business of basketball, the world
of brand partnership and development, media rights, media training.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Can you talk.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
About what those intangibles are and mom, parent, guardian, etc.
Are asking of overtime that might not have been in
the business plan.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
They're asking all types of questions that are specific to
their family circumstance or specific to their daughter, their son,
or whatever league we're focused on.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
But it's also.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I think taking is zooming out even further. They have
someone that they can ask questions to, and I think
that is a big differentiator. Whitney, who runs our comms
for Overtime Elite. She sits in Atlanta and Overtime Select
with Joseph. They were in partners with Kayla, and they
were just talking about how they have almost like a
communications structure in place where after a game, emotions can
(33:41):
be high and we'll have a period of time before
we all reconvene and discuss things and ask our questions,
and it's helping them have the right conversations, ask the
right questions because as they advance, they're not going to
have that phone call to be able to make that
is directly tied to whatever their son or daughter's experience
is on the field around the court, and that's the differentiator.
(34:04):
It's like having this group of active listeners who want
to know what is it that you're concerned about. Even
we were getting feedback asking about dietary restrictions, how to
pronounce names, nicknames like things like that were down to
the details because we care about how we're representing you
as we're talking to brands, as we're broadcasting. That just
(34:25):
makes them feel seen in a very different way.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Right, and talking about listening being a big part of
this league and the business of overtime, what are you
hearing that is setting you up for the back half
of twenty five into twenty six as we start thinking
about temples like LA twenty eight and Tmosa basketball. I'm
always quick to remind people the women's team hasn't lost
the game since nineteen ninety two. You're contributing to the
(34:48):
future of that excellence. What's on the roadmap for overtime
specific to the women's game.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
So I'd say a few things.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
In addition to the way that we've been expanding some
of the seasonal touchbow poins throughout the calendar on the
overtime select side, that carries through into we want to
do more storytelling with these players. There are other areas
and there are other parts of their journey that we
want to celebrate and we want a spotlight. We want
to do that in partnership with brands, right and there
are ways for us to integrate brands into that experience
(35:17):
that are meaningful that then everybody benefits from featuring that athlete.
We also started doing we have some crossover events where
we're taking the might of different areas of our business
and we're joining forces for crossover events. We just recently
on the football side of our business inside OFT seven,
(35:38):
we did a quarterback challenge that was sponsored by State Farm,
another partner who's always like challenging all of us to
think about how we expand what it is that we're doing.
The quarterbacks that we're competing OT seven athletes and women's
flag athletes who we're going to see in LA twenty eight, right,
let crossing over and that joining of forces to celebrate
the game in sponsorship with State Farm. That was awesome
(36:00):
on the overtime select side. How do we then continue
what is twenty twenty six and beyond even look like?
And we're seeing more of that, even crossover, not even
cross pollination. But we have Kate Harpring, who's local to
Atlanta join us for the playoffs for OTE, and we're
spotlighting her, and she's in the broadcast, she's in the booth.
It shouldn't be separate the way that I think sometimes
(36:22):
the leagues can be structured. It should all feel connected
because even in doing audience research, our fan community of
one hundred and fifty million followers, they want to see
elite basketball play, They want to see elite sportsmanship, right,
They want to see that competition. They don't really care
who's playing. So it's on all of us to keep
pushing how we celebrate who those athletes are and keep
(36:44):
telling their stories and just train ourselves to know that
we don't have to wait to get to know them
and build that relationship with them.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
I am so appreciative of the work.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
You and the entire team are doing it overtime to
create this very critical piece of the pipeline, which is
development from the If you haven't had a chance to
check out an overtime game, I encourage you go to
the website, follow along on social become part of that
one hundred and fifty million plus strong eg. I'm looking
forward to seeing what the competition looks like this year
and beyond.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Thanks so much, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
I'm your host Laura Crenti, Founder and CEO of Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz,
and this show is produced by Ryan Martz along with
associate producers Meredith Barnes and Rachel Zuckerman. Court Side is
an Iheartwomen's Sports production and partnership with Deep Blue Sports
and Entertainment. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(37:36):
wherever you get your podcasts. Want more, follow, rate, and
review court Side wherever you get your podcasts, and stay
in the game by following us on social media at
Iheartwomen's Sports, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter.
In the show notes, thanks for listening, We'll see you
next time. Court side,
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