Founded in 2016, Overtime rose to prominence by way of generating basketball highlights and interviews aimed at a generation of individuals who have identified iPhones and the web their complete lives. It is widely credited with rising the recognition of NBA stars reminiscent of Zion Williamson, and it has greater than 8.3 million fans between its Instagram and Twitter accounts. The corporate, whose basketball league, Overtime Elite, opened its inaugural season in 2021, introduced a seven-on-seven soccer league remaining yr.
In Overtime Boxing, Rhodes sees some other alternative to use the corporate’s trademark formulation — on this case, highlighting possible international champion boxers and providing a highly curated glimpse into their private lives.
OTX will produce a four-event sequence broadcast on DAZN (pronounced “Da Zone”) in August. The bouts will happen at Overtime Elite Arena in Atlanta, the house of its basketball league and web site of some of the Professional Fighters League’s combined martial arts occasions.
Rhodes stated the group has now not signed any opponents however plans so as to add 30 to 40 competition by way of early summer time. Those athletes will ink one-fight offers and compete in primary playing cards throughout its 4 occasions within the first yr.
“We’re taking an approach that we’re going to be additive to the sport,” Rhodes stated. “So essentially, we want to get out there, put our best foot forward and make sure that 2023 events go seamlessly and provide boxers with a ton of value. Our approach is always to learn from what we do and kind of go from there, so you can definitely anticipate more, bigger and better in 2024, but we’re not trying to plan too far ahead.”
Rhodes stated Overtime’s analysis confirmed boxing to be the fourth-most-popular recreation for its target audience in the back of soccer, basketball and football. Despite stories of boxing’s death or waning relevance, Rhodes stated he believes fans from Generation Z have gravitated again to the game, spurred by way of components together with its unpredictability, the expanding reputation of health boxing and the hot uptick in famous person boxing occasions involving YouTube stars reminiscent of Jake Paul or KSI.
“I think part of the job for Overtime Boxing is to take what may be a fan with casual interest and convert them into a more hardcore fan going forward,” Rhodes stated.
That generational hobby — and Overtime’s report interesting to that demographic — attracted DAZN, the London-based streaming provider that made boxing a key focal point in its global enlargement.
Joe Markowski, the CEO of DAZN North America, and different sports activities business executives are confronting Gen Z’s declining interest in organized sports and transferring paperwork of sports activities fandom. He perspectives the Overtime partnership as a higher direction to succeed in the ones audiences.
“[Gen Z has] been served by countless entertainment formats ranging from traditional sports and music, YouTube videos to Roblox to Minecraft. They’ve had so many more ways to spend their time and to consume media,” he stated. “There is a risk that we lose that generation or their interest in traditional sport is diluted because they have been distracted by many different things in their formative years. I think we as a company and we as an industry have a responsibility to embrace partnerships and innovations that reach those young people in a way that they’re more used to receiving media.”