Drake, Jeff Bezos Invest In Sports Media Start-Up Overtime

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The high school basketball start-up gets major financial backing from Drake, Jeff Bezos, and over 25 former and current NBA players.

While fans are waiting on Drake's upcoming album, Certified Lover Boy, he's making some major business moves behind the scenes. Over the years, the Canadian rapper has expanded his business portfolio with investments in sports, entertainment, and gaming. According to Variety, the rapper is among the dozens of high-profile celebrities who helped raise $80M in Series C funding for sports and entertainment start-up Overtime. 

Drake, Jeff Bezos Invest In Sports Media Start-Up Overtime

Overtime is a Brooklyn-based start-up company geared towards creating short content highlighting high school basketball stars. The recent capital will be used towards expanding the platform and their operations including their high school basketball league Overtime Elite later this year. The high school league will guarantee salaries to all its players of at least $100K a year and increasing their 125-person staff with an additional 80 employees.

Drake is among the high-profile celebrities and venture capitalists backing the venture. Jeff Bezos personal investment company Bezos Expeditions and Alexis Ohanian have also invested in Series C funding. 

Over 25 professional former and current NBA players have also invested in the company including Lonzo Ball, Devin Booker, Aaron Gordan, Klay Thompson, Isaiah Thomas, and Nick Young, among others.

"The breadth and diversity of this investment group, including leaders from business, entertainment, technology and sports, speaks to Overtime’s remarkable growth and our future trajectory,” Overtime CEO Dan Porter said in a statement. “We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, as we develop new ways for Overtime to engage with and entertain the next generation of athletes and fans.”

Overtime is also planning to launch NFT's, trading cards, and sports betting for young fans with their new funding. 


About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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