April 23, 2021: -Sports media company Overtime has secured an $80 million fundraising round with investors that include Jeff Bezos’ investment firm, global entertainer Drake, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and several National Basketball Association players.

Overtime is a media company that provides original sports content on social media, such as Snapchat, YouTube, and Facebook. The company also sells apparel with its logos and branding. The fundraising comes over a month after Overtime announced a paid basketball league for young players.

Co-founder and CEO Dan Porter says, “The breadth and diversity of this investment group, that include leaders from business, entertainment, technology, and sports, speaks to Overtime’s remarkable growth and our future trajectory.”

Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of the Amazon CEO, is one of the companies that fund round.

Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, and many NBA stars, Devin Booker, Trae Young, and Klay Thompson, also joined the investment round.

Players who join are not applicable for collegiate-level play as of now. But if OTE players do not opt for a professional career, OTE will be giving an additional $100,000 for college. Investors in OTE include Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant and Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Overtime said it would use a portion of the $80 million to pay for salaries of players and staff, support league start-up costs, invest in the NFT sector and grow the app.

The company said its content is streamed over 1.7 billion times a month on all social platforms. Since its launch in 2016, Overtime noted, it has approximately 50 million social media followers.

“Overtime has built an unrivaled brand and global community from scratch in just five years. This fundraise reflects the incredible growth opportunities associated with such a market-leading position, including the opportunity to bring Overtime Elite into the world,” said Michael Spirito, a partner at investment firm Sapphire Sports Partner, who led the funding round.