It was an unforgettable moment for twins Amen and Ausar Thompson and their family when the two walked across the stage at the Barclays Center after being chosen fourth and fifth overall, respectively, in June’s NBA Draft. The back-to-back lottery pick sequence was also a watershed moment for Overtime Elite (OTE), the upstart league for high school prospects where the twins played for two seasons.
Through increased engagement and basketball credibility, the twins’ success helped elevate OTE, which is controlled by parent company and digital sports media brand Overtime. Now the two-year old subsidiary is banking on similar recruiting success to catapult its new boxing venture, OTX, into the mainstream.
And finding the boxing version of Ausar or Amen—someone with potential to blossom into a champion—is a top priority as OTX opens its inaugural DAZN summertime series in Atlanta Friday.
“At the end of the day, you must have great talent,” Overtime CEO and founder Dan Porter said in a video interview. “You can have the most lit event, with the best bottle service and celebrities, but people get excited about talent. We want people to say these [OTX fighters] are the next contenders.”
OTX is casting a wide net to achieve this goal. Under the leadership of general manager Brandon Rhodes, talent evaluator Britton Hardin and other OTX advisors are peeking into gyms nationwide to find relatively unknown undefeated (or one-loss) boxers with a promising trajectory. OTX hopes younger audiences will want to follow the origin stories of these rising fighters before they reach top-level competition and vie for titles.
The company has inked a non-pay-per-view deal with DAZN for four weekend match cards, which expires following that. It provides a chance to show proof of the concept and strike a bigger media deal, similar to how the basketball arm linked up with Amazon for a three-year pact.
Celebrities like Drake, Quavo, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (Bezos Expeditions) and Liberty Media Corp. are among investors in the parent company, Overtime. Their dollars are fueling the boxing venture, which has lower overhead costs than OTE, according to Porter.
OTX will infuse new boxing rules to cater to younger fans, and it’s putting a twist on its business model compared to its other sports properties in basketball and football. While attracting the Gen Z audience remains a goal, Overtime plans to place more emphasis on in-venue revenue with plans to sell alcohol and sell tickets at a higher rate than with basketball. There’s already an expectation to host OTX events beyond the 1,200-seat venue in Atlanta, with plans to explore potential international matches next year.
The alcohol sponsorship category will also be new; Overtime couldn’t do so before because its original two sports feature athletes under the age of 21. The company is already in talks with a host of liquor brands for partnerships with OTX.
“We want to do fights all over the world,” Porter said. “This can turn into something you would plan your birthday around … We want to create a premium live event experience that also has a media component.”
Outside of media rights and in-venue revenue, sponsorships will continue to be key despite fewer brands being interested in combat sports. That hasn’t stopped C4 Energy from coming on as OTX’s inaugural sponsor.
The Nutrabolt Brands-owned company, which also has a wide-ranging deal with WWE, has guaranteed to give each of the four inaugural OTX winners one-year endorsement deals as part of its agreement. It’s just one of the perks the boxers are looking to capitalize on with the upstart boxing circuit.
Despite being focused on Gen Z sensibilities, OTX says it has no plans to add influencers and YouTubers to the fight cards. Instead, it hopes to evolve its talent into popular and social media savvy boxers who can grab the same target audience while not diminishing the product on the canvas.
OTE believes its boxing venture can be beneficial to promotional companies like Top Rank, which has champion boxers such as Tyson Fury and Teofimo Lopez. The road to top fight destinations like T-Mobile Arena and Madison Square Garden is a pathway where the company sees fertile business ground. In addition, the World Boxing Council has partnered with OTX to sanction and promote upcoming fights.
The success of its talent could provide a boost for Overtime, similar to how the rising profile of the Thompson twins is beneficial for the Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and the NBA at large.
For Overtime, the plan hasn’t changed: Provide a product that’s fast, engaging and social-media friendly for young audiences. OTX simply creates a division for more live-event revenue and the potential to cash in on pay-per-view.
“No other sport has pay-per-view,” Porter added. “If you continually create something that has a lot of demand, that could be in our future as well.”
