The upstart sports brand Overtime announced a Series D round of funding to the tune of $100 million, with Liberty Media Corp. joining its long roster of investors.
In an interview for the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Dan Porter, CEO and founder of Overtime, pledged to grow the company’s existing leagues in basketball and football. “Operating, owning it, and then really investing in audience development so that we can bring in media rights and sponsors — that’s the core of what we’re going to do with this money over the next two to three years,” he said.
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Liberty, which boasts sports-related assets including Formula One and the Atlanta Braves, joins returning investors including Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global, Bezos Expeditions, Blackstone and Sapphire Sport. All together, Overtime has raised $250 million since its launch in 2016.
But raising money this time around didn’t come easy, Porter admitted. “It was enormously difficult, I’m not gonna lie. I think that the level of capitalization of companies previously, when interest rates were phenomenally low, was very high,” he said. “And now things have shifted the other way. But there’s an enormous pressure to make this last for a very, very long time, so that you’re somewhat insulated from the ups and downs of where the market is and where the economy is.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.