Written by: Vickie Sullivan | July 08, 2021
Take Advantage of Controversy to Disrupt Your Market
Talk about disruption. A startup, taking advantage of the recent NCAA controversy, is redesigning professional basketball to give “elite high-school basketball players another option outside of the NCAA,” according to a recent Fast Company article.
Overtime Elite League (OTE) specializes in social and amateur sports content. It plans to take on “24 to 30 players, ages 16 to 18, who will be paid at least $100,000 and share in the revenue from name, image, and likeness rights, including the sales of custom jerseys, trading cards, and non-fungible tokens (NFT).”
OTE is a unique mashup between college basketball, the creator economy, and reality TV. And it is poised to be a serious option to the traditional route to college and professional basketball.
2 Disruption Strategies You Can Apply
Overtime’s disruption offers lessons for all of us. The company used two strategies that you, too, can apply:
• Use the inequity to position the offer. While NCAA restrictions have kept players from cashing in on their social media popularity, OTE offers revenue-sharing deals, disability insurance, and up to $100,000 for college tuition. The NCAA is no longer the only path to the pros. Ask yourself: What problem can you be the alternative solution?
• Create popularity, then monetize it. As with most startups, promotion is everything. Overtime couldn’t afford sports media rights, so it focused on younger talent and racked up 40 million followers. This social media effort popularized these up-and-comers, which leads to the league, which leads to the other revenue streams. Ask yourself: Who are the underserved folks before and/or after the “overserved” status quo?
Listen: How to Take Advantage of a New Environment
Overtime is a sports media company, and OTE is just another way Overtime can be a stronger advocate for young players. And that’s what controversy does: It creates an opportunity for folks like us to be bigger and better advocates.
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