Digital Star Rachel DeMita Signs Talent Deal With Sports-Media Startup Overtime
Rachel DeMita, a sports personality with a big online following, has signed with Overtime to collaborate on new shows and live coverage for the sports-media startup.
The 28-year-old DeMita, who played college basketball at Old Dominion University, has 1.4 million followers on Instagram and hundreds of thousands on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. She’s the host of NBA 2KTV, the digital show for the “NBA 2K” video game series published by Take-Two Interactive.
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Overtime’s first show with DeMita (which is as yet unnamed) will be about her trying to replicate the crazy workouts of various pro and amateur athletes. She also will provide live and vlog coverage of various NBA, college and high-school basketball events throughout the year.
DeMita is repped by WME, which is where both of Overtime’s co-founders — CEO Dan Porter, who led WME’s digital, and president Zack Weiner — previously worked. Overtime was founded in 2016 with a focus on up-and-coming high-school basketball players. The deal with DeMita is part of the startup’s attempt to broaden its the scope of its content to span sports culture at large.
“Rachel is one of the most talented creators in the basketball space with a deep knowledge of how to work with players and create engaging content that speaks to the next-generation sports fan,” said Marc Kohn, Overtime’s chief content officer, who joined the company this spring from Bleacher Report.
Weiner said Overtime in discussions with multiple sponsors for the first show with DeMita, which is going into production this week.
“She shares our vision for dumping the same-old, same-old in sports coverage and creating something fresh that’s more about people and stories than scores and stats,” said Weiner. “We’re excited because she has an immense following among younger sports fans, and we’re giving her the creative freedom to try something new.”
Overtime’s content has featured its own internal talent — as well as Kevin Durant, who’s an investor — but the pact with DeMita is its first external talent deal and the company plans to pursue others. In the next few months, the New York-based company plans to open an L.A. office to work more closely with DeMita and other creators.
“You won’t see us go after ‘traditional’ talent,” Weiner said. “Rachel is an example of the kind of new-wave talent we’re looking to sign.”
Since raising $9.5 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz at the beginning of 2018, Overtime’s video views have more than doubled, according to Weiner.
Overtime now produces seven regular series, distributed across multiple platforms. The company’s recently launched shows include “Hype School” on Snapchat and a show with sneaker artist Sierato. It’s also boosted output of football content and signed a professional “Fortnite” team. Overtime now has 40 full-time employees in addition to its network of creators nationwide.
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