Patrick Mahomes, DeAndre Hopkins, Michael Jordan and Waynze Gretzky lead a heavy-duty team of investors for ‘Buzzr’, a streaming app.
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Sports fans are moving increasingly to streaming services from traditional cable TV in the year 2021. Investors in sports media have picked up on this movement of consumers across media. It seems that the next big broadcasting deals will mainly be done on streaming platforms.
Buzzr is a new, disruptive player in this segment of sportscasting. Founded in 2015, this app focused on providing updates to sports fans in the past. But it has pivoted to a different revenue and content model over the past couple of years.
They’ve announced deals with the NBA, the PGA Tour and the NHL already. Their NBA content went live on May 8, allowing customers to view games and clips on a pay-to-play basis.
What makes Buzzer different, according to CEO Bo Han, was the collection of rights from multiple sports the company is assembling, and the ability to alert users on their phones for moments and games they have indicated interest in.
For example, if you’re a Steph Curry fan, you will receive push notifications when he’s having a characteristic 3rd quarter. The app allows you to then play a small amount of money (up to $1.99 for a quarter) to watch the footage live.
Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky invest in Buzzr
Sapphire Sports and Canaan Partners lead the latest investment round in this fast-growing streaming space. They’ve also roped in over 20 major sports stars as investors for this round.
As mentioned, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky are the two biggest names investing in this company. The likes of Devin Booker, LaMelo Ball, Naomi Osaka, DeAndre Hopkins and Patrick Mahomes are among the other sports stars involved in this funding round.
It remains to be seen how the sports broadcasting market responds to these changes. But one thing is clear – sportspersons are now beginning to claim the games they dominate as their own. In more ways than one.
