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Zack Weiner is the co-founder of Overtime, the massive sports community brand that launched when he was just 24 years old. With over 120 million global social media fans driving billions of video views a month, Overtime built its massive base by keeping a laser focus on its key user: the Gen Z sports fan.
Zack also co-created OTE (Overtime Elite), a groundbreaking basketball league for elite, young players that combines high-level competition with content. As the NBA Championship consumes the hearts and minds and attention spans of sports fans, we talked to Zack about the explosive growth of his platforms, pushing through setbacks, and the true meaning and value of a strong team.
What’s different about Overtime compared to other media companies?
First, we’re incredibly focused on our audience: the Gen Z sports fan. That’s been true from day one, and I think it shows up in a few key ways. The most obvious — and maybe the most important — is the voice of Overtime. Fans often say Overtime sounds like their friend, and I think that’s a huge differentiator for us. It’s part of the reason people want to wear our hoodies and T-shirts. We’re not an apparel company, but we’ve built a brand that genuinely resonates with young people and creates a real connection with them.
It also shapes who and what we cover. We spend more time covering young athletes than the average media company. We’re known for spotlighting the next generation of NBA, WNBA and NFL stars. While we absolutely cover current professional athletes, we place a real premium on emerging talent because we believe that’s what resonates most with the next generation of fans.
The other thing I’d add is that we’re fully vertically integrated. We have the audience, the distribution, and the content, but importantly, we also own and operate our own leagues. That’s still a pretty rare model today. A lot of leagues have launched in the past five years, but I don’t think any of them entered the market with the unique advantage of already having more than 100 million followers and a deep understanding of the audience because we built the media company first.
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What inspired you to create this business?
I think the biggest inspiration from a business perspective was the gap in the marketplace. Legacy media and legacy leagues are incredible, but their average audience is decades older than the average Overtime fan, and that’s where we initially saw the opportunity. But very quickly, once you actually start building the company, the inspiration becomes the fans themselves. Seeing how they react to what we create and how much they care about it is truly inspiring — not just for me, but for the entire team as well.
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