While fans are waiting on Drake’s upcoming album, Certified Lover Boy, he’s making some major business moves behind the scenes. Over the years, the Canadian rapper has expanded his business portfolio with investments in sports, entertainment, and gaming. According to Variety, the rapper is among the dozens of high-profile celebrities who helped raise $80M in Series C funding for sports and entertainment start-up Overtime.
Overtime is a Brooklyn-based start-up company geared towards creating short content highlighting high school basketball stars. The recent capital will be used towards expanding the platform and their operations including their high school basketball league Overtime Elite later this year. The high school league will guarantee salaries to all its players of at least $100K a year and increasing their 125-person staff with an additional 80 employees.
Drake is among the high-profile celebrities and venture capitalists backing the venture. Jeff Bezos personal investment company Bezos Expeditions and Alexis Ohanian have also invested in Series C funding.
Over 25 professional former and current NBA players have also invested in the company including Lonzo Ball, Devin Booker, Aaron Gordan, Klay Thompson, Isaiah Thomas, and Nick Young, among others.
“The breadth and diversity of this investment group, including leaders from business, entertainment, technology and sports, speaks to Overtime’s remarkable growth and our future trajectory,” Overtime CEO Dan Porter said in a statement. “We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg, as we develop new ways for Overtime to engage with and entertain the next generation of athletes and fans.”
Overtime is also planning to launch NFT’s, trading cards, and sports betting for young fans with their new funding.