Overtime Elite is a 9-team basketball league with the top 16-20-year-old elite players from around the world. OTE is grounded in a foundation of basketball development, academic acceleration, and economic empowerment. While games are played primarily at OTE Arena in Atlanta, with three teams based in the heart of the city, the league is built for the internet, reaching and influencing hoops fans everywhere as they're able to watch on Youtube and our social channels that have accumulated 15 million followers in four years. The creation of our league as a social-first fan experience brings fans closer to the action, on their own terms, while still keeping basketball at the highest and most competitive in the country. The path of success is now proven - we've had four players drafted in the Top 10 in the NBA draft and dozens more playing professionally (domestic and internationally) and at D1 colleges across the country.
Now focusing on players who will remain eligible for college, all current OTE players are on scholarship, not paid professional athletes, although they can still make money off of their Name, Image and Likeness.
Player Development
- What sets OTE apart is the year round training and development - we have individual and group training intended to take our players to the next level. In college there are time restrictions (20 hours a week) with team practice during the season, and here we hit that marker by Wednesday
- We have roughly a 40 member basketball staff from operations and data/analytics to skill development and HPD - no stone is unturned for the education of our players
- All players receive customized plans for both on court and in the weight room in addition to a diet/eating plan tailored to their goals and have quarterly check ins to make sure they are hitting their goals
- Consistent access to both NBA/pro scouts and college coaches - exposure unlike any other program at this age
- The technology at this level is unmatched
- We utilize Kinexon to track player movements and workloads which allows us to optimize their performance and protect their bodies from injury. It tracks how quickly they move, what direction, how much, how high, etc. They wear them during workouts, practices, and games so we can understand how and how much their bodies are moving.
- The NOAH systems are an amazing tool that allows us to track every shot they take while recording different metrics like shot location and shot trajectory. Imagine an athlete being able to correct any shot issues before they even become one! In three months, one of our athletes had a turn around from 11% to 45% while taking 15,000 shots during the timeframe.
- Each of our players gets monthly/quarterly recaps of performance, progress, and room for improvement so that they can make sure they are hitting their goals.
- OTE's Health, Performance, and Development (HPD) team delivers first-class, evidence-based medical services and innovative performance training to our players. The staff includes athletic trainers, sport performance coaches, physical therapists and a dietician to educate and guide our players off the court to make sure they're ready to play.
- Our weight room is equipped with all the resources to both train and recover our athletes. This includes six Tonal machines, integrated data-based sports science technology, and a number of recovery and treatment options including cupping, needling, Normatech, theraguns, and a hot tub and cold tub.
- Our program is designed for the athletes to have ownership of their own bodies and give them the tools to be informed on how to take care of themselves pre, during and post-workout. It starts with education
- We have a full-time psychologist as well who meets individually and as a group with our athletes - mental wellness is a key priority to ensure that we are supporting the entire student athlete and providing them with the skills that they need to be successful on and off the court.
Academics
- Every athlete is empowered to take ownership of their education through a flexible, self-paced curriculum delivered in partnership with Subject Virtual School and supported daily by our on-site Student-Athlete Success Team.
- Each athlete is paired with a Success Coach who provides academic guidance, mentorship, and accountability within a tight 5:1 student-to-coach ratio.
- Athletes engage in on average 4 hours of NCAA-approved coursework per day, supported by proactive academic intervention plans, English language development for international students, and approved AI-enabled learning tools. Subjects range from Sports Science, Math, English Language Arts, Social Sciences, Foreign Language, and other high school electives and internships.
- Through OTE's Experiential Learning Curriculum, athletes earn credit while building essential life and career skills across financial literacy, leadership, media training, and advocacy, preparing them for success on and off the court.
Content/Social/Player Marketing
- We have over 25 people on our world class content team here in Atlanta where we create content for all social platforms. We are one of the fastest growing social accounts in all of sports and work tirelessly with our athletes to tell the stories THEY want to tell.
- Each team has their own dedicated social channels with their own voice to tell player stories.
- The key to OTE's success is ACCESS - fans are in the huddle, in the chat, in the locker room and feel like they are a part of the action
- Our games are streamed on OTE's YouTube page and all league social channels - reaching our fans wherever they are.
- In addition to the games, our unscripted series that follows behind the scenes of what it takes to be an OTE player, One Shot, airs on OTE's YouTube channel throughout the season.
- Season 4 of OTE saw fans rack up over 2 billion views and 200 million engagements in consecutive years and set new records for impressions and time spent with OTE content. In just 3.5 years, OTE content has generated 10BN impressions, 9BN views, and nearly 1BN engagements. With 12MM followers, the OTE vertical has tripled in size over the last 2 years.
- Collectively, OTE players finished Season 4 with 4.5MM Instagram followers across players' personal accounts, adding 1.2MM Instagram followers. The average OTE player added 42K followers in Season 4, a 36% increase from an average growth of 26K followers in Season 3.
Sponsors
- Gatorade was our first sponsor - and they created a custom fuel bar where our players have access to many of their top products and also have access to make their own protein smoothies.
- We also are sponsored by State Farm, adidas, Bevel, ARNG, State Farm, Invisalign, The Real Cost and Xfinity Mobile.
- Each of these sponsors gets customized content and naming rights to many of our biggest events including OTE Combine, Takeover, etc.
League Housing
- Our players are housed at off-campus student housing where players are on the same floor, with 24/7 surveillance cameras, Overtime Elite staff and security on site.
- We have an open door policy for athletes. Each member of the league housing staff wants to ensure our athletes have the best away from home support. Our open door policy allows our athletes to be able to talk with our league housing staff at any time needed about any topic without any fear of judgment.
- Players have the opportunity to vote and suggest activities that take place on the weekend/off days. Parents/guardians receive a monthly update on League housing programming.