The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry.
Name: Zack Weiner
Company: Overtime
Position: Co-Founder
Zack Weiner is the Co-Founder of Overtime, a cross-platform technology startup built around high school and amateur sports video and short-form content. Overtime reaches tens of millions of athletes and fans each month. Weiner runs Business Development and helped launched Overtime within WME/IMG and recently secured investments from David Stern, Greycroft Ventures, 645 Ventures, and other leading VC firms.
Weiner is also the Founder of digital sports media entity The Sports Quotient and grew the team to 150-plus college sports writers within two years. Born and raised in New York City, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics.
1) What utilization of technology in professional or college sports has recently blown you away and why?
In my opinion, the most impactful technological change to the sports industry in the past two decades is that fans themselves now have the ability to distribute a professional sport league’s content for them (a classic example is a fan tweeting a highlight). The technologies that caused this — the rise of social media, video compression, viewing improvements, etc. — are not new, but what blows me away is how varied the reaction has been among the sports leagues. You have organizations like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that won’t even allow GIFs of special moments. And then you have the NBA, that allows fans to post as much video as they want to YouTube, and then quietly take the ad revenue. I think the leagues that are able to extract value (both brand equity and revenue) from the largest digital platforms in the world will rise to the top.
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2) How is Overtime disrupting how fans not only consume sports content but also share it socially? What’s one good unique use case of the app where content went viral?
I think that some of the capture and editing technology we’ve created hits the sweet spot between easy to use but also different enough that you’re providing unique value. A good example of how our app can spur social sharing would be our “Flashback” tool. Flashback allows you to essentially go back 15 seconds to record highlights retroactively in real-time.
So, instead of having a five-minute clip with only 15 seconds of an actual highlight, I now JUST have the 15 seconds where something exciting happened, making it not only more valuable for me as a creator, but making it more likely I share it. Plus, you’re not missing the next highlight as you fiddle to upload the first one to whatever social media app you’re using. With Flashback, you can save them all without missing the next one. I think on the viral side, our effects have a larger impact. They can elevate a video from being a normal play to making it feel premium/flashy. Here’s a good example.
3) If money were no object, what technology would you build or buy to help you do your job better?
I’d build facial recognition for sports video to automate athlete tagging in any highlight. Unfortunately, I think we’re still years away from that, but I’m sure with enough money we could do it now.
4) As a sports fan, what sports-related service, app, product, etc., could you not live without and why?
This is probably the least techy answer I could give to this question, and I think the business aspect is still tricky, but the sports product/service I still consume the most is plain old, high quality written content. There are days where I’d rather read a Zach Lowe piece on an NBA game then watch the game itself. It’s the reason why I started The Sports Quotient when I was in college. I think I’ll always have a weak spot for in-depth written content about sports.
5) If you had to project 20 years into the future, how will most fans watch their favorite sports teams?
I feel like this is a leading question to get me to talk about virtual reality and alternative reality. It’s pretty definitive that VR and AR will change how we consume sports. What I’m curious about is how varied consumer demand will be: Will 95 percent of consumers agree that sitting courtside, via VR, is the best seat in the house? Or, will some people want to watch the game as if they were Steph Curry? That variation in preference doesn’t exist right now because we don’t have those options.
6) Give us your bold prediction about a form of technology that will be integral to how sports fans consume sports content over the next 12 months.
We still haven’t seen the full extent the enormous amount of data that leagues are collecting can be integrated into the viewing process. I can’t wait to see heart-rate data on a kicker as he sets up for the game-winning field goal. Or maybe there’s an option as I stream an NBA game to see localized shot charts for the spot on the floor where a player catches a pass.