Whistle Sports’ mantra of creating, curating and delivering sports content for fans and brands continues to shore up numbers and position the company as a leader in how millennials are consuming content. Since formally launching in 2014, the company has now built a community that tallies over 350 million aggregate subscribers, fans and followers while adding an additional 2.5 million a week. Partnering with brands that range from the NFL to Dude Perfect, the newest company on the Whistle Sports roster is Nitro Circus, with an announcement last week for a partnership to create and distribute long- and short-form content throughout Whistle Sports’ network. Cynopsis Sports asked Jeff Urban, President of Whistle Sports, about its growth, trends and the Nitro Circus deal.
Urban on challenges: The digital/social ecosystem is changing rapidly so we need to keep a keen focus on driving our priorities. With new players entering the marketplace, we need to focus our efforts as the first mover to continue to capitalize on our growth and strong position.
On keys to success: We have a passionate team that drives our business every day. We are partnered with creators, leagues, investors and athletes who share our vision for where the sports-entertainment digital/social world is going. We are developing offerings for our brand and distributor partners that shows we are a valued solutions-based partner.
On opportunities: That consumption in our key demographic, 13-34 year olds, continues to move towards digital/social first content that brands continue to lean-in on how they can be involved in the digital/social conversation in more meaningful ways. That distributors will value how companies like ours can create content and with our engaged audience and move them to action or platforms.
On bringing Dunk League back for season two: We reached more the 55.5 million fans in Season 1, so in concert with our partner go90, it was an easy decision to dream bigger and see how we could take the one location drama of Dunk League 1 and turn it into a multi-city tour and expand the competition, the story telling and entertainment on a grander scale.
On Nitro Circus: At our core, we both care deeply about entertaining so it’s a natural fit to take their type of entertainment and pair it with ours. You will see a natural merging of some of their insanely talented athletes with our amazingly talented creators to bring to life these two amazing worlds of sports entertainment.
