Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, More Invest In New Sports Streaming App ‘Buzzer’

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The new sports streaming app, Buzzer, has received up to $20 million in investment funds from a plethora of new and existing investors, such as Sapphire Sport, Canaan Partners, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan and Patrick Mahomes.

The new financing will allow Buzzer to further democratize frictionless access to live sports and scale its first-of-a-kind product, specifically designed to meet the needs of the next generation of sports fans. This financing will also help the Buzzer team build new product features that lean into the social aspect of sports, develop new partnership opportunities, and grow with key hires. Other athlete-investors include LaMelo Ball, Devin Booker, J. Cole, DeAndre Hopkins, Sabrina Ionescu, Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Renee Montgomery, Naomi Osaka, and Bobby Wagner, among others.

“With the proliferation of new distribution platforms, fans are finding it harder to know when and where live sports are happening, creating an experience that is not optimized for their expansive interests based on how they consume. We envision Buzzer becoming the discovery and curation tool that brings Gen Z fans back to live sports with simple access to ephemeral moments,” says Bo Han, founder and CEO of Buzzer. “We’re grateful to have so many influential industry leaders as partners who have a shared vision of creating a platform and community built to close the generational gap in live sports consumption. We’ll continue to build Buzzer with fans’ interests in mind and with a partner-first approach that presents new opportunities for them to reach net new audiences, define new revenue streams, and offer added value to their existing subscribers.”

Founded in 2020, Buzzer simplifies the discovery and viewing experience of live sports for mobile consumption in a short-form live format. The platform offers a seamless user and viewing experience by aggregating and organizing live sports streaming rights into one cohesive and accessible mobile platform, and allowing its users to set up customized alerts based on their preferences. Current league partners include NBA League Pass, the PGA Tour, and the NHL with additional partnerships slated to announce in the coming months as Buzzer continues to expand as a multi-sport, aggregated platform.

“Buzzer is uniquely suited to bring together the massive market of live sports and a new generation of fans who prefer mobile content. With viewership down across many league’s telecasts, sports media is experiencing an existential challenge,” says Maha Ibrahim, general partner at Canaan. “Buzzer presents a novel approach to reclaiming value in the $75B U.S. live sports market, making it painless for fans to drop into games right on their phones – sending them hyper-personalized notifications at exactly the moment when their favorite player, team, or sport is live.”

Other notable investors include current and former athletes the likes of Pat Connaughton, Madison Hammond, Scotty James, Christian McCaffrey, and Apolo Ohno; team owners David Blitzer (New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia 76ers), GSW Sports Ventures, Steve Kaplan (D.C. United, Swansea City), Steve Koonin (Atlanta Hawks), Lerner Enterprises (Washington Nationals), Stephen Pagliuca (Boston Celtics), Curtis Polk (Charlotte Hornets, 23XI Racing), Steve Simon (Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever), Jeffrey Vinik (Tampa Bay Lightning), and WISE Ventures (shared ownership of Minnesota Vikings, Orlando City SC, Orlando Pride). Influential leaders in the sports and entertainment community including Ros Gold-Onwude, Ibrahim Hamad, Devin Johnson, Estee Portnoy, and Taylor Rooks; and investment firms Black Capital, Chetrit Ventures, JDS Sports, Jump Capital, LionTree Partners, OneTeam Partners, Targa Partners, and Micromanagement Ventures have also become investment partners in the new sports consumption endeavor.

Steven Boero
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