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Being a high-profile professional athlete means living under constant scrutiny, with a billion-dollar industry built around analyzing your every move. From tabloids to talk shows to tweets, sports content is almost impossible to escape.
Have a bad game? Certain media members are licking their lips. A playoff dud? You’ll be dodging bar TVs playing ESPN for a week. But what happens when you give athletes the tools to level the playing field? What happens when they get to respond?
That’s the question Brandon Harris wants to answer with Playmaker.
Rewriting the playbook
Founded in 2018, Playmaker has grown into a globally recognized sports media enterprise, featuring video podcasts — or, as Harris calls them, shows — with top-tier athletes like Angel Reese and Shaquille O’Neal. Harris founded Playmaker after growing disillusioned with his role in sports marketing.
“I was on the buying side, and I always saw people on the other side having way more fun,” he says. “I was tired of just getting people to buy merch. I wanted to build things that fans could enjoy.”
For Harris, that meant creating distribution channels focused on sports storytelling directly from the athletes.
Once Harris defined his content strategy, his next priority was setting Playmaker apart from the competition. He did this by emphasizing video, unlike major players in the space who focused on audio.
“Our pitch was simple,” Harris says. “We understand the landscape, know how to engage on social, build communities, and create engaging video.”
Since launching Playmaker, Harris and his team have produced tens — if not hundreds — of thousands of pieces of “graphic content,” including three- to six-minute breakout videos. He makes an effort to consume as much feedback as possible, estimating he’s read millions of comments.
“I used to call myself the common man barometer,” Harris says. “I’ve read enough and posted enough that I think I understand most sports fans.”
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One reason an athlete might hesitate is the risk of becoming a viral meme after a bad game or seeing major sports outlets report stats like, “Player X has recorded more podcast episodes this season than games played” while recovering from an injury. Whether it’s jealousy, insecurity, or loyalty to a rival team, some sports fans – and even traditional media – tend to react negatively to athlete-hosted shows, often for reasons that have little to do with the actual content.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Harris says. “It feels like a ‘shut up and dribble’ mindset. People applaud athletes for building businesses, and that’s exactly what this is. They’re spending an hour or two a week on it—if that’s taking away from their practice, then there are bigger issues at play.”
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Turning clips into clicks
In 2024, Playmaker’s original content generated over $25M in earned media value from more than 1,000 posts and articles shared by publishers. Earned media, which refers to publicity a brand gains from third parties without paying for it, is considered a holy grail in digital marketing.
Harris likens this organic content to a “funnel” that directs viewers of viral clips toward the full show. He attributes Playmaker’s success in earned media to two key factors: its vast social distribution and dynamic talent roster.
“We have talent that is authentic and willing to say things some safer personalities avoid for PR reasons,” Harris says, highlighting figures like Shaq, Angel Reese, and Marshawn Lynch. “We’ve always prioritized talent that is genuinely entertaining and won’t just regurgitate PR messaging every episode.”
As a fairly small company, Playmaker doesn’t have the luxury of unlimited resources. Because of that, Harris is very particular about who he chooses to work with.
“There’s a lot of talent that I really like and respect that I’ve had to say no to,” Harris says. “We don’t take on projects unless we’re confident in our ability to dedicate the time, resources, and attention needed to make them successful.”
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Unlike many of their competitors, Playmaker allows athletes to retain full control of their assets and IP.
“If you’re an athlete, partnering with Playmaker means having a platform built for you that you can take with you, monetize now, and use to grow your other brands,” Harris says. “So why wouldn’t you do it?”
This becomes particularly relevant with streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon eyeing the video podcast space. While Playmaker is open to distribution deals, Harris insists any partnership must be non-exclusive. That said, he’s not ruling out a collaboration with one of the content kings.
“We would work with them to develop something new and non-exclusive,” he says, “but for us, the priority has always been digital and social native.
Though Playmaker’s business model is relatively new, Harris admits they are not the first to do an athlete podcast. Still, rather than building a company in an industry with decades of proven success stories to model plans on, Harris started Playmaker at a time when athlete podcasts were still seen as a novelty rather than a norm. Instead of balking, Harris embraced the uncertainty, believing he was onto something with massive potential.
“As a huge sports fan myself, I think about what I want to see more of and what I want to see less of,” Harris says. “And I would rather watch a quality, authentic athlete podcast than anything that’s on TV.”
