Atlanta is home to a new type of basketball league. And whether you are an avid pick up player, a top college recruit, or just a hoops enthusiast, there’s room for you to join in on the competition.
Atlanta entrepreneur Robert Foster built Shot Makers League as a virtual basketball skills challenge platform. While it initially started as a competition run through Instagram, it is growing into a standalone video platform.
That will give users the “creative control and freedom to engage with each other through challenge,” said Foster.
Hypepotamus asked Foster why now is the right time to launch a video competition platform. For him, it is about capturing new opportunities that come with the rise of the creator economy.
“Basketball players of all levels are taking ownership of their power through technology and building huge audiences. Becoming more than just ball players….they are now Creators and Influencers. You have players who are nowhere near the same level of an NBA player, yet they have more global recognition for the trick shots or content they create,” he said. “In addition to this, the engaging power of social media challenges are growing exponentially. Look at what the Ice Bucket challenge did for ALS awareness, and now, there’s almost no pop or rap song that doesn’t have a social media challenge associated with it.”
Alongside the rise of the creator economy, Shot Makers League also taps into a basic human instinct: People love to make and take challenges.
Players will compete virtually for a range of skills-based basketball competitions. Those competitions are broken up into 3 types: Community competitions, player versus player, and sponsored challenges. Players will be able to join shooting and dunking competitions, basketball trivia matches, and workout challenges to showcase their skills.
Those sponsored challenges allow brands to find new and interesting ways to engage their audiences.
For Foster, the platform has an opportunity to grow in two directions, saying that the Shot Makers League has the ability “to experience growth like a content marketplace and a social network with the monetization of a video game publisher.”
SportsTech in Atlanta
Shot Makers League will look to launch officially during March Madness, college basketball’s playoff tournament that runs each spring. Launching during the tournament could help the League capture some of the fan fervor that hits basketball fans of all skill levels this time of year.
Building something like this in Atlanta is special for Foster, a College Park native who has decided to locate his company at Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead.
“The tech, sports, and entertainment community have all been instrumental in our growth as a company and my growth as a Founder,” Foster said. “It’s been invaluable connecting with guys like Praveen Ghanta and Adam Wexler who have had astronomical success. These are the people I’ve been able to take nuggets of knowledge from because of the community at ATV. Along with ATV, the Russell Center has welcomed us into their stakeholders program. Atlanta is building a massively successful tech ecosystem especially in B2B SaaS. We want to be a pillar of its success in the consumer tech space.”
Those who want to sign up for the league ahead of the official launch can do so here.
While official competitions will be announced soon, Foster left us with an intriguing tip as to what users can expect.
“We will definitely have some cool prizes around the tournament action,” he said. “Also, I hear that Chat GPT has created a profile and has some really interesting challenges in store.”
—
Featured photo from Photo by Tamarcus Brown on Unsplash