BallerTV, an amateur sports streaming service, today announced a partnership with Heat G Dwyane Wade that will see the longtime NBAer come aboard as a brand ambassador and minority investor. The Pasadena-based start-up’s main focus is high school-level basketball, but the service also offers other sports like baseball and football. Wade began using BallerTV last summer to watch his son, Zaire, play in games that he could not attend. He was so impressed with the product that he wanted to get involved with it himself. Wade spoke with THE DAILY to talk about why he joined BallerTV, where he hopes to see it go and even dish on his post-playing career plans after he retires at the end of this season.
Q: How did your relationship with BallerTV begin?
Wade: A friend of mine introduced me to the brand because he knows about my son and how much I’ve missed watching him play basketball. I thought it was great and I wanted to commit. I wanted to get in touch with the company and ask them a lot of questions about what’s next for BallerTV. Is there an opportunity that they continue to grow?
Q: How will you be involved with BallerTV moving forward?
Wade: I’m an equity partner in this brand and I want to see it grow, more so from the standpoint of getting involved in more sports. It’s great that we started with indoor basketball … but I want to see it grow. All around, I believe in it.
Q: What are your goals for the product?
Wade: I have an investor side of me that wants to see it grow. But I have a parent side of me that really cares more than even the investor side. I just really want parents to have an opportunity to experience what I experienced when I was able to follow my kid. This is the father side of me that has now met the investor side and the business side.
Q: What makes BallerTV unique?
Wade: They have some individuals who are doing the analysis of the game -- young kids who are trying to take that next step in journalism or podcasting, TV production. That’s so cool to have a brand that’s allowing others to not only work and get paid a little bit but also learn skills. To me it was like I was tuning in to ESPN or TNT.
Q: What is your overall plan with your business endeavors once you retire?
Wade: The goal is to put it all under one umbrella, that’s what we’ve been trying to build -- make it all one company. That would be ideal, but I have so much more work to do and so much more brand building to do. I don’t have answers today. I want to finish my basketball career. Then I’ll focus on that next wave and hopefully everything that I’ve been doing in business over the years can all come together.
