Hallelujah! Religion of Sports Raises $10 Million

Francesca Billington

Francesca Billington is a freelance reporter. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for dot.LA and has also reported for KCRW, the Santa Monica Daily Press and local publications in New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in anthropology.

Hallelujah! Religion of Sports Raises $10 Million
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Sports media company Religion of Sports announced Thursday it has raised $10 million to build its storytelling brand.

The Santa Monica-based video startup was created in 2016 by football legend Tom Brady, filmmaker Gotham Chopra, and NFL Hall-of-Famer Michael Strahan. Their mantra: "Sports aren't like religion, sports are religion."


The company produces a range of content from short-form videos to podcasts to feature films, like Emmy Award-winning "Tom vs. Time," "Stephen vs. The Game," and "Shut Up and Dribble."

Tom Brady on his passion to play football | Tom vs. Time | VERSUS Series | Facebook Watch |www.youtube.com

"Our mission is to tell inspiring stories from the world of sports that explore greatness and human potential, social justice, diversity, inclusion and the meritocracy of competition," CEO Ameeth Sankaran told dot.LA. "These are inspirational stories that anyone can relate to — whether they are a sports fan or not — and now more than ever, the appetite for this type of content is even greater given the current climate we are all living in."

With the funding, Religion of Sports wants to scale up content across platforms and build brand awareness. They plan to release a slew of new projects, including a podcast in late 2020 and a nine-part documentary in 2021 about Brady's nine Super Bowl appearances.

The media network is also working on several video series with big name companies including Amazon, ESPN, Facebook, Netflix and Showtime.

"The new financing will enable us to grow our brand, grow internationally, create new content franchises and ancillary revenue streams," Sankaran said. "Our vision is to create a new type of sports media business that empowers diverse creators to tell stories across a multitude of platforms centered on Religion of Sports' singular narrative of 'why sports matter'."

The raise was backed by investors including Elysian Park, Advancit, Courtside Ventures, and LinkinFirm.

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LA Tech Week: Local Climate Investors Assess and Vet Green Startups

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

LA Tech Week: Local Climate Investors Assess and Vet Green Startups
Samson Amore

In a region known for being a national trailblazer when it comes to climate policies, there’s no shortage of green energy startups in L.A. looking for funding. There’s also a plethora of investors and incubators, which means founders looking for cash flow should be extra specific about their value proposition when they pitch to cut through the noise. At least that was the message coming from the panelists at the UCLA Anderson School of Management on Tuesday.

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samsonamore@dot.la
Here's What People Are Saying About Day Two of LA Tech Week
Evan Xie

L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.

Here's what people are saying about day two of L.A. Tech Week on social:

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LA Tech Week: Technology and Storytelling for Social Good

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech Week: Technology and Storytelling for Social Good
Photo taken by Decerry Donato

On Monday, Los Angeles-based philanthropic organization Goldhirsh Foundation hosted the Technology and Storytelling For Social Good panel at Creative Visions studio to kick off LA Tech week.

Tara Roth, president of the foundation, moderated the panel and gathered nonprofit and tech leaders including Paul Lanctot, web developer of The Debt Collective; Alexis Cabrera, executive director of 9 Dots; Sabra Williams, co-founder of Creative Acts; and Laura Gonzalez, senior program manager of Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).

Each of the panelists are grantees of Goldhirsh Foundation’s LA2050, an initiative launched in 2011 that is continuously trying to drive and track progress toward a shared vision for the future of Los Angeles. Goldhirsh’s vision is to make Los Angeles better for all and in order to achieve their goal, the foundation makes investments into organizations, creates partnerships and utilizes social capital through community events.

The panelists shared how the work they are doing in each of their respective sectors uses technology to solve some of society's most pressing challenges and highlight the importance of tech literacy across every community.

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