Ameeth Sankaran, CEO of Religion of Sports, says that his company is on a mission to deliver emotional, deeper storytelling. Sankaran also discusses why Religion of Sports' fifth Emmy for 'Man in the Arena' was so significant.

Closing Bell

Religion of Sports Raises $50 Million, Wins Fifth Sports Emmy

closing bell here on cheddar news. Now, Tom brady and Michael strahan are unquestionably two of the all time greats on the football field. But now the du are teaming up to achieve greatness when it comes to sports media production. Religion of sports, a company founded by the two stars, raising $50 million dollars in series B funding as it continues on its mission to tell stories that make believers and to show the world why sports matter joining us now is a sink or in ceo of Religion of sports. And what makes religion of sports stand out from all the other sports media production companies out there. Thanks for Thanks for having me. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's what you described. It's it's our mission has always been why Sports Matter telling these stories that are human, emotional, deeper storytelling. One of the things we found over the last few years, whether it's with tom versus time with tom brady or man in the arena that came out this year, Stephan versus the game with Steph curry um, is kind of when you take that storytelling and take that uh, compelling narrative and creative and you pair it with something people or people characters people know about. Now, all of a sudden you start to see um, really compelling drama unlock and really, and, and content that cuts through and that's what we've been able to establish the market and what we're accelerating and what our partners want to see see in the work we do. Now. Religion of sports has won five Emmy Awards and one of the latest was for Tom Brady's man in the arena, which you mentioned, so how big and how monumental was that win for the company? That was amazing. I mean this one was a big one for us to support, sent me for a dock of the Year and I think it's a testament to, you know, look, there's content all over the place and I think the bar keeps getting higher and higher. How do you bring something to market that cuts through? How do you create something that's compelling? It's not just the same thing you see on tom brady's instagram page or you know, fill in the blank. How do you create something that actually has lasting value? And I think Tom says it best when he talks about what he's most proud of is the outreach that comes, which is from parents who say, you know, I watched my son or my daughter and What I really achieved was able to relay greatness comes through 20 years of hard work and consistency and that's what this content health display in a way that was always also compelling. And so I think that's what our mission is again, going back to the thing we're trying to achieve with our company and this is a great testament. The latest version of um us achieving that goal Now, 50 million bucks in series B funding. What do you plan on doing with the money? You know, it goes back to as we talked about that, stepping back netflix, um you know, with their numbers, a lot of, a lot of what's happening in the market is, you see saturation content saturation, How do netflix, amazon Apple, but also linear networks, peacock and others cut through, And I think that's what we've been able to drive towards, and so it's now is our moment to double down and do more of it, and that doesn't just mean um do more of what we've done in the past. It's enable more creators bring more creators into our 10th. Um work with more partners. Underwrite a lot of the I. P. Ourselves. We think that we can drive a lot of the creative narratives if we can work with a talented athlete and say, hey, what do we, what's the story I want to tell? How do we carry with the creator that makes the most sense for you and how do we go, just make that happen um and then bring it to market with the right platform in the right creative form. And I think that's a lot of what we're trying to do, and by the way, we could do that globally now as well with this. So we're really excited to scale now The Golden State Warriors are a win away from another NBA title, and Draymond Green is the subject of one of your next productions. Could you tell us a little bit about the sessions? Yes. Sessions was born out of a concept with amazon a few years ago, which was how do all these athletes under so much pressure, deal with mental health in sports? And Draymond became a great partner for that because of what people see on the court, which is, you know, this is the technical fouls, the, the, the boisterous nature of him on the court and so forth. Um but then what people now have learned about him off the court, which is super thoughtful, very smart, has his own podcast, um has compelling takes all the time. And so it's this balance of getting underneath that and saying, let's go on a journey with Draymond, let's have him work with Deepak chopra with Debbie Brown, who we brought in, who are mental coaches, let's have him learn, go on a journey around meditation and let's see where that takes it, what, what, what sticks, what doesn't, how do you see that impact him on the court and that's what Amazon is excited about. That's what we're really, really excited about. And think audiences will resonate with sounds like incredible stuff, immediate Saccharin Ceo of Religion of sports, congratulations on all your success. And those Emmy wins as well