The numbers of prominent current athletes making video content continue to rise. The latest is Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts, who’s teaming up with Bleacher Report for a video and podcast series where he interviews other current MLB players. That On Base with Mookie Betts series will start with an interview with Milwaukee Brewers’ left fielder Christian Yelich, which will air in the B/R app at 12:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. Other interviews will follow throughout the MLB season.
The series is produced in partnership with the One Marketing Group, a media company founded by Betts, Jeffrey Mason and Cam Lewis. It’s a similar approach to what B/R has done with The Voncast, the series they launched last NFL season hosted by Buffalo Bills’ linebacker Von Miller. Miller interviewed other top NFL players throughout the season, with those full episodes airing in the B/R app and on their YouTube channel and with selected clips from them distributed across B/R social channels:
The combination of longform interviews on the B/R YouTube channel and in their app and then distribution of highlights across social channels has been a strategy for the company for a while, going back to the Taylor Rooks X series (which itself spun out of interview show Take It There). As per a release, B/R saw more than 58 million total cross-platform views and 4.5 million engagements for the first season of The Voncast, so it makes some sense that they’re continuing that approach with a star in another sport. We’ll see how it works out for them.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.