On Thursday, livestreaming startup Playback announced it secured $22 million in funding for its platform, with support from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm, Seven Seven Six. Launched in 2023, Playback, dubbed “Twitch for sports,” enables users to livestream games, provide live commentary, and engage with viewers through chat. NBA players like Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas, and Jeff Teague are actively participating in the platform.
“Sports is best as a content category when you actually get to feel the community and the social activity that lives around it,” remarked Playback’s CEO and co-founder, RJ Halperin, in an interview with Business Insider. “Sports thrive off the social energy.”
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Ohanian praised Playback, stating, “They’ve been able to craft a platform that offers sports fans a fantastic experience while partnering with the biggest league names in sports.” The company also formalized a partnership with Major League Baseball on Thursday to livestream games from MLB.tv throughout the season, similar to a deal with the NBA’s League Pass. To stream games from either league, users must have a subscription to the corresponding service to view live broadcasts, including creator commentaries on Playback.
“We want to move as quickly as possible to try to build a bigger and bigger library of apps on our platform that allow fans to watch as much content as they want,” Halperin told BI.
