Global Courant
More than half a million people are shareholders in the Green Bay Packers — and the team’s former quarterback Aaron Rodgers is taking a similar fan-owned approach with his internet startup, the Online Sports Database, which seeks to build a community by crowdsourcing $1.25 million in bridge funding.
Rodgers and actor Ryan Rottman launched OSDB in 2021 after chatting about the gap in the marketplace at Casa Vega in Sherman Oaks. Rottman had wondered why there wasn’t a sports equivalent of IMDb; so he asked Rogers what he thought of the idea.
“We went to dinner one night, and I just said, ‘As an athlete, is this something you think you would utilize?’ Like, do you think it would help you? Do you think people would care?'” Rottman recalls. He remembers Rogers asking if he’d told anyone else about his idea. “I said, ‘A couple buddies.’ And he said, ‘Well, don’t tell any more because there’s a need for this. There’s a white space for this, and I think you and I are the guys that do it.'”
Now the site offers information — everything from height and weight to team contracts and brand deals — for about 26,000 athletes across professional baseball, football, basketball, soccer and hockey. They’re gearing up to launch a subscription product — a la IMDbPro — in September.
They’re currently funding a bridge round and have raised $1.25 million of their $2.5 million goal, says Rottman, who is OSDB’s CEO. They intentionally left that second half open so members of the public can invest.
Starting Tuesday, anyone can buy into OSDB with a minimum $500 investment through StartEngine, a crowdfunding site launched by Activision co-founder Howard Marks and advised by Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary.
Rodgers is no longer with the Packers, but the community-owned concept still appeals to him. “I like the idea of giving fans the opportunity to invest and get behind something they feel connected to, like OSDB,” Rodgers said in a statement to THR.
Rottman adds, “We always really loved the fact that the fans could invest in the Green Bay Packers (and) the community it created. We wanted to bring that same mentality to OSDB. We want like-minded sports fans to be involved. We want you to go out there and talk about OSDB, that you own a company with Aaron Rodgers, and really create a community. Because sports is about teams and communities.”
OSDB Executive Vice President Michael Goldman, a former basketball player who helped launch TMZ Sports, says they used to have to rely on Google and Twitter to reach out to athletes for comment. “One thing I think that separates us is we’re actually verifying these athletes,” he says. “We’re talking to agents and managers and publicists daily, making sure that their information is up to date. What our player profiles have that no other site has is a complete picture.”
Goldman (left) is a partner and executive vice president of OSDB, and Rottman (right) is founder and CEO.
Courtesy of OSDB
Goldman says the pro site aims to be a nexus for reps and businesses that are looking to work with athletes. “If Gillette is looking for a new athlete pitchman, they can go to a player’s profile page and see if they have any conflicting endorsement deals or business ventures.”
In addition to releasing the pro site, OSDB is also working to add more sports to its offering. “We really want to add WNBA. We want to add UFC,” Rottman says. “And we’re very excited to start bringing on some more under-served sports that have a huge following like angling.”
While watching television or movies, Goldman says he’ll often look up actors on IMDb in real time, and that’s starting to happen with OSDB during sporting events. “Dak Prescott, the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, went down with an injury and his backup Cooper Rush came in,” he explains. “We had about 7,500 people to the site on Cooper Rush’s contract section because there was this interest of ‘Who is this guy?’ So, people are actually using OSDB as the second screen, which is exactly what we wanted.”
