Connecting athletes with opportunities
Reporting by Kevin O’Donnell.
TAMPA, Florida. – The co-founders of GMTM (Gametime) have created a concept that is a kind of LinkedIn for sports.
Connecting athletes to opportunity is the goal of Joey Grant and Conner Dietz.
“We are a world-class technology company that solves problems in sports,” Dietz explained. “We are not a sports technology company.”
Grant played center for the Central Florida Knights and saw the need to help with the high school recruiting process for colleges.
“What we do at Gametime is enable access to opportunity through technology,” Grant said. “To do that, we work with the best organization across the sport. From colleges to national Olympic teams to professional teams, NFL teams, who are trying to create more access for athletes.”
Their service helps athletes in all sports and for all ages. Athletes can create free profiles, virtual resumes. GMTM has over 60,000 athletes in its system from around the world. They even helped a college football player land a spot on the US Olympic bobsled team.
“About a year and a half ago, an athlete named Charlie Volker played running back at Princeton,” Dietz said. “Obviously he wanted to compete in the NFL and couldn’t make it to the Combines or make a roster. What he was able to do through GMTM was find bobsledding as a sport. Being able to put in front of those coaches and compete at a high level. Then get selected to that team.”
Normally, high school coaches are the ones to help connect with college recruiters, but not all have the same commitment, leaving some athletes under-recruited.
“Universities come to us saying we want to reach as many athletes as possible,” Grant said. “We want to better build relationships with athletes.”
GMTM is a one-stop-shop social media sports network.
“We really want to tell the stories of athletes at all stages of their careers,” Dietz said.
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