This year has seen Bleacher Report’s House of Highlights brand running a House of Highlights Creator League, with top creators from TikTok, Instagram and YouTube facing off in 1-on-1 basketball competition watched by millions on the HoH YouTube channel. Around parent corporation Turner Sports’ coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four from New Orleans this weekend, HoH will be presenting their semifinals and finals from the city as well, with a $50,000 cash prize on the line for the winner. Here’s more from a release:
House of Highlights is bringing top creators from TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to New Orleans to face off in an epic 1v1 basketball tournament with a $50,000 grand prize on the line in the Season 1 finale of the HoH Creator League. The games will stream live from Pontiff Playground in New Orleans with the NCAA Men’s Final Four as its backdrop. The semifinal competition will stream live on Friday, April 1, at 7 p.m. ET with the finals streaming Sunday, April 3, at 7 p.m. on the HoH YouTube channel.
The HoH Creator League will pit Cash Nasty vs. Cam Wilder and Matt Kiatipis vs. D’Vontay Friga to determine who moves on to compete for the grand prize. Ahead of the finals competition stream, a 3v3 consolation game featuring the losers of the semifinals round and players of the previous 12-week season who did not qualify for the semifinals will tip off with a $15,000 prize package on the line. All of the matches will be called and hosted by the Broadcast Boys, House of Highlights’ breakout viral duo boasting over 2.7 million followers on TikTok.
House of Highlights has done two previous series with creators taking part in sports events, House of Highlights Showdown and Highlight House, and those have proven successful as well, with Showdown reaching a peak of 163,000 concurrent views. Creator League matchups have averaged 22,000 concurrent viewers and 20,000 live chat comments, and they’ve proven to be draws after the live event as well, with an average of 350,000 viewers for each game video in total. Nine of the 12 games also landed on YouTube’s Top 25 Global Trending list. Here’s one from earlier this year that has more than 590,000 views in total:
There’s definitely a trend of younger viewers following creative sports content on channels like TikTok and Instagram, and having some of those creators facing off in sports themselves is a notable twist on that. And it makes sense for House of Highlights to bring the finals of this particular league to New Orleans around the Final Four; that fits in with larger integrations of Bleacher Report and House of Highlights into Turner Sports’ presence at events, which is something we’ve seen a lot of recently.
There will be lots of attention on basketball in New Orleans this weekend. And these games are smartly spaced for Friday and Sunday, avoiding the actual Final Four games Saturday and the national championship game Monday. So these Creator League games might be something fans in the city for those games might check out on these off days. Those looking to attend the events (which begin at 6 p.m. Central both Friday and Sunday) can RSVP here.
