What Mars Reel does

Mars Reel, legally Mars Reel Media, is a Los Angeles-based content and consumer products company founded in 2010 that produces premium documentary series, training content, and live basketball skills clinics targeted at aspiring high school and youth athletes. The core offering is Mars Club, a subscription membership running through Memberful with three tiers: a free Limited tier, a Premium tier at $5.10/month granting unlimited content, event invites, and gear perks, and an Academy tier at $250 unlocking in-person skills clinics and full content access. The content portfolio is centered on long-form documentary franchises such as Bronny (10 episodes following Bronny James and Sierra Canyon's AAU and China tours), Game City, The Vault, The Beautiful Struggle, and Kevin Durant's My Hood To Your Hood Tour, supplemented by training articles featuring NBA players (Jason Kidd, Kyrie Irving, Marc Gasol, Damian Lillard, Kyle Korver, Avery Bradley, Jeremy Lin, Julius Randle). The business has expanded laterally into soccer via the Mars Reel FC Instagram property and into in-person services via Mars Reel Academy, while generating a secondary sponsorship revenue stream from brand partners including Champs Sports, Pizza Hut, and Chipotle.

The underlying technology stack is intentionally lightweight: the website delivers video content via embedded players, memberships and billing are outsourced to Memberful (with standard card and wallet payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Discover), and there is no proprietary platform, mobile app, or disclosed AI capability. Marketing is largely organic-social plus content-marketing driven through Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, with some paid search and email distribution. Ownership remains private with two co-founder operators — Brandon Deyo (CEO and Co-Chairman) and Bradley Deyo (COO and Co-Chairman) — supported by a small 11-50 person team.

Name

Mars Reel

Legal name

Mars Reel Media

Website

https://marsreel.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Mars Reel is a Los Angeles-based youth sports media company producing documentary series, training content, and in-person basketball clinics for aspiring young athletes, monetized primarily through a subscription membership called Mars Club.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sports Media & Digital Content

NAICS

Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers (713940)

SIC

Services-Membership Sports & Recreation Clubs (7997)

akta.pro primary industry

Game Subscription & Membership Services (BPAMAKAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sports Collectibles, Fan Gear & Licensed Merchandise Retail (CRAMABAO)

Keywords

• Sports media
• Youth basketball content
• Athlete video subscription
• Basketball skills training
• Documentary series

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Mars Club Subscription: Subscription-based membership offering three tiers: Limited (free), Premium ($5.10/month), and Academy ($250). Premium members receive unlimited content access, event invites, and gear perks. Academy tier provides in-person skills clinics and full content access.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Mars Reel sells a tiered basketball content membership called Mars Club, distributing an original documentary and training-content library behind a paywall (Free Limited, $5.10/month Premium, $250 Academy). It also markets in-person basketball skills clinics through Mars Reel Academy and operates a soccer content vertical (Mars Reel FC), all delivered direct-to-consumer through marsreel.com and the Memberful subscription platform.

Product overview

Mars Reel is a sports media company offering a multi-platform content ecosystem. The core product is Mars Club, a membership subscription service with three tiers: Limited (free), Premium ($5.10/month), and Academy ($250). Premium and Academy tiers provide exclusive access to behind-the-scenes content, health and fitness programming, and members-only shows. The content portfolio includes documentary series such as The Vault, Bronny (10 episodes), Game City (8 episodes), The Beautiful Struggle (15 episodes), and Kevin Durant's My Hood To Your Hood Tour. Mars Reel also operates Mars Reel Academy for basketball skills training with NBA-affiliated trainers, and provides sports coverage spanning college and high school basketball. The company expanded into soccer with Mars Reel FC content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Mars Club Membership Tiered subscription membership giving basketball fans, aspiring athletes, and coaches access to behind-the-scenes documentary series, athlete training content, health and fitness programming, gear perks, event invites, and members-only giveaways.
• Mars Club Limited (Free Tier) Free tier of Mars Club providing limited content access and the ability to watch and screen Mars Reel shows before public release.
• Mars Club Premium $5.10/month Premium tier of Mars Club offering unlimited access to all content, members-only event invites, and gear perks.
• Mars Club Academy $250 Academy tier of Mars Club providing private members-only basketball skills clinics, full content access, ability to watch and screen shows first, exclusive event invites, and gear perks.
• Mars Reel Academy In-person basketball skills training program staffed by trainers who have worked with NBA players such as Trae Young, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant, and Chris Paul, targeting ball-handling, shooting, defense, basketball IQ, and athleticism development for aspiring young basketball players.
• Mars Reel FC Soccer-focused content vertical featuring training tips from professional soccer players including Sebastian Lletget, Lindsey Horan, and Rose Lavelle, distributed primarily through Instagram.
• Mars Reel Documentary Series Library Portfolio of original basketball documentary-style shows including The Vault, Bronny, Game City (8 episodes covering Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York), Like Mike, J-Silk, SKYY'ZZ The Limit, Just Dominate, Boogie Mode, Highlights, and Pizza Hut Skills Challenge, all centered on high-school and elite-level basketball talent stories.
• The Beautiful Struggle 15-episode documentary series featuring Jermaine O'Neal and Tim Martin discussing basketball, life, and overcoming the odds, distributed within the Mars Reel ecosystem.
• Kevin Durant's My Hood To Your Hood Tour Three-part documentary series chronicling Kevin Durant's 2011 summer during the NBA Lockout, with all three episodes published in 2020 on the Mars Reel platform.
• Mars Reel Training Content Basketball training tips, drills, and articles featuring NBA players including Jason Kidd, Kyrie Irving, Marc Gasol, Damian Lillard, Kyle Korver, and Avery Bradley, aimed at young players studying professional techniques.
• Mars Reel Sports Coverage Editorial basketball coverage spanning the College and High School levels, including recruiting coverage, player features, and game analysis published on marsreel.com.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Champs SportsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerChamps Sports partnered with Mars Reel for the Game City: SHOWTIME ft. BJ Boston episode, providing sponsorship support for the basketball player documentary series featuring Sierra Canyon's BJ Boston.
• Pizza HutminorGTM or Marketing PartnerPizza Hut sponsored the Pizza Hut Skills Challenge content series on Mars Reel, featuring basketball player competitions in a skills challenge format.
• ChipotleminorGTM or Marketing PartnerChipotle sponsored the Real Ingredients for Success series featuring soccer training content from professional athletes, presented in partnership with Mars Reel FC.

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Overtime: Overtime is the closest direct competitor — a sports media company producing short-form and long-form content focused on high school and emerging athletes, with a subscription membership and merchandise business. Mirrors Mars Reel's community-led model around exclusive athlete content and youth sports culture.
• FloSports: FloSports operates a subscription-based streaming platform delivering niche sports content (including basketball) to passionate fan communities. Its SVOD/community model around under-served sports is directly comparable to Mars Reel's Mars Club membership offering.
• SLAM Media: SLAM is a basketball-focused media brand covering high school, college, and NBA players through magazines, digital content, and original video. Comparable to Mars Reel in its basketball-first editorial lens and audience of young hoops enthusiasts.

Broad incumbents

• Bleacher Report: Bleacher Report (a Warner Bros. Discovery property) is a large-scale sports media destination producing video, social, and written content across all major sports. It overlaps with Mars Reel's basketball/youth audience but operates at vastly larger scale and breadth as a broad incumbent.
• Barstool Sports: Barstool Sports is a digital sports and pop-culture media brand with a strong community, content subscriptions, and merchandise. It competes for the same young, sports-literate male audience as Mars Reel but as a much broader and more established platform.

Emerging players

• The Players' Tribune: The Players' Tribune pioneered athlete-first long-form storytelling with NBA stars. Although now operating at a smaller scale, its format of athlete-narrative content is directly comparable to Mars Reel's documentary series featuring Kevin Durant, Bronny James, and others.
• Whistle Sports (Whistle): Whistle produces sports and entertainment content targeted at younger/family audiences, originally focused on athlete-driven digital video. Comparable to Mars Reel in targeting youth audiences through athlete-centric programming and social distribution.
• Jukes (JUKES Media): JUKES is an emerging basketball-content brand creating video around elite high school and AAU players. Closely overlaps with Mars Reel's high-school-basketball documentary and highlight content focus, representing a similarly scoped emerging competitor.
• Courtside Films: Courtside Films is a basketball documentary brand producing long-form storytelling around elite HS/AAU players. Comparable to Mars Reel in genre (basketball documentary), audience (youth/recruit fans), and distribution (YouTube/streaming).

Others

• Champs Sports: Champs Sports is a major athletic-footwear and sports-lifestyle retailer that has partnered with Mars Reel for sponsored documentary content (e.g., Game City: SHOWTIME). It is comparable as a brand-sponsorship counterparty and as a retail channel for the Mars Club gear-perks program.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/marsreel
• Facebookfacebook.com/marsreel
• Instagraminstagram.com/marsreel
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mars-reel

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mars Reel