House of Highlights Founder Omar Raja Shoots Hoops at Work and Has a Thing for Grilled Chicken

Table Of Content

• How Zone 6 is transitioning from TikTok to YouTube
• Contents
• Inside the Evolution of House of Highlights
• Bleacher Report Acquisition: 2015 - Present
• Peacock’s Subscriber Surge Driven by Sports: NFL Streaming Plays Key Role
• House of Highlights Founder Omar Raja Shoots Hoops at Work and Has a Thing for Grilled Chicken

It was during those park takeovers last year that Wilder met the other five members of the group and formed Zone 6. As the founder of House of Highlights, which crossed the 10 million followers mark on Instagram this past weekend, Raja saw the potential in the handle early on, but never expected it to get to this point. That's pretty much it; I'm not the best cook in the world. One of the highest viewed videos is actually Lebron not even shooting basketballs but working on his core.

How Zone 6 is transitioning from TikTok to YouTube

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Long Haul also manages another basketball creator group, 2Hype, whose members like Jessie Riedel (known as Jesser) and Kristopher Obaseki (known as Kristopher London) built their YouTube foundation in the mid-2010s before the rise of short-form content. Levitt said 2Hype, whose members live together in a house in Southern California, serves as an "inspiration" for Zone 6. "In terms of the actual content that needs to be produced, it is an exponential leap [from TikTok]," Levitt said.

Contents

So I love asking people why they behave in certain ways on social media, because it helps my job, right? Because if you only follow 400 people for whatever reason, my account has to be so good that you're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna break this rule and follow House of Highlights." So, I walk around the office a lot. Like, I probably know 90 to 95 percent of the names in the office just because I love talking to people. I walk around the office three of four times talking to people before I get a cup of water and get started.

Inside the Evolution of House of Highlights

Admittedly not one for celebrations, Raja saw the massive follower milestone as an appropriate time to make sure the members of the community know just how impactful they have been in building the handle.

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"You're going to YouTube where the videos are 15 minutes long and ideally you're doing a couple of them a week." For the members of  Zone 6, some of whom were still creating content part-time, the opportunity to work with HoH was the turning point in their lives. Wilder and the newly formed Zone 6 were the kind of up-and-coming creators that HoH likes to partner with, and the brand signed a deal with them in July. House of Highlights is doubling down on the growing wave of creator-led street basketball through a deal with a young TikTok group called Zone 6.

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It's a staple that's a part of your daily routine and everything you need in one bite. The group's next challenge is to pivot their individual TikTok success to long-form videos on YouTube, said Dan Levitt, CEO of Long Haul, which manages Zone 6. HoH first connected in 2021 with Cam Wilder, who participated in HoH's Creator League after gaining fame through his park takeovers around North America.

House of Highlights Founder Omar Raja Shoots Hoops at Work and Has a Thing for Grilled Chicken

I don't drink or eat until like 12 or 1, and then I have that eight-hour window where I try to fit in everything I need calorie-wise. And I'm working, I don't get tempted to order GrubHub or go downstairs to get dollar pizza. Every now and then I’m going to cheat. There’s one spot called Stickies where I'm gonna go at least once a week, but for the most part I stick to grilled chicken. People have their own social media rules, right? Some people will never follow more than 400 people on Instagram; some people never like anyone's photo on Instagram; some people like everything on Instagram; some people will never follow back; some people follow back all the time.

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The members of Zone 6 plan to move into a house together to make it easier to create content as a group. As of now, five of the six creators live near each other in Houston, Texas, where the group plans to settle. Jordan Lewis (known as DriftyJay), the youngest of the group, has yet to relocate to Houston, but wants to move there by next year. A park-takeover scene mirrors that of AND1 streetball lore, but the Zone 6 members use their TikTok followers — which range from 750,000 to 4.4 million for each creator — to attract an audience to pack the sidelines.

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Recently, Raja told us about his daily routine, what it’s like to hang out with NBA legends on the regular, and why HoH is the grilled chicken sandwich of the sports media world. I have a pretty basic diet; I stick to grilled chicken for lunch with broccoli or sweet potatoes. I love the spot Dig Inn over here. I get the chicken with broccoli there. We have a Twitter show coming, so I'm trying get a little more lean. I'm on 2,000 calories; I try to stop before then.

But both parties hope it will lead to a longer deal, like HoH's did with Kenny Beecham's "Through The Wire" podcast. "Our relationship with Cam individually as well as Ryan [Craig] and some of the other guys in Zone 6 presented an opportunity to be in the early stages of another build opportunity," Muller said. "That's where we typically look to play. We're looking to find mutually beneficial relationships with people that are in their nascency that have that 'it' factor." Because, similar to Cowell’s eye for talent, Raja has an eye for content. Outside of original content, House of Highlights is collaborating on a show with Twitter, as well as looking for more ways to work more closely with other accounts such as B/R Football. While reaching 10 million followers is quite the accomplishment, Raja will be the first one to admit that getting the first million was the hardest part.

In 2015 when Bleacher Report acquired HoH, Raja moved to NYC from his hometown of Miami and laid down roots in Midtown, near Bleacher Report’s offices. Most of Raja’s time is spent working, but he makes time to exercise with celebrity trainers and professional athletes on the regular. And next month, he’s launching a live Twitter show that will combine conversation, stunts, scripted comedy, and live highlights as a new take on sports commentary. While the Zone 6 videos on the HoH YouTube channel have yet to crack more than 100,000 views — well below the consistent near-million views that HoH's Creator League videos gain — Muller said building Zone 6 will take time and that the members are "eager" and "hungry to try things."

As the tastes of the audience have evolved, so too has the content. Instead of a 300-pound man pulling a plane, followers now find House of Highlights populated with content that is either focused on influencers or is funny. Make sure the content is something that the audience can relate too.

With any type of growth, there is an evolution of the brand and the way people interact with it. For Raja, a lot of that change took place in the first year. Small chicken poppers, Cajun fries, and they have something called sassy barbeque sauce. It’s the best meal in the world. HoH and Zone 6's current contract runs for six months, until the end of this year.