Three friends have successfully converted the Rising Ballers Instagram page into a flourishing content enterprise, drawing on interactions with figures like Phil Foden, Jamal Edwards, and Iliman Ndiaye, alongside decisive personal choices.
Jamie Pollitt has a distinct recollection of the moment that proved pivotal in his journey, as reported by .
Engrossed more in his passion project – an Instagram account dedicated to showcasing emerging football talent – than his anthropology studies at Bristol University, he made a bold decision.
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During a call with Eni Shabani, his fellow Rising Ballers aficionado, Pollitt, now aged 28, recounted to City AM: "I said, 'Listen, I'm thinking about doing something crazy'."
"I think I'm going to drop out of university and go all in on this. And he was like, 'Well, I can't let you do that alone. If you're doing it, I'm doing it too'."
For Shabani, aged 31, who holds an economics degree and had already ventured into the corporate world, the risk was particularly high.
He shared: "My dad was extremely upset with me," adding, "I graduated, got into a private equity consultancy. Insane 15 hour days. Thoroughly enjoyed it. But I love football. I had a thirst for business as well, and I guess an entrepreneurial spirit."
Shabani, with a modest nest egg, decided to give his venture, Rising Ballers, a six-month window to prove its worth. He had initiated the project with his younger sibling Brendon, a promising youth player at Leyton Orient, about a year prior.
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Their concept was straightforward: to shine a spotlight on tomorrow's football talents, those making waves in the academy but not yet household names, by crafting homemade highlight reels.
Space for Rising Ballers
The platform found its niche during an era when Instagram buzzed with potential, as Brendon, 23, recalls: "It was a time when everything on Instagram was so exciting, because there were so many opportunities and people really taking them," He observed a significant gap in the market for this content, noting, "We noticed very quickly there was a massive space for it, because no one was really speaking about the players that I was playing against week in, week out."
Rising Ballers, under the guidance of directors Brendon Shabani, Eni Shabani, and Jamie Pollitt, quickly became a magnet for young talent eager for exposure. Future England stars like Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, and Mason Mount were among those who reached out to be featured.
Eni explains the organic growth of their platform: "We spoke directly to the players and those players then gravitated towards the platform which just authenticated it," adding, "We can't say that we did that on purpose. It was purely just, 'Foden wants to feature on Rising Ballers, amazing. Let's get it out ASAP'."
Rising Ballers has caught the eye of major brands, with Nike collaborating with them for a new football boot launch. Pollitt reflected: "We're like, 'OK, wow, there's a billion-dollar sportswear brand that we grew up loving that wants to work with us."
The late Jamal Edwards, famed for SBTV, significantly influenced Rising Ballers in their early days.
"Jamal was quite a big mentor for us in the early days, because he'd been on a very similar journey," Pollitt shared. "We landed, through Jamal, our first 'major' [deal]. We made some money working with a phone brand [Huawei]. And at that point we had some money in the account, and we sort of started looking at each other, like, 'Well, okay, we can, we can really do something'."
Sell Rising Ballers? Only when it stops being fun
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Rising Ballers continues to thrive. With 10m followers on social media, multiple channels including She's A Baller alongside women's football and Footballer Fits with fashion, they partnered with 24 different client brands last year alone.
Their revenue saw an impressive 70% growth year-on-year, rocketing to the high seven-figure range.
Rising Ballers, a company that has made its mark by focusing on content that resonates with Gen Z, is planning a brand repositioning to better reflect its evolution and offerings. The firm maintains an 80/20 balance between editorial and client content, but it's their social media prowess that sets them apart.
"We take growth on socials so seriously and that's our offering," Pollitt explained. "Anyone can create a football marketing campaign for you. We're specialists in it, but ultimately we reach over 100m people monthly on social media by our own brands. So if you work with us, we can pump it out to the market like no one else can."
With a formidable presence across various platforms, Rising Ballers boasts 10 million followers, nearly 3 million of whom are on Instagram.
Talent spotting
In addition to their digital success, the trio behind Rising Ballers also manage a non-league team, Rising Ballers FC, which serves as a platform for showcasing unsigned talent. Their efforts have already borne fruit, with Iliman Ndiaye progressing from their ranks to Sheffield United and then playing for Senegal at the World Cup within three years – all without the company taking a fee.
The Shabanis and Pollitt, who own the business outright, have consistently turned down external funding offers, a decision Eni regards as "the best thing we ever did". Even their father has come around to support their venture.
Eni commented on the influx of investment and acquisition offers, stating: "Once the investment and acquisition offers started coming in, we just looked at ourselves and thought, the offer is that much? Then keep going. It can be bigger," and added, "And even then, we'd need to ascertain, have we stopped having fun? Only then would we consider it."