A former X executive is reimagining how sports fans and athletes connect online. BZZR, founded by Jeff Bookout with CEO Brett Weitz—X’s former Global Head of Content, Talent and Brand Sales—positions itself as a dedicated sports social network designed to eliminate online harassment and toxicity.
Creating a Toxicity-Free Sports Community
The platform emerged from conversations with professional athletes avoiding social media due to harassment. BZZR gives verified athletes, creators, and broadcasters unprecedented control over their audience and content. Users can enable comments, disable them entirely, or limit visibility to themselves. “A field goal kicker who misses a kick shouldn’t wake up to death threats,” Weitz explains. This approach creates what the team calls a “noise-canceling network” by eliminating bots and trolls while keeping legitimate sports discourse intact.
Sports Graph: AI-Powered Discovery
Behind BZZR’s functionality lies Sports Graph, a proprietary AI recommendation engine described as “basically Google for sports.” The system has already indexed over 145,000 podcasts and 30,000 long-form videos, automatically categorizing and connecting content through sports-specific metadata. Users can ask conversational questions like “Who’s been talking about Joe Schmo this week?” and receive personalized results across the platform.
The vision extends beyond individual athletes. Teams have realized they don’t control their fanbases’ engagement, with press releases and advertising value fragmented across multiple platforms. BZZR offers an “always-on” experience combining live streams, podcasts, team hubs, and athlete content to maintain engagement beyond game days.
By eliminating noise and centralizing sports content, BZZR aims to recreate the welcoming atmosphere of sitting in a stadium with friends—where the focus remains squarely on sports.