At only 24 years old Omar Raja already runs the largest sports media brand on social media – surpassing even ESPN.
Raja started “House of Highlights” (HoH) from his college dorm as a fun way to collect sports video clips on Instagram. HoH soon went viral, attracting millions of followers thanks to Raja’s keen eye for outstanding clips and sharo commentary. In just a few years, Bleacher Report acquired HoH.
Since its expansion to additional social media platforms like Youtube and Twitter, HoH now receives hundreds of millions of views per month, with 13 million followers on Instagram alone and a dedicated Twitter show.
Omar Raja Turns College Hobby into a Business
HoH started in 2014 when Raja, then a Lebron James-obsessed student at the University of Central Florida, compiled Instagram clips of fan-favorite incidents and candid moments. Raja launched HoH during Lebron James’ last season with the Miami Heat and immediately started accumulating a large follower base.
Raja recalls that he simply started capturing engaging sports moments on his cell-phone: “There are just these really funny moments, that aren’t always about the dunks or the assists or the traditional highlight plays that I cared about and my friends cared about… So I said, ‘Listen, these moments continue to happen. People honestly care about them more than the dunks sometimes.”
A few weeks later, he had set up the Instagram page. Compiling footage of in-game moments and footage athletes shared on their own social media feeds, HoH started piling up views. Around Raja’s senior year, Bleacher Report’s Doug Bernstein reached out and recruited Raja, who started working immediately after graduation.
Omar Raja: The Unique Voice of HoH
As the child of Pakistani immigrants, Raja learned to face bullying with positivity and humor. “We all kind of got it, me and almost all of the brown kids I knew,” he remembers. “You didn’t even have to be Muslim. If you were Indian it happened.”
Raja’s response: to entertain. “You want to be the guy that makes everyone laugh, so that people can overlook whatever joke they were going to say,” he says. So Raja developed a quick wit, which his fans appreciate today.
Alongside Raja’s eagle-sharp eyes for exciting or funny moments to capture, this sense of humor is the key to HoH’s success. His fans adore his simple, always positive captions.
“People go to Instagram as a way to talk to their friends,” Raja explains. “So the way I view it is like, I’m just talking to my friends.”
House of Highlights Becomes a Gen Z Sensation
Raja figures that more than fifty percent of his 13.8 million Instagram followers are under the age 24, a demographic particularly active on social media platforms like Instagram. But while this platform gave HoH its start, it alone proved too limiting for the brand.
“We don’t want to be thought of as just an Instagram account,” observes general manager Doug Bernstein. “We want to be thought of as a true media brand.” HoH has since launched shows on YouTube and Twitter, where some episodes reach over 1 million viewers.
While Raja concedes that NBA clips outperform any other league by far, he insists HoH will be expand beyond basketball. He plans to acquire the rights to cover the UEFA Champions League. This will allow HoH to tap into the growing popularity of soccer in the US. He notes that a Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar highlight can “put up just as many views as an NBA highlight.”
With this growth, there will be plenty to talk about during House of Highlight’s monthly Twitter live show.
