Battle Of The Platforms, a first-of-its-kind boxing event featuring YouTubers and TikTokers reportedly lost at least $10 million, now one of the investors wants his money back.
via: Page Six
Page Six has learned that Brooklyn Nets star James Harden has fired off legal letters in an attempt to recoup $2 million that he invested in a bizarre boxing tournament that pitted TikTok stars against YouTube stars in the ring. And he wants another $400,000 that he says he was promised in profits.
YouTube superstar Austin McBroom organized the “Social Gloves: Battle of the Platforms” event, which saw him box TikToker Bryce Hall as the main event. Meanwhile, other social stars including Tayler Holder, Vinnie Hacker and Deji went at it, and there were performances by big-name stars including DJ Khaled, Migos and Lil Baby.
But last month Billboard reported that the event was a financial “flop” that lost around $10 million. According to the trade, Hall alone was promised $5 million to take part in the fight.
Now we’re told that lawyers for nine-time All-Star Harden have let loose a barrage of legal letters demanding that he get his money back — and then some.
According to one of the letters, seen by Page Six, Harden’s attorneys figure he’s due about $2.4 million.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Holder filed a breach of contract suit against McBroom’s company, claiming that he was promised $2 million to fight British YouTuber Gib at the June event at the Hard Rock Arena in Miami.
According to court papers seen by Page Six, Holder claims he’s been paid just $85,000 so far.
The suit claims that McBroom’s company, Simply Greatness Productions, expected millions of pay-per-view customers to tune in for the fight fest — in fact, according to an investor deck included in Holder’s suit, McBroom expected 10,000,000 pay-per-view buyers, making it “the biggest pay-per-view event in history.” But only 136,000 fans paid the $50 to watch.
It looks like it could be a struggle for either Harden or Holder to collect the cash. While the deck estimated that the event would gross nearly half a billion dollars, the suit says that Simply Greatness Production recently sent letters to creditors reading, “In light of the apparent underperformance of the Event, our firm has been retained to represent SGP in connection with either a workout of the claims of all of its creditors or if a workout is not feasible a likely bankruptcy filing.”
Reps for Harden didn’t get back to us.
Harden is probably the first of many filing a lawsuit.
