Wasserman commits to creators with acquisition of Long Haul Management

Legacy media agencies continue to take an interest in our industry: Wasserman, the marketing and management group founded in 2002 by sports mogul Casey Wasserman, has acquired digital content creator-focused Long Haul Management, and will bring Long Haul’s entire roster and team into the creator rep division it launched in October 2023.

This acquisition follows Publicis‘s $500 million buy of influencer marketing firm Influential—another instance of a major, non-content-creator-focused company realizing it should be paying more attention to our space. (There’s also been a growing number of acquisitions where players already within our industry buy other players: Night, for example, acquired LFM Management, and LunarX bought Theorist Media.)

As part of Wasserman’s acquisition, Long Haul founder/CEO Dan Levitt (pictured above) will join the company as Senior Vice President of Creators. As we mentioned, the rest of Long Haul’s team will join talent rep division Wasserman Creators.

Outside of content creators, Wasserman reportedly represents over 2,000 athletes. It’s headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico City, Toronto, Paris, and Sydney.

Long Haul clients coming to Wasserman’s roster include MatPat (founder/former host of the aforementioned Theorist Media channels), trickshotter Tristan Jass, streetballer The Professor, Madden gamer MMG, lifestyle creator Crissa Jackson, basketball creator Cam Wilder, and gaming news brand Gameranx.

“Dan is one of the original founding members of the creator representation business, and we are thrilled he decided to bring his knowledge, leadership, and creator advocacy to Wasserman,” Jason Ranne, Wasserman’s President of Global Talent, said in a statement.

“Wasserman has a storied history in representation, and I’m excited to unlock larger opportunities for our clients–turning their next big ideas into ambitious new lines of business–while continuing my mission of helping empower creators,” Levitt added in his own statement.

Long Haul and Wasserman have “an extensive work history” together, they say, and have collaborated on creative, production, media buying, creator marketing, and activation projects. Wasserman originally took an interest in Long Haul because of its reputation for securing deals with major sports leagues and brands like the NBA, House of Highlights, and Overtime.

It’s no surprise a sports-centric company like Wasserman would take an interest in digital content creators: Sports is one of the biggest categories across platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and Reddit, and lately more and more leagues are securing deals to create original content for said platforms, often in partnership with creators.