Mike Dotto Of North Pole Hoops On What Makes An Opportunity A Good Fit

My role has developed and keeps developing over the years here at NPH.

I started off just as a simple Videographer / Editor, which quickly allowed me to build an entire video department and then eventually work hand in hand, in creating marketing campaigns for many of our platforms.

The Sales portion of my job is to provide Video Exposure Opportunities to players who need that extra boost in their recruitment situation. These videos provide a tangible look as to what makes the player special with their unique skillset. It’s a resume so to speak!

Recruitment stems from the colleges and universities across Canada. We offer a wide range of opportunities here at North Pole Hoops and real world training that will allow students to gain a better perspective of what’s to come.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a typical day within this role- as one week can be drastically different depending on the time of year and need of the company. Currently, I’m dabbling within the company’s finances, League generation and Facility expansion.

2Since being founded in 2011, how successful has NPH been at creating opportunities for Canadian talent? Why?

I believe there was a massive void that we were able to fill as a non-bias option in the basketball world.

Clubs and coaches have their own agenda the majority of the time, but our goal is to provide exposure here in Canada so that our great Canadia athletes don't have to leave to go to the states for exposure.

Over the years we have developed a blueprint that has been proven to help the Canadian basketball players from as young as fifth grade all the way to the pros. This blueprint touches upon training, exposure camps, rep leagues, prep league and marketing and brand management along the way.

There is no other entity in the world that does what we do for homegrown basketball.

3How much do you think player rankings are influenced by athletes’ social media exposure?

Our scouts are able to rank athletes based on strict criteria that includes tangible and intangible skills and qualities, on and off the court. From the fundamentals of on-court basketball like dribbling, shooting and defense, to personality traits like motivation level, goal setting, and self-discipline.

When we promote certain players within the basketball community via our social media reach, our main purpose is to shed light on this top prospect and provide a platform for hidden gems that need that extra help.

Our posts vary from video, stats, articles. We get great responses from coaches asking more about the player’s intangibles, personality traits and the current situation at school.

4How much of your content is targeted towards an American audience vs other major basketball markets?

Our content is geared towards the Canadian basketball lover and fans that want to know the latest in the Canadian basketball landscape. Our Toronto Raptors coverage would be the most American mainstream media geared content that we provide.