Team Jesser

The Rise of Team Jesser

Jesse Riedel, better known by his online persona Jesser, has established himself as one of YouTube's most prominent basketball content creators through his secondary channel Team Jesser. Born on March 27, 1999, in Westlake Village, California, Riedel comes from a family with entertainment industry connections, as his father Guy is a film producer who worked on notable films including "Wedding Crashers" and "Office Space."^[1] His brother James, known online as Jiedel, is also a successful YouTuber and member of the 2HYPE collective.^[2]

Team Jesser serves as Riedel's secondary channel, launched on March 10, 2014, and has grown to become a significant platform in the basketball content space.^[3] The channel currently boasts 3.96 million subscribers with over 1.32 billion total video views, generating an estimated monthly earnings range of $43.8K to $131.4K.^[3]

Content Strategy and Format

Team Jesser focuses primarily on basketball-related entertainment, featuring challenges, reaction content, and collaborative videos with other creators and professional athletes. The channel description identifies it as a sports-focused platform that complements Riedel's main channel, which has achieved significantly larger scale with nearly 30 million subscribers.^[4]^[5]

The channel's content strategy emphasizes high-energy basketball entertainment, featuring popular series like compilation videos of basketball TikToks and viral basketball hack testing. Recent popular uploads include "ONE HOUR Of Funniest Basketball TikToks" with 20 million views and "Testing 16 VIRAL TikTok Basketball Hacks!" with 14 million views.^[6]

Professional Recognition and Achievements

Riedel's success in basketball content creation has earned him significant recognition within the industry. He has won the Streamy Awards' Sports Creator of the Year award multiple times, establishing him as a leading figure in sports content creation.^[7]^[8] In 2025, he achieved a major milestone by serving as a judge for the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, representing fan voting through the NBA ID program.^[9]

His influence extends beyond content creation into professional basketball circles. Riedel has participated in NBA Celebrity All-Star Games and maintains partnerships with the National Basketball Association, including an official apparel collaboration launched in 2024.^[7]^[10]

Business Ventures and Brand Partnerships

Beyond his YouTube channels, Riedel has built a substantial business empire centered around his Bucketsquad brand. Founded in 2017 as a lifestyle brand focused on basketball culture, Bucketsquad has expanded into merchandise and apparel.^[1] The Bucketsquad Apparel line, launched in 2022, is projected to generate eight figures in direct-to-consumer ecommerce revenue in 2025.^[7]

In a notable expansion of the brand, Riedel launched the Bucketsquad 1 sneaker in 2023, his first original shoe design. The sneaker was developed in collaboration with industry veterans who previously worked on high-profile projects including Travis Scott x Jordan and Dior x Jordan collaborations.^[11]^[12]

Riedel has secured partnerships with major brands across various industries, including Nike, Gatorade, DraftKings, Adidas, SoFi, Meta, EA Sports, Under Armour, Nintendo, Nerf, Reebok, Axe, Amazon, Champs, and Sour Patch Kids.^[7]

Industry Impact and Viewership

The scale of Riedel's influence becomes apparent when comparing his viewership to traditional sports media. According to his team, the main Jesser channel has outperformed both the NBA and NFL's official YouTube channels in monthly viewership, with Jesser reaching 249 million monthly views in October 2022 compared to the NFL's 200 million and the NBA's 189 million during the same period.^[13]

This performance has positioned him as what industry analysts describe as the largest individual sports creator on YouTube's platform.^[7] His content has featured collaborations with prominent sports figures including Jalen Ramsey, Damian Lillard, James Harden, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Julius Randle.^[7]

Professional Representation and Future Plans

In April 2025, Riedel signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation across all areas of his career, marking a significant step in his professional development.^[7]^[14] The move comes as he seeks to expand his content creation beyond basketball into other sports including soccer, football, and baseball.^[7]

His management team has grown substantially over the years, expanding from four people when executive producer Marko Preocanin joined in 2020 to approximately 30 team members currently working on Jesser's content production.^[13] In 2023, Bucketsquad hired Zach Miller, formerly of Spotify, as its first-ever president to guide the company's next phase of growth.^[15]