An Exclusive Conversation with Stephen Domingo during the 2026 DLD Sports Conference
Take us all the way back! How did you get started playing basketball? Did you play any other sports growing up as well?
Yeah! I played basketball and soccer growing up. My dad is from Nigeria so soccer and basketball combined, that's where I spent most of my time growing up. My dad used to show me tapes of Hakeem Olajuwon, and then just beyond that, growing up in the States I think that's sort of how I got interested in basketball. Then, I just kept growing and had a little bit of natural talent. I think in a lot of African households, whatever you decide to do, you just do it over and over and over again. My parents didn't really care if I chose basketball or soccer, but I just kept choosing basketball so we kept doubling down on it as a family—(that) allowed me to get a scholarship, go to Georgetown, and then ended up at Berkeley where I graduated. I was in the Haas School of Business’ undergraduate program at Berkeley, which not many basketball players did because it was one of the more difficult (programs). You had to take some prerequisites that made it sort of a challenge at Berkeley to do it as a program with the sports schedule, so basketball players were generally discouraged on doing it; but I definitely pushed myself and was able to sort of leave Berkeley with some business acumen as well as an opportunity to go play professionally—which I then did in Europe and then the G League. I was also the captain of Nigeria’s national team for AfroBasket 2021. That’s sort of my basketball path: played in a lot of places, played in a lot of exciting situations, but also learned a lot. That has helped me build what we're building now.
That’s amazing. What sparked your interest in having your own agency? Did that interest come about during your basketball career overseas or back in the States?
Five years after I graduated, I came back and finished my MBA at Berkeley again. That was to really just double down on deciding that I was going to ultimately build something of my own going forward. I spent a lot of time in MBA understanding how to build a business. I built a couple other businesses that have been successful in the process—I built a solar company called Winko Solar and also Twende Sports which owns a team in the BAL. I co-founded both of these companies. I am the co-founder of a team in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) called the Nairobi City Thunder. You know, I had the understanding as a player and then building multiple businesses helped me understand how to do business in Africa and the gaps in the sports market. That’s how we were able to come up with what we wanted to do at Okapi Sports, which was to sort of fill the data and media gap that exists in sports right now in Africa.
You mentioned tapping into a market that maybe didn’t have those media and data resources available at the time, and your desire to put forth that value proposition with Okapi Sports. What were some challenges that you faced when you first started the company and how did you navigate through those?
I think it's just time. We're definitely a young company. We're definitely learning all the time. I think, you know, understanding how to build a company is always generally difficult. We've acquired two companies in the process of building what we're building. We acquired our data collection arm, which was called Nukta when we acquired it; and then we acquired our broadcasting arm. Zach (Botterman), my CTO & Co-Founder, spent a lot of time sort of merging the tech behind those two companies and that's really what Okapi was. So it was some vision plus then the acquisition of two exciting, emerging companies. We brought everybody on, merged the tech with them, and then began to start building what we're building now.
How do you think your journey as an athlete at every level helped as you were building this company?
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