Back in the summer of 2022, prominent fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry left ESPN (after 15 years) for NBC Sports. But Berry has also been focused on growing his own fantasy company, Fantasy Life (launched in 2020 as a free newsletter, soon expanded beyond that), and he raised nearly $2 million for that venture last year and brought in many other notable fantasy analysts.
Now, Berry’s company is partnering with NBC’s own Rotoworld fantasy venture (which they acquired in 2006, renamed to NBC Sports Edge in 2021 , and brought back to NBC Sports Rotoworld last year). They’re doing so in a deal that will see content and personalities from both companies appear on the other’s platforms. Here’s more on that from a release:
Fantasy Life’s premium offering, FantasyLife+, will integrate NBC Sports Rotoworld’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide to create a destination for fantasy players to receive the best insights and analysis. The combined premium fantasy offering will be available on FantasyLife.com.
…Fantasy Life will also become the official fantasy tools provider of NBC Sports’ Rotoworld, enhancing NBC Sports’ fantasy sports platforms. As part of the partnership, NBC Sports will promote and include links to Fantasy Life’s platform and tools within content across NBC Sports’ digital platforms. Fantasy Life’s talent such as Ian Hartitz, Dwain McFarland, and Thor Nystrom, will be featured on Rotoworld shows and Fantasy Life will feature NBC Sports and Rotoworld analysts and content on a weekly basis throughout the NFL season.
“There were many reasons why I chose to join NBC Sports two years ago, but one of the big ones was their belief and support in what we are building at Fantasy Life,” said Founder of Fantasy Life, Matthew Berry. “I love working there and they’ve been terrific partners. This announcement is an exciting step in our great relationship. I’m so thrilled to integrate Fantasy Life’s award-winning content and tools into the legendary Rotoworld and NBC Sports platforms.”
“We are excited to partner with Matthew Berry and the Fantasy Life team,” said Damon Phillips, Senior Vice President, NBC Sports Digital and Emerging Business. “The combination of Fantasy Life tools and Rotoworld’s news, insight and analysis creates a very compelling product for fantasy players.”
There are several notable things about that. One is this continuing a trend of NBC being willing to work with on-air personalities’ outside ventures, from Mike Florio’s ProFootballTalk (NBC exclusively licensed the content beginning in 2009 and has been behind the associated radio and Peacock show, but Florio still owns the site) through Pro Football Focus (which Cris Collinsworth bought a majority interest in in 2014; NBC is a PFF client, and Collinsworth has often discussed their data on the air) and more. That’s been seen elsewhere too, as with ESPN’s unusual licensing deal for The Pat McAfee Show , but NBC has been notable for their willingness to do things like this for a long time.
Another interesting thing here is with NBC bringing together two of the biggest fantasy brands outside of ESPN and Yahoo. Berry has built up Fantasy Life impressively, bringing in people like the above-mentioned figures (Hartitz, McFarland, and Nystrom) and more, and now some of that talent will get more NBC promotion. (And Berry has gotten quite a lot of promotion across NBCUniversal properties on a lot of levels since joining the company in 2022, so there’s seemingly plenty of appetite there for fantasy content.) And that looks likely to work the other way as well, with some NBC and Rotoworld fantasy figures like Lawrence Jackson Jr. (who has his own past connections with Berry and worked for Fantasy Life at one point) getting tied into this FantasyLife+ offering. We’ll see how this combination pays off, but this does seem like it could boost both entities.
[Image from Fantasy Life ]
The post Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life company partners with NBC’s Rotoworld appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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