In the summer of 2022, well-known fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry left ESPN (after 15 years) and joined NBC Sports. But Berry has also focused on building his own fantasy company, Fantasy Life (which launched in 2020 as a free newsletter and soon expanded beyond that), and he raised nearly $2 million for that company last year and brought many other notable fantasy analysts on board.
Now, Berry’s company is partnering with NBC’s own fantasy company, Rotoworld (which they acquired in 2006, renamed NBC Sports Edge in 2021, and brought back to NBC Sports Rotoworld last year), in a deal that will see content and personalities from both companies appear on each other’s platforms. For more information, see a press release:
Fantasy Life’s premium offering, FantasyLife+, will integrate NBC Sports Rotoworld’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide to give fantasy players a one-stop shop for the best insights and analysis. The combined fantasy premium offering will be available on FantasyLife.com.
…Fantasy Life will also become the official fantasy tools provider for NBC Sports’ Rotoworld, expanding NBC Sports’ fantasy sports platforms. As part of the partnership, NBC Sports will incorporate links to Fantasy Life’s platform and tools into content on NBC Sports’ digital platforms. Fantasy Life talent such as Ian Hartitz, Dwain McFarland and Thor Nystrom will appear on Rotoworld shows, and Fantasy Life will feature analysts and content from NBC Sports and Rotoworld weekly throughout the NFL season.
“There were many reasons I chose NBC Sports two years ago, but one of the most important was their belief and support in what we are building at Fantasy Life,” said Matthew Berry, founder of Fantasy Life. “I love working there and they are great partners. This announcement is an exciting step in our great relationship. I couldn’t be more excited to integrate Fantasy Life’s award-winning content and tools into Rotoworld and NBC Sports’ legendary 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, insights and analytics creates a very compelling product for fantasy players.”
There are several things notable about this. First, it continues a trend of NBC being willing to work with outside projects from on-air personalities, from Mike Florio’s ProFootballTalk (NBC has exclusively licensed the content since 2009 and is behind the associated radio and Peacock show, but Florio still owns the site) to Pro Football Focus (in which Cris Collinsworth acquired a majority stake in 2014; NBC is a PFF client, and Collinsworth has often discussed their data live) and more. This has been seen elsewhere, too, such as ESPN’s unusual licensing deal for The Pat McAfee Showbut NBC has long been known for its willingness to do such things.
What’s also interesting is that NBC is bringing together two of the biggest fantasy brands besides ESPN and Yahoo. Berry has built up Fantasy Life impressively, bringing on board people like the above-mentioned personalities (Hartitz, McFarland and Nystrom) and others, and now some of that talent will get more promotion at NBC. (And Berry has done quite a bit of promotion at NBCUniversal on many levels since joining the company in 2022, so there seems to be a lot of appetite for fantasy content.) And that will likely work the other way too, with some fantasy personalities from NBC and Rotoworld like Lawrence Jackson Jr. (who himself was formerly associated with Berry and once worked for Fantasy Life) being tied into this FantasyLife+ offering. We’ll see how this combination pays off, but it looks like it could give both companies a boost.
(Image from Fantasy Life)
