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Matthew Berry is the biggest power player in fantasy sports. Now he's taking his "Fantasy Life" to a whole new level by drafting a new winning team.Berry, who not along ago established an eponymous media company based on his New York Timesbest-selling book, is now joining forces with , the world's largest influencer marketing company."We look forward to helping propel Fantasy Lifes continued growth through our industry-leading brand partners and creators," Influential CEO Ryan Detert says.MORE:Before launching "," Berry spent 15 years as the director of fantasy sports at Kevin Gausman Jersey ESPN. His prominent television presence remains, now as the primary fantasy analyst for NBC Sports as a host for two Peacock shows and a contributor to "Football Night in America."The Sporting News caught up with Berry at the Brand Innovators Gala Celebration at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, Ariz., ahead of Super Bowl 57, to get his thoughts on the Influential deal, his pa sion for Fantasy Life and some fantasy picks for the Chiefs and the Eagles in the big game:SPORTING NEWS: How did the partnership with Influential come about and what does it mean for the future of Fantasy Life?MATTHEW BERRY:We were introduced by a mutual friend. Very simply (they said), "Hey, you guys should know each other." But we quickly hit it off and realized we shared similar values, goals and ideas, not only about what to do in busine s, but how to do it. It's important for me to work with not just good companies, but good people.Influential is the best at what they do. Any time you can align with a company that's the best at what they do, that's a win. We're excited to bring the power of Fantasy Life, our audience, our ability to target specific people in a very desirable demographic with the power of Influential.SB 57 BEST BETS: SN: How important was getting with Influential, given you were an established individual brand at ESPN and now you're trying to do this in a different way?MB: The reason we hit off is that they are fantasy players. For the first 20 to 30 minutes of our meeting, we just talked fantasy football. Fantasy Life has nine full-time employees and every one of them is a hardcore fantasy football player and sports bettor. In terms of the ethos of the company, we wanted to make sure we are by fantasy players for fantasy players, by sports bettors for sports bettors.So that was important to us. It made the decision to go with Influential that much easier, knowing they completely understood what we're trying Sean Newcomb Jersey to do because they're consumers as well. They already were subscribers to the Fantasy Life newsletter before we even met.BEST PLAYER PROPS: | | SN: With your staff for Fantasy Life, which includes a veteran such as Marcas Grant and Dwain McFarland and some newer personalities such as Kendall Valenzuela and Peter Overzet, was it the plan to have such an eclectic staff that combines information, insight and humor so well?MB: It is important to have a diverse range of voices. Often you hear "diversity" and it means one specific thing. To me, diversity means everything. It's not just about skin color or gender, but also your experience. age and point of view. We have hardcore data guys I'll put Dwain McFarland and his utilization report and data mining against anyone in the world Danny Santana Jersey . Peter Overzet is hilarious and has a cult following on social media. We like to run the gamut with something for everyone.There are two things with fantasy and sports betting. No 1 is, you want to win, so the advice has to be solid. I'm putting my name and reputation on it. The other piece of it is, and this gets lost a lot, that fantasy football and sports betting are forms of entertainment. It's hobby, something you do for fun. Some people get too dry with their statistics, analysis and X's and O's.Fantasy Life was formed in my image I've found succe s taking dry subjects and making them very acce sible using pop culture and humor. Everyone who I hire fit that mold of analysis, but also entertaining and funny.MORE:SN: For Fantasy Life, how can Influential play a part in raising the profile of those personalities?MB: I have given a lot of people their start in the industry. It's also important to me to find new voices and promote new voices. It's using the Fantasy Life halo to elevate other people. My job is to generate audience, I believe with that halo and our platforms, if our people do fine work, Bobby Cox Jersey people will find it.SN: Was it your hope that your role for NBC Sports would complement all the great work at Fantasy Life as well as it has?MB: Leaving ESPN wasn't easy. I loved my time there. But as my contract was coming up and (I) started talking to people and ultimately made the decision, I just felt so pa sionately about Fantasy Life. I wouldn't have been able to as much with Fantasy Life had I returned to ESPN. I didn't want to give that up because I believe so much in this company.I talked to investment people, and they were interested in backing me and have it go on its own. But then NBC came to me with this incredible offer "We'll put on you on 'Football Night in America' and let you do whatever you want with Fantasy Life."Some of Eddie Rosario Jersey their biggest personalities at NBC (Cris Collinsworth, Mike Florio, Jim Cramer) have their own side hustle, their ownentrepreneurial spirit. Those are now all big companies. NBC was not only supportive of it, but they already had proven they had with some of their biggest talent.It was a no-brainer, the best of both worlds. It was a chance to be on a bigger platform and the only thing bigger than "Football Night in America" is the actual "Sunday Night Football" game. I have to credit NBC everything they promised me has come true and they've gone above and beyond, another incredible company.MORE:SN: Given your game-picking succe s at NBC, what is your game prediction and some of the best fantasy bets for Super Bowl 57?MB: I'm going with the Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are the obvious ones and Jalen Hurts is my fantasy ride or die. Both QBs have good games. But two sleepers to watch are Kadarius Toney for the Chiefs and Kenneth Gainwell for the Eagles bet the over on both of those guys. |
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