Tag Archives: fantasysports

Talking Sports, Media and Digital with Tom Richardson

Tom Richardson is the founder and president of a consulting outfit focused on the intersection of sports and media. He has worked in pro sports, taught college classes, lectured, consumed copious amounts of relevant and random information, is father to a pair of Millennials and a former English major.
Seemingly everywhere on the sports and media scene, Richardson exudes boundless energy, insatiable curiosity and unmitigated opinion about a wide range of subjects.
We asked Richardson about his involvement in all things sports, digital, and venture capital.

Your Preferred Titles: Founder and President, Convergence Sports & Media; Adjunct Professor


Duties: CEO/CMO/CRO/CTO — chief cook and bottle washer; teaching, mentoring


HomeTown: Massapequa, Long Island, NY

First Paid Job: Cutting lawns around the neighborhood ($3/lawn!) starting around age 12

Favorite Sport: Football

Favorite Team: Giants

Your most important Epiphany: Your reputation is your most important asset

Your Life Credo: Follow the golden rule

Twitter : @ConvergenceTR

 

Tom Richardson

TDP: Tell me about your company Covergence Sports & Media and how it integrates into the landscape of gaming

TR: Convergence, which I founded in 2004, is consulting and advisory business that works with a variety of companies, from well-established properties to start-up ventures, in sports, media and entertainment. The focus is on helping companies develop products and services profitably, to leverage assets in order maximize value and to compete more effectively in a converged media world. Working from time to time with gaming companies (e.g. early sage fantasy sports company, data provider), we’ll focus on business and strategic planning, digital marketing, business development, resourcing, etc.

TDP: How did you get involved with the NY Venture Community sports group, and what is its greatest asset these days?

TR: One of the founders, Jeff Volk, is a longtime sports industry colleague and friend of mine. I started helping out informally early on and gradually got more involved and became the first board member. The greatest asset is the knowledge that is shared and the camaraderie that is fostered at each live event. NYVC Sports has become a catalyst in broadening and energizing an already robust sports/investment/tech network in/around NY City.

TDP: Where do you see the biggest opportunities on the horizon regarding gambling, sports and technology?

TR: The rapid proliferation of tracking technologies is ushering in a bit of revolution in the area of sports data and team/player performance analytics. Examples include MLB’s Statcast, NBA’s SportVU and the things that the NFL are dong with Zebra Technologies. The output of all those initiatives could be the poster child of the “Big Data” movement. There’s an enormous amount of data that is being generated, much of which would be of great interest to gamers and gamblers. So I think the biggest opportunity is in the “productization” of all this data, finding B2B and B2C applications that will find a sustainable market.

TDP: Tell me how you first landed on the Digital side and had you any inkling it would grow so quickly and diversely as it did?

TR: I joined the NFL in the pre-Internet era but I knew about the early online business (companies like Prodigy and Compuserve) from my prior job at Ziff-Davis, the leading publisher of computer magazines. So I lived and managed through the transition while at the NFL, where we did the first online deal (w/ Prodigy) and the first CD-I and CD-ROM deals in pro sports. And that led to NFL.com. At that point I got a good sense of the potential and where things might go and I quickly became hooked on the digital side of the business. So I eventually moved to the NHL, where I was the GM of the league’s digital business.

TDP: How does the digital technology change the gambling , egaming and fantasy landscape? What are its limits?

TR: The immediate, real-time aspect of data capture and sharing is obviously making everything faster, which is a good thing for people who trade on or or make livings around data. Also, the world is now truly flat – it’s a global business where customers can come literally from all corners of the earth. That point, as well as the rapid growth of Over The Top video, is helping propel eSports into a huge, global sports business.

TDP: Tell me about your academia life and how it dovetails with the sports world?

TR: I’ve been teaching sports business (mostly digital media and marketing) for almost five years Columbia, NYU and Iona. It’s a labor of love for me for two reasons: 1) I love to learn, so keeping up with things, as good teachers should, comes naturally to me. I read a lot of articles and white papers, listen to a lot of podcasts and watch a lot of videos about the sports, media, entertainment, technology, start-ups, etc. That learning helps me stay fresh and enables me to put a complicated subject into the proper perspective for students; 2) I like to meet and interact with younger people — the millennial generation. As “digital natives,” they often have interesting insights and perspectives on this rapidly changing world and business environment. So while they learn form me, I also learn from them, which helps me as a consultant — I’m able to keep my finger on the pulse of the market.

TDP: How do you see Over The Top (OTT) content delivery changing the sports media, and by extension, fantasy and gaming landscape?

TR: OTT is a game changer for a few reasons: 1) Just about anyone can do it, so it’s great tool for “attacker brands” — those that are competing against the big incumbents; 2) There’s an immediate global reach, which means the potential audience can be found and engaged faster and cheaper than ever; 3) There’s interactivity as well as social elements that create like-minded communities around passions; eSports (and Twitch) is a great example; 4) There’s a high level of user tracking and measurement that allows for efficient and valuable targeted marketing and advertising.

TDP: Tell us something that very few people know about you.

TR: I spend a lot of time on/with music. I’m an avid self-taught guitar player (been hooked since age 15) and a self-taught hacker piano player. I’m also a big listener (in my office, on the train, walking around Manhattan) and lyric tweeter — on Twitter, @lyricbuff is my scrapbook of great lyrics worth remembering and sharing.

FanDuel and 15 NFL Teams in Multi-year Sponsorship Deal

By @TheDailyPayoff

The battle between the two elite companies in the daily pay fantasy space escalated Wednesday.
Terry Lefton of the Sports Business Journal broke the story https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2015/04/22/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/FanDuel.aspx that FanDuel, just weeks after rival Draft Kings announced an exclusive deal with MLB, had signed one-year exclusive deals with 15 FL teams.
The new deal gives the biggest player in terms of participants in the growing pay fantasy space at least a marketing edge in the largest pay fantasy sport – The NFL. The 15 NFL teams joining Fan Duel were the Bengals, Colts, Packers, Bills, Eagles, Rams, Browns, Jaguars, Ravens, Buccaneers Jets, Redskins, Chargers, Lions and Texans.

Since Yahoo has an exclusive deal with the 49ers and three NFL teams are in states where paid fantasy games are illegal (Arizona, Louisiana, and Washington), it gives the New York-based company a leg up as the NFL Draft comes into focus (New England and Denver have already signed Draft Kings deals, and Kraft Sports, like ESPN and MLB, have taken equity positions with Boston-based Draft Kings).

According to Lefton’s report, last Friday, the NFL released to its teams new marketing regulations governing their deals with paid fantasy sites. The new rules essentially make daily paid fantasy sites equivalent to gambling casinos in ways clubs could market with them.

Howling About Fantasy Sports: Catching Up With Rick Wolf

special thanks to Joe Favorito @JoeFav

While the casual fan may think that all this “fantasy” stuff is new from a business perspective, in reality the roots of fantasy are a few decades old, and there are few who understand the history, the success, and the failures of the business better than Rick Wolf. A Fantasy Sports Trade Association Hall of Famer, Wolf has been at the front edge of many of the biggest growth opportunities in fantasy for years, and now runs a consultancy, Full Moon Sports, dedicated to helping nurture and grow businesses in the fast moving space. He is also the president of Fantasy Alarm, one of the rising brands in the space.
Wolf has also authored a three part series on how to get into the business as part of his Fantasy Alarm work.
We caught up with Wolf to get a history lesson and a look forward into what is going on in the business.
Q: When you look at potential consulting clients, how do you determine what can work and what can’t?
 
A: When I look for projects to work on, I look for two things: (1) Does this project advance the fantasy sports agenda? That is will it raise the awareness of fantasy sports or will it introduce a new area of fantasy sports that will increase the number of players. (2) How helpful can I be to what they are trying to accomplish?
Q: Where is the biggest growth area in fantasy right now for a startup?
 
A: Right now, there are a lot of “me too” start-ups in fantasy sports. Quite frankly that is great. The smartest people start-up things that will generate some revenue while they find their niche. The biggest revenue growth area is still in Daily Fantasy Sports as it has only scratched the surface. The biggest pure penetration growth for increasing the number of players is still in the “second-screen” area. Single-game free fantasy sports will be bigger than anything we have ever seen as far as participation goes.
Q: With all the growth that has occurred in the fantasy sports business in the past two years, what is the one aspect of the business that has surprised you the most?
 
A: Honestly, it has surprised me that new companies will label things that are clearly gambling as fantasy sports or that daily fantasy companies have been unable to stay away from connecting themselves to gambling by using the words “bet”, “wager” and “gambling”. Fantasy sports is a game of skill like chess.
Q: The NFL just announced teams will be able to create partnerships with pay fantasy companies for a year and then the business will be reevaluated. How do you think they will determine success?
 
A: A hedge like this is very difficult to understand. Fantasy Sports is a cornerstone of the NFL. The NFL is a member of the FSTA. By placing a time limit on it, you don’t allow partners to long-term plan and INVEST in businesses with the NFL. The reality is that the all sports leagues have so much invested in the broadcasts that they should embrace fantasy sports as deeply as possible since it DRIVES VIEWERSHIP in every way imaginable.
Q: What sport has the most potential for growth in fantasy sports?
 
A: Globally, I think the NBA has the most impact right now and is growing in Europe and Asia.
Q: Many outside the US still consider the idea of fantasy sports to be an American phenomenon. Do you see the culture changing for the business abroad?
 
A: This is an American assumption. Fantasy sports is wildly popular in England, Australia, China and Japan amongst other places. In 2009, we tried to understand this and with IPSOS-Reid studied some international markets. In England 22% of adults played fantasy soccer or fantasy cricket. This is a lot bigger than the US.
Q: How does DraftKings announced partnerships with MLB and ESPN change the landscape of pay fantasy?
 
A: The arms race between Fanduel & Draft Kings has escalated beyond dollars and cents right now. It is great for the attention on Fantasy Sports. A deal like this always depends on the large partners showing up as partners. Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote this about partnerships in Fantasy Sports.
In this case it is especially poignant. I quoted the 1949 movie, The Fountainheadfrom the 1936 book by Ayn Rand: “In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone. An architect needs clients, but he does not subordinate his work to their wishes. They need him, but they do not order a house just to give him a commission. Men exchange their work by free, mutual consent to mutual advantage when their personal interests agree and they both desire the exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced to deal with each other. They seek further. This is the only possible form of relationship between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master, or victim to executioner.”
Time will tell if it is a true partnership.
Q: What was the biggest business mistake made in the fantasy sports space?
 
A: The world pays for executions and not ideas. People who come to me often tell me they have the next disruptive or revolutionary idea for the fantasy sports space. Fantasy sports players are slow to adopt new things, so even when things are “disruptive” or “revolutionary”, it takes years for them to penetrate. Look at daily fantasy sports for instance. Snapdraft was conceptualized in 2004 (I think), but was not legal until 2006. Instant Fantasy Sports existing illegally, but had very few customers. In 2006, when UEIGA made it possible to have daily fantasy sports, the fantasy sports player was happy. Fanduel and Draft Kings have advanced the number of players quickly by spending 10s of millions on marketing. Yet, they only have 8-10% of fantasy players trying this so far.
Q: Who are some of the business people you watch in the space?
 
A: This will sound odd, but I try to objectively watch everyone. Some of the best business ideas will come to me from people I have not met or fantasy sports players.
Q: What are the biggest changes, positive and negative, that you see in the fantasy sports business coming in the next year?
 
A: There is a minor crack in the business people on the seasonal side of fantasy sports attacking daily fantasy sports because of a small group of entrepreneurs who cannot stop connecting fantasy sports to gambling when the two couldn’t be farther apart.
It is critical that we do not allow that chink in the armor to expand regardless of how the egos play their cards. The seasonal content & service providers need to realize that daily fantasy sports created an opportunity to rejuvenate fantasy sports that they should embrace. The daily fantasy sports providers need to understand that they cannot simply do as they please with the use of gambling words, misleading promotions and should be thankful for what came before them that paved the way for the existence of this genre. Both groups should also realize that there will be something coming after them that will be more popular than both and they both should be hoping for it.
So this is both the biggest positive and biggest negative depending on which way the people involved go. Right now the most powerful leaders on each side are handling this perfectly. It is the smaller companies and providers that are jockeying for position that are hurting themselves and a $2B industry.
From my vantage point, I see my life’s work in jeopardy when people do not respect each other enough to play by the rules and believe that both old and new NEED to help each other.
Lincoln said: “A house divided against itself can never stand.”
Rick Wolf is a leader in the fantasy sports industry. He is a founding Board Member and one of only fifteen FSTA Hall of Famers including Bill James, Ron Shandler, Glenn Colton and Matthew Berry. He is the Co-Host of Colton & The Wolfman every week on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio. With college friend, Glenn Colton, he has won five Expert baseball titles and four Expert football titles. He currently runs the sports consultancy Full Moon Sports, which has assisted many sports companies including Topps, USA Today and FOX.