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Business Insider
07-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
An NBC Sports analyst just raised $7M for his fantasy sports startup. Read the pitch deck that helped him do it.
Fantasy football season is the best season. You get together with your friends, create a league, draft your favorite players, and face off every week throughout the NFL calendar to hopefully end up the winner and earn bragging rights until the season starts again. Those are the basics of a fantasy league. But what if you don't know much about the NFL, and are looking for some assistance in picking out the best players for your roster for the games on Sunday? Or perhaps you know a lot about fantasy football and want to find content to interact with or similar people to talk with. Maybe you want to get into fantasy sports betting. Fantasy Life, a brand started by NBC football analyst Matthew Berry, wants to offer something for every level of fantasy football fan — and it just secured a $7 million raise led by LRMR Ventures. Fantasy sports is "the great equalizer," Berry told Business Insider. "It brings people together. From the kid in the mail room to the CEO, to rockstars, to kids, to grandmothers. Almost every one of our investors plays fantasy football." Berry wrote Fantasy Life, a book that became a New York Times bestseller. It's about all the ins and outs of fantasy football, along with the social aspect of it, from punishments for coming in last to trash-talking with your friends. He quickly turned it into a newsletter. Austin Rief, the cofounder of Morning Brew, is a friend and advisor to Fantasy Life, and he told Berry that he had something big in the fantasy sports space. "You're doing about 6 billion things wrong, and yet, even with one hand tied behind your back, you're still doing better numbers than we did in year three of Morning Brew," Berry recalled Rief telling him. (Morning Brew shares a parent company with BI.) "That's when we pivoted," Berry said. After that, the newsletter became a website, and Berry hired Eliot Crist as CEO. The Fantasy Life team has since grown from a newsletter to a full media company, with a website full of written content and radio and video shows about fantasy football. In addition to fantasy football analysis, Fantasy Life offers betting analysis for all major sports leagues, videos on fantasy football, and ways to play through Guillotine Leagues, a unique fantasy football experience. "We think we're in a really strong position to do something that's that's never been done before in the space," Crist said. Part of Fantasy Life's growth included acquiring Guillotine Leagues, a new way to play fantasy sports with friends. Traditional leagues have games that are played every week, and if you lose one week, you just drop in the standings. You rotate through players, adding, dropping, and trading depending on what your team needs. Guillotine Leagues offers a different take. With its gameplay, if you lose, you are out, and all the players on your roster are released back into the pool to be picked up by everyone else who remains. Berry said there were some key elements that made him want to buy Guillotine Leagues. One was the playtime, with users spending an average of 22 minutes on the platform per session, per the company. "We think that Guillotine Leagues is the next big thing in fantasy football, and our goal is to have as many people try it as possible, because we think that once you do, you're going to be like, 'this is the only way I want to play fantasy,'" Berry said. The deck opens with a slide about what Fantasy Life is. This deck was pitched to investors in April of 2025. The description of Fantasy Life is "a fantasy sports, sports betting, and gaming company led by the biggest name in sports gaming." Matthew Berry is a key figure in the fantasy sports space. Berry has been working in the fantasy sports space for years, at various places like ESPN and NBC Sports. He is currently a cast member for NBC's Football Night in America. Guillotine Leagues is a gaming platform that Fantasy Life thinks will change the way users play. The slide says the unique play style that Guillotine Leagues offers has paid off, with 22 minutes spent on the platform in an average session. Fantasy Life has lots of plans for the rest of this year, including expanding 'paid-to-play' games (where users buy in with real money) The startup also plans a full redesign for web, iOS, and Android, and a Fantasy Life+ integration with tools and extra content for players. Fantasy Life has a goal in mind — to be the best fantasy product on the internet. Mike's Hard Lemonade has partnered with Fantasy Life on FantasyHQ, a place for personalized team advice, to help optimize lineups and real-time score updates. The company has also worked with other fantasy football platforms to integrate its content. Fantasy Life licenses content to LG, Roku and Fubo, SiriusXM, iHeart Radio, and a360 media. Through those partners, Fantasy Life says it has reached over 112.8 million households combined. The company raised $2 million in a friends and family round in 2023. Some of the investors in that round include Casey Wasserman, Tony Khan, Josh Allen, and Austin Ekeler. Fantasy Life has grown its company from 11 to 23 full-time employees. The deck says the company was recognized as one of the "best places to work in sports" by both Front Office Sports and Sports Business Journal in 2024. Fantasy Life plans to use the funds from the seed raise for a few different things. These include paying costs related to the Guillotine Leagues acquisition, developing its own technology, using paid marketing, and developing a premium product. The deck ends with a 'thank you' slide.
The Age
29-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Mystery $50 billion Chinese medical fortune collapses in days
When Yat-Gai Au was worth $US33 billion ($50 billion) on paper, he wasn't in his Hong Kong office. One week later, when his net worth plunged to $US10.1 billion, he wasn't around either. Officers at the headquarters of Regencell Bioscience Holdings said both times that Au made only short visits there, before turning away reporters. The firm, a NASDAQ-listed, Cayman Islands-incorporated traditional Chinese medicine company, occupies the whole ninth floor of a tower in Hong Kong's bustling Causeway Bay, including a reception area with a large table tennis table. Little is still known about the tiny, money-losing company whose shares exploded 82,000 per cent higher and suddenly made Au, its chief executive officer with an 86 per cent stake, richer on paper than some of the city's tycoons like Li Ka-shing. The fleeting nature of its rip-roaring rally has captivated and mystified observers from the US to Hong Kong. Morning Brew, a popular business account on X, flagged its stock move and wondered: 'Is there something I'm missing?' Regulators in the US, which closely monitor wild swings in stock prices, might soon be asking the same question, according to experts. Loading The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the watchdog for broker-dealers, has repeatedly said small, cheap stocks are more susceptible to fraud. These companies can be targets for pump-and-dump schemes in which frauds inflate the stock price and quickly sell their shares. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, has been increasingly wary about companies listed on US exchanges that are based overseas, and Regencell checks both boxes. The regulator on June 4 called on the public to weigh in on whether the agency needed to amend the definition of what's called a foreign private issuer, potentially limiting the number of companies that qualify for special status that lets them avoid filing quarterly financial reports or disclosing when executives buy or sell company shares. 'This is an example of very unusual movements in share prices,' said Richard Harris, founder and chief executive of Port Shelter Investment Management in Hong Kong. 'These movements could certainly trigger interest by investigators.'
Sydney Morning Herald
29-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Mystery $50 billion Chinese medical fortune collapses in days
When Yat-Gai Au was worth $US33 billion ($50 billion) on paper, he wasn't in his Hong Kong office. One week later, when his net worth plunged to $US10.1 billion, he wasn't around either. Officers at the headquarters of Regencell Bioscience Holdings said both times that Au made only short visits there, before turning away reporters. The firm, a NASDAQ-listed, Cayman Islands-incorporated traditional Chinese medicine company, occupies the whole ninth floor of a tower in Hong Kong's bustling Causeway Bay, including a reception area with a large table tennis table. Little is still known about the tiny, money-losing company whose shares exploded 82,000 per cent higher and suddenly made Au, its chief executive officer with an 86 per cent stake, richer on paper than some of the city's tycoons like Li Ka-shing. The fleeting nature of its rip-roaring rally has captivated and mystified observers from the US to Hong Kong. Morning Brew, a popular business account on X, flagged its stock move and wondered: 'Is there something I'm missing?' Regulators in the US, which closely monitor wild swings in stock prices, might soon be asking the same question, according to experts. Loading The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the watchdog for broker-dealers, has repeatedly said small, cheap stocks are more susceptible to fraud. These companies can be targets for pump-and-dump schemes in which frauds inflate the stock price and quickly sell their shares. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, meanwhile, has been increasingly wary about companies listed on US exchanges that are based overseas, and Regencell checks both boxes. The regulator on June 4 called on the public to weigh in on whether the agency needed to amend the definition of what's called a foreign private issuer, potentially limiting the number of companies that qualify for special status that lets them avoid filing quarterly financial reports or disclosing when executives buy or sell company shares. 'This is an example of very unusual movements in share prices,' said Richard Harris, founder and chief executive of Port Shelter Investment Management in Hong Kong. 'These movements could certainly trigger interest by investigators.'
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
WATCH: Lake Carmi Eagle Cam was busy for breakfast!
A viewer recently sent us a reminder that the Lake Carmi, Vermont Eagle Cam was up and running again this season. Rick Willever sent us a message saying 'For the 4th year in a row, the bald eagles at Lake Carmi have 3 eaglets. The first one hatched around April 9th. They are growing quickly and can be seen regularly peeking over the side of the nest. Check them out 'Check them out' is exactly what Meteorologist Alex Wasilenko was doing Tuesday morning. The Lake Carmi Eagle Cam was alive overnight with two adult bald eagles and two eaglets. However, the light of day and beautiful sunrise helped to illuminate the happenings in and around the big nest. One adult eagle came back and forth several times during the morning to not only give the eaglets a meal but they also did some tidying up. It was fun to see the adult eagles move the bigger branches while the eaglets tackled the smaller ones. At the end of our FOX44 Morning Brew shows, the third eaglet had popped up its floofy, feathery head to see what was going on. This camera is beyond fascinating to watch, and as Alex can attest to, can be a bit distracting from time to time but in the best way possible. Whenever you have the time, feel free to check out Once on the page, navigate to the YouTube channel where the live stream is located. Enjoy! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DraftKings CEO talks Q1 miss & how March Madness shaped outlook
DraftKings (DKNG) missed first quarter expectations and lowered its full-year revenue forecast, citing a lack of upsets during March Madness that led to more customer wins. DraftKings CEO Jason Robins joins Catalysts to explain how tournament outcomes impacted the company's guidance. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here. DraftKings missing first quarter expectations and cutting its full year revenue forecast. Still, revenue rose 20% from a year ago. The sports betting company says a lack of March Madness upsets kept it from raising its 2025 guidance. Joining me now, Jason Rob Robins, DraftKing CEO, and my Morning Brew co-host, Brad Smith. Jason, thank you for being here this morning. Let's start on the guidance. I'm really interested in getting some clarity from you on this. You said you would have raised it if not for unusually customer friendly outcomes during March Madness. Can you break that down for us? Should investors just always expect your guidance to be driven by game outcomes? Well, not always. I think in this case, we had a pretty historic March Madness. It was only the second time ever that all four number one seeds made the final four. And in addition to that, the first time ever that that happened, and you had three number two and one number three seed in the Elite 8. So really a tournament where favorites were winning. Um, 82% in fact of the favorites won. So that was actually an all-time record for March Madness. Uh, so I think it was a bit of an anomaly. Um, you know, we've heard theories like NIL maybe driving, uh, more of that type of thing in the future. So obviously the models will have to take those sorts of things into account, but I don't expect that kind of favorite run to happen most years in March Madness or in any sport for that matter. But it does happen sometimes, which is part of the great aspect of the product. Customers can really go on winning streaks on things like that, which is great. So then let's talk about what you are anticipating regardless of game outcomes, especially for the next year here. Sales and EBITDA for Q1 did miss consensus in part due to gaming taxes among other potential headwinds, among a macro uncertain environment here. How are you thinking about the health of the consumer and the impact that could have on your business in the quarters to come? Well, we included some material on this in, uh, because we knew this was a question on investor's minds. We included some material on this in our earnings release, and it's pretty clear that gaming, uh, and online gaming has also really shown resiliency through macroeconomic downturns. Uh, we we took some data from 2008, the Great Recession, and and we saw that and obviously didn't have US online gaming at the time, but it was widespread throughout Europe and it grew quite nicely through that period. So that in addition to us looking at our own metrics and seeing very healthy customer metrics across the board, and we analyze everything really gives us confidence that we are pretty resilient to any economic environment. With that in mind, how's that factoring into the guide right now, Jason? And and great to speak with you again, and especially as we're in this period where we've heard TV ratings are strong for the NBA playoffs right now. How's that flowing through to DraftKings? Well, strong ratings usually lead to betting and, uh, vice versa. So those are good things for us, and hopefully they'll continue. The NBA playoffs obviously has been off to a fantastic start with these games. Uh, lots of great close games. Uh, my Celtics haven't come out on top so far, but still have a lot of way to go, so we'll see. Um, but really it's been a great quality product as we expected, and betting has followed.
