There’s no such thing anymore as a lull in coverage of the NFL. And with how gigantic fantasy football and sports betting has become, it makes sense to NBC’s Matthew Berry.
Berry told Jeff Edelstein at SportsHandle that the evolution of the NFL news cycle has added value to fantasy players and bettors alike.
“News happens in the NFL 24/7/365 now, and when news happens in the NFL, that has an immediate effect on the fantasy values and sports betting futures of everything,” Berry said. “There’s an ancillary effect to any sort of news. Sean Payton gets named coach of the Broncos, all of sudden the fantasy values of the players go up, odds get better.”
Berry has recognized for a while that even in the offseason with the combine and the draft and free agency, NFL content is king.
“It’s really kind of amazing, I remember when I was at ESPN, I used to have to switch off to do fantasy baseball,” he said. “Then after a while, we’d see the numbers, and when we realized an offseason NFL article about free agent moves was doing better than preseason fantasy baseball draft prep, that was when I left fantasy baseball content.”
Matthew said respect to the league had to be given for helping make its product the juggernaut it is.
“A lot of credit has to go to the NFL; they’ve done such a good job of marketing themselves and making minor things big deals,” Berry said. “They’ve done a great job of turning it into a year-round sport despite the games only being played September through early February.”
“Because of the promotion and ingenuity of the NFL, its media, and broadcast partners,” he added. “It’s become this year-round sport that drives interest in fantasy and sports betting.”
