Over the last several months, Taylor Mathis has seen her sports betting content on various social media platforms go viral, garnering millions of impressions, feedback and engagement. The expeditious rise within the sports media industry comes through a variety of content through which she conveys her knowledge and passion for the medium.
Mathis is bringing her ventures and other sports betting endeavors to DraftKings as part of a new partnership through which she will create social media content and take part in events. A variety of opportunities have been offered to her in the last couple of weeks, and she worked to evaluate what would prove to be the best fit. After discussions with various companies, she came to the conclusion that DraftKings was an ideal entity with which to partner, facilitating energy, credibility and creativity as the football season begins.
“When you see an email come across your way that’s coming from DraftKings, you’re of course going to look at that,” Mathis said. “So just seeing that DraftKings is interested in wanting to work with me and I’m wanting to work with a brand like DraftKings is pretty much a dream come true for me in this space.”
In securing the partnership with DraftKings, Mathis considers herself fortunate and acknowledges that the situation feels a bit surreal. From the onset of her work with the sportsbook, she hopes to bring compelling content to the platform that it may not have had previously. Entering the NFL season, she hopes to win her bets and is able to grow the DraftKings brand through the partnership.
“I’m very excited to get started with DraftKings,” Mathis articulated, “and I’m really excited for people to see some of the creativity that I’m going to bring to a name that’s already super cemented within the space.”
The inspiration for her series, ‘Walking Bets’ came after posting a video where she was talking about the appeal of baseball while walking her dog. Mathis explained that there were several riveting storylines in the game, including the chase for history from New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge and the stellar rookie season from Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Paul Skenes. Once the video was posted, Mathis was surprised to see comments from users requesting that she continue to create this style of content where she gives her betting analysis and picks. This prompted her to think about switching up what she had been doing and embarking on a new challenge.
“I’ve always done ‘Taylor’s Top Prop’ every day, and I kind of sit at my desk, I give my prop [and] I give my analysis,” Mathis explained, “but I was like, ‘Alright, let’s do something to switch it up,’ and I started doing it and they’ve taken off, so it really started with a simple video talking about baseball and it grew from there.”
There is minimal production in these videos that helps foster a sense of relatability, along with her transparency about the outcome of her bets. Mathis often posts the results on her social media pages and also keeps an active spreadsheet of her bets dating back to January accessible through those platforms. Even with the popularity of her sports betting content, Mathis is not looking to forsake the authentic, genuine approach that helped her build a following.
“I think it’s the biggest, most important thing, and I really think it’s something that I just strive for as a person too,” Mathis said. “I’ve always tried to be really vulnerable with my audience about who I am, what I stand for [and] what I do, and I try to give people a little bit more of an inside look into who I am as a person and not just a sports betting personality.”
Following stints with other sports betting companies, she has been independent and worked to innovate and stay disciplined in her content creation. At the same time, she tried not to let the views affect her workflow and prioritized staying consistent in the videos she was disseminating. Actualizing that this stage of her career would pay dividends came in having confidence in her abilities, remaining diligent and finding means to thrive working in this capacity.
“I truly was like, ‘I’ve got to just believe in myself [and] bet on myself at this time,’ and I just knew at some point things were going to take off or pop off and hopefully a break or an opportunity would come because of my creativity and because of the content that I was putting out, and thankfully it’s really gone in that direction,” Mathis said. “So I would always tell everybody, ‘Bet on yourself.’ Even if it seems like a rough time or you’re not sure if it’s ever going to get to that point, it definitely can.”
Mathis feels that her personality helps set her apart in that she is able to convey entertainment that is not solely rooted in statistics and analytics. Although she usually spends two to three hours every morning researching and accruing data to make her selections, she tries to bring levity to her videos and imbue the quantitative metrics therein to back up her reasoning.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind though too because online when things go viral, there’s always the good with the bad, and I hate to say it, but being somebody that has a big digital online presence, I get so much amazing, positive feedback, but sometimes it’s hard to look away from those couple of negative comments that you get here and there,” Mathis said, “but I keep trying to tell myself, ‘Positive and negative, you’re doing something right’ if I’m bringing attention to this.”
In addition to her digital media content creation, Mathis hopes to expand her presence on YouTube and eventually implement various segments into her own show. Reflecting on the media landscape, she discerns that her portfolio can fit with a traditional brand as the ecosystem continues to evolve with subsequent alterations in technology and consumption habits. In fact, she feels that some of the sports betting programming on these outlets is failing to appeal to the aggregate audience and only communicates with people who are avid bettors.
“I think they’re missing the fun, they’re missing the entertainment level of it all, and the way I see it is a lot of my stuff – my whiteboard wins; the walking bets – I have a couple other ideas in store right now for NFL season I’m going to be getting started on – those are segment ideas you could be carrying over to traditional television,” Mathis said. “I think that maybe television media is a little behind on where things are going in the space, especially with everything that we have going on digitally now, but I’m hoping in time, traditional media catches up to some ideas.”
As Mathis commences her partnership with DraftKings, she aims to continue creating dynamic, multiplatform sports betting content tailored to sports bettors ranging from novices to savants. Arriving at this point in her career came through perseverance, adaptability and an indefatigable work ethic, evidenced from her days in local news. Mathis has worked with a broadcast coach and continues to refine her craft on digital media platforms as she grows in the space. Remaining accountable and committed to the sports betting industry through it all, she hopes that her online presence continues to flourish and to continue eliciting positive feedback.
“Being one of the bigger names as a female within sports betting is definitely a goal of mine,” Mathis said, “and I feel like with the help of DraftKings and me being behind DraftKings, I can only see that the sky is the limit, hopefully, [in] the success with this partnership and moving forward.”
Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
