With the Fantasy Sports Trade Association Summer Convention being held in New York Tuesday, we caught up with Nando DiFino, now the Executive Producer and Manager of Content for Anthem Media Group and their platforms on Fantasy Sports Network and Sirius XM. A young veteran of the space, Nando has helped create and manage Fantasy News and Business at CBS Interactive, AOL, the Wall Street Journal and other places.
We talked to him about his career, and the growing fantasy business today.
How did you get your start in sports media?
It was the SportsTicker — probably one of the greatest rooms I’ve ever worked in. A bunch of guys loving sports, scoring games, inputting them into computers that would blast the results out to the places the Ticker served. I worked there when I was in grad school, mainly nights and weekends. I loved that job. I loved everyone who worked there. That job was the main part of my resume that got me working for Sam Walker on Fantasyland. From there, it all snowballed.
The fantasy sports business is growing, how big can it be in the next few years?
Five years ago, fantasy players were still carrying a nerdy stigma. Now, I go to meetings, and everyone has a brother who plays, or a son. My wife has two leagues. Fantasy football is going to lead the charge because it’s so prevalent in society and pop culture, and daily fantasy’s wide reach has opened eyes in places regular fantasy had failed to penetrate. This will be huge. 100 million people will be playing by 2018.
Where and how can we see your work on The Fantasy Sports Network?
We are on several cable outlets (Cablevision, Bell Fibe, several more), we’re on XBOXes now. Roku, Amazon Fire, you can stream us on FNTSY.com. We’re growing at a rate quicker than we had anticipated.
Some still don’t understand the difference between gambling and pay fantasy, is there one?
There is. It’s a blurry line sometimes, and it’s easy to just point and say “fantasy is gambling,” but fantasy really does require a skill. Put your time in, research it, and you can do really well. The best gamblers in the world may win 55 percent of the time. The best fantasy players in the world can be up in the 70s or 80s.
What professionals helped shape your career?
Michael Epstein, a producer at ESPN, put me on TV and taught me to just be normal. He also taught me to always hold a pen when I’m talking so my hands aren’t doing weird things. Matthew Berry (ESPN) is a tremendous mentor; he doesn’t like to be inside the box and offers really great, selfless advice whenever I need it. Sam Walker (WSJ) pushed me to write and write, even if it wasn’t in a paper or online — do it just to stay sharp. Adam Thompson (WSJ) taught me to be more concise with my words and not be afraid to chop up a run-on sentence. Lou Maione, my current boss, is a dreamer, but in a good way. He’ll have these ideas and do whatever he can to make them a reality. I’ve never seen him defeated by something he really wants to do. And Wayne Loewe at CourtTV taught me how to be a great boss; specifically how to treat people who worked with and for you with respect and understanding that they will get the job done. Everyone who has a staff should search out and take lessons from Wayne Loewe.
Are there members of the media whose careers you followed growing up, and if so, who and why?
Steve Rushin’s SI columns were tremendous. His writing is just so sly and wonderful. Bill Watterson, Gary Larson, and Berkely Breathed could really craft these engaging stories and then draw corresponding photos that deepened them to a degree I never could. I think I own every Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and Far Side book ever made.
I think anyone my age in sports who denied Bill Simmons had anything to do with influencing them is a liar. He is fearless in his pop culture parallels and style. Prime Time Adam Schein was a big radio voice on Syracuse radio growing up. I see him at Sirius once in a while and remind him of that. Jim Henson was huge for me. Everything he did was infused with this multi-layered creative spirit and humor. But you could tell he did his homework, studied things, honed his craft. I love Penn and Teller and the Amazing Johnathan. They catch audiences off guard. I love doing that.
What advice do you give young people trying to get into the business of sports?
Be ready for this to be your part-time job (or a miserable full-time one) for at least five years. Everyone wants to be in sports; the problem in not getting discovered may not be that people are better than you, but it takes a while to turn over every rock if there are 10,000 of them lined up in front of and around you.
Inside the craft, I’d say always remember that the guy you’re ripping to shreds in a column or on TV could have been your college roommate, or your childhood friend. He’s just a dude who is really good at his job, and you’re probably, deep down, just being jealous. Everyone can be negative. It actually takes some creativity and research to find the positive in most situations.
