Speaker Profile

Universally regarded as one of the leading voices in fantasy football, Matthew Berry, aka “The Talented Mr. Roto,” is the Senior Fantasy Sports Analyst for ESPN.

Named the 2013 Marketer of the Year by the Academy of Marketing Science for his role in fueling the national growth of fantasy football, Berry is one of the most popular writers on ESPN.com, where his written work forms the foundation of ESPN’s industry-leading fantasy football coverage. Since starting to write for ESPN in 2007, his annual pre-season “Love/Hate” column consistently ranks among the most trafficked stories on ESPN.com for the entire year, while the in-season editions are among the most read pieces on ESPN.com on a weekly basis.

Berry is an Emmy Award winner for his work on ESPN2’s Sunday morning show Fantasy Football Now and has recently been named host of The Fantasy Show, ESPN’s first daily show devoted to fantasy sports. He appears regularly across ESPN television and radio including Monday Night Countdown, Sunday NFL Countdown, SportsCenter, NFL Live and ESPN’s annual coverage of the NFL Draft.

The Fantasy Focus Football podcast, which Berry co-hosts along with partners Field Yates and Stephania Bell, is ESPN’s top-rated podcast on a yearly basis. It was named best Fantasy Sports Podcast for 2015 and 2016 by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and has won seven Podcast Awards until this past year, when it was declared a “legacy” podcast, making it ineligible from winning additional awards. In 2016, Fantasy Focus became the first ESPN digital audio product to be filmed for digital video distribution on a daily basis.

One of only five people to be named to the Hall of Fame for both the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association, Berry is a New York Times best-selling author for his book Fantasy Life (Riverhead/Penguin, 2013).

Named to Sports Illustrated’s “Top 100 to follow on Twitter,” and to Mashable’s “32 Must Follow Accounts for NFL Fans,” Berry joined ESPN in January of 2005, working part time for ESPN Radio 710 in Los Angeles. In February 2007 he joined the company full-time when his web site, TalentedMr.Roto.com, was acquired by ESPN. Berry also founded and still owns RotoPass.com, is the founder of Fantasy Movie League, as well as the app Fantasy Life, based on his book.

Born in Denver, but raised in College Station, Texas, Berry began playing fantasy sports at age 14 and started writing about fantasy sports professionally in 1999. Prior to joining ESPN he was a contributor to many top media outlets, including MLB.com, NBA.com and Rotoworld. He also spent two years working with the NBA as a consultant, helping the league grow its fantasy basketball business.

He and his wife Beth have five children and live in Connecticut. He is a graduate of Syracuse University.

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