Tom Richardson is the founder and president of a consulting outfit focused on the intersection of sports and media. He has worked in pro sports, taught college classes, lectured, consumed copious amounts of relevant and random information, is father to a pair of Millennials and a former English major.
Seemingly everywhere on the sports and media scene, Richardson exudes boundless energy, insatiable curiosity and unmitigated opinion about a wide range of subjects.
We asked Richardson about his involvement in all things sports, digital, and venture capital.

Your Preferred Titles: Founder and President, Convergence Sports & Media; Adjunct Professor


Duties: CEO/CMO/CRO/CTO — chief cook and bottle washer; teaching, mentoring


HomeTown: Massapequa, Long Island, NY

First Paid Job: Cutting lawns around the neighborhood ($3/lawn!) starting around age 12

Favorite Sport: Football

Favorite Team: Giants

Your most important Epiphany: Your reputation is your most important asset

Your Life Credo: Follow the golden rule

Twitter : @ConvergenceTR

 

TDP: Tell me about your company Covergence Sports & Media and how it integrates into the landscape of gaming

TR: Convergence, which I founded in 2004, is consulting and advisory business that works with a variety of companies, from well-established properties to start-up ventures, in sports, media and entertainment. The focus is on helping companies develop products and services profitably, to leverage assets in order maximize value and to compete more effectively in a converged media world. Working from time to time with gaming companies (e.g. early sage fantasy sports company, data provider), we’ll focus on business and strategic planning, digital marketing, business development, resourcing, etc.

TDP: How did you get involved with the NY Venture Community sports group, and what is its greatest asset these days?

TR: One of the founders, Jeff Volk, is a longtime sports industry colleague and friend of mine. I started helping out informally early on and gradually got more involved and became the first board member. The greatest asset is the knowledge that is shared and the camaraderie that is fostered at each live event. NYVC Sports has become a catalyst in broadening and energizing an already robust sports/investment/tech network in/around NY City.

TDP: Where do you see the biggest opportunities on the horizon regarding gambling, sports and technology?

TR: The rapid proliferation of tracking technologies is ushering in a bit of revolution in the area of sports data and team/player performance analytics. Examples include MLB’s Statcast, NBA’s SportVU and the things that the NFL are dong with Zebra Technologies. The output of all those initiatives could be the poster child of the “Big Data” movement. There’s an enormous amount of data that is being generated, much of which would be of great interest to gamers and gamblers. So I think the biggest opportunity is in the “productization” of all this data, finding B2B and B2C applications that will find a sustainable market.

TDP: Tell me how you first landed on the Digital side and had you any inkling it would grow so quickly and diversely as it did?

TR: I joined the NFL in the pre-Internet era but I knew about the early online business (companies like Prodigy and Compuserve) from my prior job at Ziff-Davis, the leading publisher of computer magazines. So I lived and managed through the transition while at the NFL, where we did the first online deal (w/ Prodigy) and the first CD-I and CD-ROM deals in pro sports. And that led to NFL.com. At that point I got a good sense of the potential and where things might go and I quickly became hooked on the digital side of the business. So I eventually moved to the NHL, where I was the GM of the league’s digital business.

TDP: How does the digital technology change the gambling , egaming and fantasy landscape? What are its limits?

TR: The immediate, real-time aspect of data capture and sharing is obviously making everything faster, which is a good thing for people who trade on or or make livings around data. Also, the world is now truly flat – it’s a global business where customers can come literally from all corners of the earth. That point, as well as the rapid growth of Over The Top video, is helping propel eSports into a huge, global sports business.

TDP: Tell me about your academia life and how it dovetails with the sports world?

TR: I’ve been teaching sports business (mostly digital media and marketing) for almost five years Columbia, NYU and Iona. It’s a labor of love for me for two reasons: 1) I love to learn, so keeping up with things, as good teachers should, comes naturally to me. I read a lot of articles and white papers, listen to a lot of podcasts and watch a lot of videos about the sports, media, entertainment, technology, start-ups, etc. That learning helps me stay fresh and enables me to put a complicated subject into the proper perspective for students; 2) I like to meet and interact with younger people — the millennial generation. As “digital natives,” they often have interesting insights and perspectives on this rapidly changing world and business environment. So while they learn form me, I also learn from them, which helps me as a consultant — I’m able to keep my finger on the pulse of the market.

TDP: How do you see Over The Top (OTT) content delivery changing the sports media, and by extension, fantasy and gaming landscape?

TR: OTT is a game changer for a few reasons: 1) Just about anyone can do it, so it’s great tool for “attacker brands” — those that are competing against the big incumbents; 2) There’s an immediate global reach, which means the potential audience can be found and engaged faster and cheaper than ever; 3) There’s interactivity as well as social elements that create like-minded communities around passions; eSports (and Twitch) is a great example; 4) There’s a high level of user tracking and measurement that allows for efficient and valuable targeted marketing and advertising.

TDP: Tell us something that very few people know about you.

TR: I spend a lot of time on/with music. I’m an avid self-taught guitar player (been hooked since age 15) and a self-taught hacker piano player. I’m also a big listener (in my office, on the train, walking around Manhattan) and lyric tweeter — on Twitter, @lyricbuff is my scrapbook of great lyrics worth remembering and sharing.