Consultant turns fantasy football into full-time career
Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Fantasy football nut Nathan Zegura loves his hobby so much he found a way to make a full-time job out of it.
Zegura, of Morehead Hills in suburban Cleveland, quit his post at one of the country’s biggest consulting companies to become a fantasy football consultant.
Zegura gave up long hours and travel and now spends his time on his laptop at home advising about 2,000 clients about their fantasy football picks.
The 30-year-old Zegura includes actor Ashton Kutcher among his clients.
Customers pay Zegura as much as $61 for a service that allows them to e-mail questions throughout the season.
In the fantasy football world, ordinary fans accumulate points based on the statistics of NFL players picked for their imaginary teams.
“It’s awesome, it’s awesome,” said Zegura, who shook his head in wonder even four years after quitting his job at McKinsey & Co. “It blows me away.”
Zegura had been a fantasy football fanatic for years. The road to going professional came one fall when his wife, Elissa, suggested he find a way to make money in something he spent so much time on. At a friend’s urging, he launched a fantasy football Web site, which he saw as an alternative to the grinding hours and endless travel of business consulting. The result was thefantasyconsultant.com.
Today he uses his experience as a consultant to closely analyze data, studying spreadsheets and offering advice on well-researched measurements. He churns out NFL player stats and trends as an expert on sports radio and television and on his Web site.
Zegura takes February and March off. The pace picks up in April with the NFL draft, then hits overdrive from June through the Super Bowl. He works from home, often in his basement on Sundays while tracking games on three TVs.
Jeff Thomas, head of sportsbuff.com and president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, said the level of Zegura’s specialized consulting is rare.
Zegura’s operation has grown each season since breaking even in 2005, the first year. This season he’s adding 50 to 60 subscribers a day.
Len Pannell, a customer from New Jersey, spent part of his 19th wedding anniversary e-mailing Zegura pre-draft questions from the Maryland shore.
“His content has been on the money,” said Pannell, who won $5,600 in one of his four leagues last season.
This time of year, Zegura awakens to a few hundred e-mails and has online exchanges with subscribers throughout the day.
“It just doesn’t stop,” said Elissa Zegura.
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Filed by Associated Press August 31st, 2008 in Local and State. Popularity: 2% |
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