Name: Nate Ravitz
Nickname: none
Job title(s): Deputy Editor, Fantasy, ESPN.com
Full-time in fantasy? Yes
Age: 31
Education: B.A. in English, University of Michigan
Family status: Married, no children
Favorite fantasy sport to play: Baseball
Favorite sport to watch: NFL
Favorite team (any sport): N.Y. Jets
All-time favorite athlete: Andre Agassi
Years playing fantasy: 11

I got my start in the fantasy industry when: I joined Total Quality Stats as a part-time sportswriter in 1998.

Since then, my fantasy résumé includes: Executive Director, Rototimes.com; Deputy Editor, Fantasy, ESPN.com

Before fantasy, I worked in: N/A

Three questions

1) What was the impetus for the creation of The Roto Times? What took you away from the company that you helped to start?

In mid-1999, my TQStats partners and I started talking about creating a standalone fantasy news and analysis site. We were already doing a lot of the work in the content area of the league manager site, writing player news, updating depth charts and providing a question and answer service. It was a natural move to present those features to a broader audience. As for my departure, it was time to move on and take on new challenges, and ESPN presents a lot of amazing opportunities.

2) Have the duties of your position at ESPN cut into the time you once spent on player evaluation and analysis? Is there anything you miss about previous fantasy gigs?

For the bulk of my career, player evaluation and analysis was the part of my job most visible to the audience, but it was never the whole job. A lot of it was building and managing a team and having a major voice in the broader business and direction of the organization. My role at ESPN is very similar, but with it being a much bigger operation and being a true cross-platform media company, there’s a lot more to do in the “behind-the-scenes” category. I still like discussing and analyzing players, and fortunately, the Fantasy Focus podcasts give me an outlet to do that. As for anything I miss, probably just the people. You can’t work the better part of a decade with a group of people without making some lasting friendships.

3) How have you seen fantasy content and the industry landscape in general change with the adoption of fantasy sports by mainstream media?

Mainstream media coverage is just one part of fantasy sports’ evolution into a mainstream property. We’re now seeing a generation of new players coming into the hobby because their parents played, and that’s very cool. Mainstream media coverage has helped fight the stigma that fantasy is a niche hobby for stat geeks (although I think there’s still more that can be done).

Last March when we did the Baseball Tonight Fantasy Draft special, and you had Matthew Berry and Eric Karabell sitting next to Karl Ravech and Buster Olney … that tells you that fantasy content is ready for prime time. Acceptance of fantasy has been like a snowball effect. Once it started rolling down the hill, it picked up speed and kept expanding. Cris Carter is on Fantasy Football Now every week giving his picks for Streak for the Cash. Darren McFadden, Lance Moore and Tim Hightower were on our podcast this year. We now have pro athletes (active and retired) actively seeking ways to be more involved in fantasy because they recognize the opportunity for exposure. And — whether you agree with the approach or not — the idea that someone like Lori Loughlin (Aunt Becky from Full House) would be a guest on a fantasy podcast would have been unheard of three years ago. With the mainstream acceptance has come new business opportunities.