Sports have been Whalen’s life for as long as he can remember. Andy Manis
Like many boys, young Nick Whalen ’14 had dreams of becoming a professional sports star.
But by the time he was in eighth grade in the Wisconsin village of Wrightstown, near Green Bay, he says he realized “it wasn’t in the cards,” and he started to think about other ways he could stay connected to sports. Unlike most boys, Whalen had tried to start a fantasy sports league when he was in fourth grade. Fantasy sports players assemble imaginary teams of real athletes and win or lose virtual contests based on those athletes’ real-life performances.
When Whalen came to UW–Madison, where he double-majored in journalism and communications, he learned that a pioneering fantasy sports operation called RotoWire had relocated from Los Angeles to Madison just a few years earlier. RotoWire provided fantasy players the latest information on the real athletes who populate fantasy leagues.
Whalen landed an internship with the company in 2012, and today, he is RotoWire’s senior media analyst, cohosting its radio shows and podcasts. He’s a star in a company that regularly taps UW–Madison graduates for talent and has itself reached the heights of the fantasy sports world, partnering with the likes of ESPN and CBS Sports. (Whalen estimates that roughly 20 full-time RotoWire employees are UW–Madison graduates.)
In a recent 12-month period, RotoWire had more than 22 million unique visitors to its subscription-based website. Whalen feels that the company’s ongoing success is due to the reputation it established early on for being first and factual with player information.
“We have a number of revenue streams at this point,” Whalen says, “but our core business is still that news aggregation, making sure we’re accurate and providing good analysis.”
One of the new revenue streams involves sports gambling, in rapid ascendance since the leagues and media networks reversed an earlier aversion to it.
In 2022, RotoWire was acquired by Gambling.com Group, and its website now has a sports betting section along with its fantasy sports section.
“There’s a natural overlap,” Whalen says. “If you’re somebody who plays a lot of fantasy sports, you’re probably interested in sports gambling.”
Does Whalen still enjoy the job? “I’m as passionate as I’ve ever been,” he says. “Sports have been my life as long as I can remember. It’s something I’d be doing in my spare time, anyway — and I get paid for it.”
Published in the Spring 2025 issue
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