FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK | June 6, 2017 – The Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) announced Tuesday that Steve Cohen has been elected to the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions to the fantasy sports industry over the past three decades. Cohen is currently Senior Vice President at SiriusXM, overseeing all of the company’s Sports Programming.
“The Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame honors innovators and pioneers. Steve Cohen is both,” said Rick Wolf, a founding FSTA board member and Hall of Famer. “In 1991, his innovation for fantasy players with ground-breaking FootballInjuries.com coupled with pioneering the twenty-four seven fantasy sports channel at SiriusXM makes him an easy choice as the 19th inductee.”
Cohen’s work in the fantasy sports industry began in 1991, when he founded The Pro Football News and Injury Report with Adam Caplan and Jay Glazer. The company delivered ground-breaking injury information unlike anything the fantasy sports industry had ever seen, including the first-ever publication of practice reports and the dedication of resources to talk directly with athletes to get injury-related answers.
Cohen then became technical director of the most popular sports talk radio show in the United States at the time, “Mike and the Mad Dog” at WFAN Sports Radio in New York. He also served as the Executive Producer for the Jets and Giants radio networks, hosted the “NFL Insider” show for Westwood One Radio, wrote for ESPN.com and several newspapers and served as Chief Researcher for the “Around The NFL” with Mike Francesa and Bill Parcells.
Since 2004, Cohen has been a cornerstone in SiriusXM’s efforts to build sports programming and content and in 2010, with the help of Matt Deutsch, launched SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio, the nation’s first twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week fantasy sports channel.
“I am so honored and grateful to be voted into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame,” said Cohen. “I’ve spent more than half my life working to grow the popularity of fantasy sports – from the early days of the Injury Report all the way through launching a dedicated fantasy sports channel on SiriusXM – and to see what it’s become is very gratifying. It is truly humbling to have my name mentioned among the great pioneers and personalities who have made fantasy sports the thriving industry it is today.”
Cohen becomes the 19th member of the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame joining previous honorees Greg Ambrosius, John Benson, Matthew Berry, Paul Charchian, Cliff Charpentier, Glenn Colton, John Dewan, John Hunt, Bill James, Daniel Okrent, Peter Pezaris, Rob Phythian, Peter Schoenke, Ron Shandler, Glen Waggoner, Charlie Wiegert, Bill Winkenbach and Rick Wolf.
Induction ceremonies will take place at the FSTA Summer Conference in New York City on June 20. Click here to register for the conference at the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan. A complete agenda of the event can be found here. Then celebrate Cohen’s induction by joining him and other industry insiders at the conference’s closing event at the Playwright Celtic Pub from 7-10 p.m.
Please address questions or media requests to FSTA Marketing Manager Aaron Manogue | (608) 310-7547 | amanogue@thefsga.org