Matt Whitteker Schlyde into Sports interview on $1.7M gala

The Matt Whitteker Schlyde into Sports interview covered a $1.7 million fundraising year for Fight For The Cure, plans to add ticketing to MILLIONS.co, and Whitteker’s experience coaching Justin Trudeau for a charity boxing match. The MILLIONS.co co-founder also explained how a problem facing professional boxers grew into a platform for merchandise, streams and athlete payments.

Why did Matt Whitteker start MILLIONS.co?

Matt Whitteker started MILLIONS.co during the pandemic to help professional boxer friends who were selling merchandise from their cars. He also wanted a place to stream Fight For The Cure, the boxing event he and his brother ran, without having to choose between YouTube and a major television network.

Whitteker traced the idea to a smoky cigar lounge. Recalling the problem that first caught his attention, he said:

They were selling merchandise out of the trunk of their cars.

The boxing gym and Fight For The Cure streams

Whitteker and his brother owned a boxing gym for years; it was their first business. They had content from their annual event that they believed people would pay to watch, but no sports-focused platform that fit an event between a simple YouTube upload and a major TV broadcast.

Other forms of video shaped their thinking. Whitteker pointed to Cameo’s personal videos and Joe Rogan’s watch parties as examples of what viewers and creators could do online. The brothers set out to combine streaming and e-commerce around a problem they knew from combat sports.

What did Matt Whitteker say about tipping and brand deals on MILLIONS.co?

Matt Whitteker said MILLIONS.co gives athletes three ways to earn through the platform: tips, brand deals and sales of their own merchandise. The tipping idea came to him during a workout while he watched a Mickey Ward fight against Turo Gotti and wished he could send Ward money for inspiring him.

Sending an athlete a tip

Whitteker said an athlete with a MILLIONS.co profile can receive money when a fan selects the Tip option. He sees it as especially useful during live competitions, when someone watching an athlete can offer support immediately. Tipping was added after the platform’s initial launch.

Finding athletes for a brand campaign

Brand deals developed in response to companies asking whether they could book athletes with profiles on the platform. Whitteker said the resulting sports influencer marketing product lets brands seek college athletes or other sports talent. He gave the example of an energy drink company sending a campaign proposal to boxers in Texas who fit its criteria and wanted to promote the product.

What new event tools did Matt Whitteker describe for MILLIONS.co?

Matt Whitteker said MILLIONS.co was adding tools around the full life of a sporting event, from promotion and audience voting to post-event highlights. He said event ticketing was planned for the next quarter, while voting, predictions, streams and athlete affiliate links could already help promoters reach fans and sell access.

Ticketing, voting and athlete links

In Whitteker’s example, a promoter with a 10-fight card could add its 20 participants to an event and give them affiliate links to help sell it. Fans could vote on who they thought would win, then buy a stream. Ticketing, once introduced, would add another purchase option to that process.

Whitteker also described seasonal campaign suggestions for brands around events such as the World Series and Super Bowl. He said MILLIONS.co was using AI to make those suggestions more relevant. For creators, he pointed to Creator Studio, the platform’s interview and production setup.

Interviews and AI-generated highlights

Before an event, participants can be invited to make interviews and other promotional content. Whitteker said MILLIONS.co sends an onsite content creator to most events. After a stream, he said, an AI process identifies and cuts highlights from the longer video so they can appear on profiles and give fans and participants a reason to return.

How did Matt Whitteker say swimming events could use MILLIONS.co?

Matt Whitteker said a swimming organizer could set up an event on MILLIONS.co, invite competitors, promote the meet through interviews and voting, and choose either a free or pay-per-view stream. He argued that the same process could support ticket sales even if an organizer decided not to stream every meet.

Discussing smaller swimming competitions, including the College Swimming League, Whitteker said organizers would first need to decide how to produce the video. A swim meet might work with one or two cameras, he suggested, while a more elaborate production could use underwater cameras or a drone. The organizer would then create the event and invite swimmers to participate on the platform.

Those invitations could lead to pre-event interviews, predictions about the competition and clips after it ends. Whitteker said participants would have a place to revisit their performances, while friends and family elsewhere could follow the event. He also argued that a larger collection of event content could make a sponsorship more appealing than attendance alone.

For organizers and sports personalities, Whitteker described affiliate links as another route to sales. He used Michael Phelps promoting a swimming event in Norway as a hypothetical example, with the organizer deciding what an affiliate would earn on each ticket or stream. The figures in that example were illustrations, not reported sales.

What did Matt Whitteker say about Fight For The Cure?

Matt Whitteker said he and his brother started Fight For The Cure in 2008 while their grandfather was undergoing cancer treatment. He said the charity boxing event raised $1.7 million this year. Its schedule runs from February tryouts through months of training to an event typically held in October.

Starting the event in Ottawa

The brothers already had a boxing gym when they decided to put on a match in support of their grandfather. Whitteker described their first card as Ottawa’s first white-collar boxing event, with a newscaster facing a lobbyist. The event continued after that initial fundraiser and grew over the following years.

Selecting and preparing the fighters

Whitteker said organizers generally aim for seven fights. They consider applicants’ age, weight, athletic ability and fundraising goals when making matches. After February tryouts, fighters train from around March to October. He said participants fight before about 1,000 people in the room, with more watching online.

The commitment is personal for Whitteker, who said he fought on the card last year despite already having 18 amateur boxing fights. He recalled needing to train twice a day and finding the prospect nerve-racking. He said the event has more than 125 alumni, many of whom return to support it, and described it as the biggest charity boxing gala of its type while inviting correction if a larger one exists.

What did Matt Whitteker say about Justin Trudeau’s boxing match?

Matt Whitteker said he coached Justin Trudeau for a Fight For The Cure match against a political rival in 2012. Whitteker said Trudeau won his only fight and described him as athletic, with good reach and the ability to take a punch. He did not announce a rematch.

The Trudeau bout came several years after the event began, not on its first card. Whitteker said the fight received television coverage and recalled that Trudeau went on to lead the Liberal Party and become Canada’s prime minister. Whitteker suggested the event played a small part in Trudeau’s political story, presenting that connection as his own view.

Asked about a possible anniversary rematch, Whitteker said Trudeau had been asked about fighting again many times. He thought Trudeau was content to retire from boxing with one win and no losses. The coaching experience remained memorable to Whitteker, who said he wanted some credit for his former fighter’s performance.

Who is Matt Whitteker?

Matt Whitteker is the co-founder and CEO of MILLIONS.co. He previously co-founded Fight For The Cure and Assent. Assent exited to Blackstone and Vista PE for $1.3 billion.