Matthew Berry goes behind the scenes on post-ESPN life, $7 million business deal with LeBron James and Maverick Carter

NBC Sports’ Matthew Berry dove into the shark tank and reeled in some big fish.

The popular fantasy football aficionado told The Post that how swayed some serious investors to give him the big bucks – $7 million of them to be exact – for his fantasy football platform “Fantasy Life.”

The startup platform, which he founded with the help of CEO Eliot Crist, has attracted a slew of star-studded investors, including LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter.

Berry said that the investor list now includes Marlins co-owner Roger Ehrenberg, Devils co-owner David Blitzer, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Jaguars owner Tony Khan, as well as current and former NFL stars George Kittle. Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Ja’Marr Chase, Austin Ekeler, Brent Celek, and Larry Fitzgerald Jr., among others.

The money was in part used to purchase the Guillotine Leagues, and he says the money is mostly already spent.

“It’s a little bit similar to if you ever watched ‘Shark Tank,’ except I’m not walking into a room and saying I’m seeking X percentage of my, but it’s a little bit similar,” Berry told The Post, adding that many of his investors are buying in for a second time for bigger money.

“In some of the cases, I had a relationship with a lot of these guys. We already have a relationship with Jason Stein, Roger Ehrenberg, and Tony Khan. All of those guys were already on our cap table.”

Berry is no longer just the fantasy football analyst who was seen on ESPN airwaves from 2007 to 2022.

He’s been chasing his (pun-intended) fantasy life since that date, and it’s a way different day-to-day than it was when he rose in popularity in the mid-2010s.

“[My life] is pretty different,” Berry said. “Some of the aspects of my job are the same. I write a weekly column called ‘Love Hate,’ which appears on NBCSports.com and Rotoworld.com. I do a daily show. I do a Sunday morning show.”

Still, those days in Bristol, Conn., were different, as he explained he was mostly pigeonhole-holed to strictly fantasy sports content and spent less time on the actual day-to-day analyst-style work he enjoys now.

“At ESPN, I was very much the fantasy football guy. When the regular NFL season was over, I was done,” Berry said. “At NBC Sports, I am part of our NFL coverage. So while my beat is fantasy sports and sports betting, that’s my primary role. I have been on the Kentucky Derby, and I’ve contributed to other projects that we have. I’m excited that we have the NBA, and maybe I’ll be a part of our NBA coverage… It’s been wonderful to be at NBC.”

Berry is also seen working in tandem with Mike Florio, Chris Simms, Jason Garrett and more on NBC’s Emmy-nominated “Football Night in America,” airing Sunday nights.

“At NBC, I have the freedom to work at Fantasy Life. So when I’m not doing my NBC duties, I’m acting as a founder,” Berry said. “Certainly, I miss my friends at ESPN, but no, [I don’t miss ESPN.] That was part of the reason I left ESPN: to become an entrepreneur… That was one of the reasons I left ESPN. My contract was up, ESPN wanted me to come back, but they said to me, ‘Hey, you can’t have Fantasy Life. You can’t co-own Fantasy Life,’ the way I did in my previous contract, where I had a carve-out for it. I didn’t want to do that, so it was kind of a no-brainer.”