Current and former NFL players such as Brandon Marshall, Von Miller, Miles Austin, Kyle Orton and Brandon Stokley will be among the professional athletes in attendance along with former National Basketball Association player Chauncey Billups and recently-retired MLB slugger Adam Dunn.
“I played fantasy baseball and fantasy football when it wasn’t cool, way back when I was in middle school,” said Stokley, 38, who spent 15 seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver. “It’s been amazing to see the growth of it, especially throughout my career, and the impact it has on the sport. When people leave this event, they’ll have learned something and they’ll have had a blast.”
Insider Trading
In 2011, Brownstein was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and had to forfeit $2.44 million he made from trading on a tip in advance of Apache Corp.’s $2.7 billion acquisition of Mariner Energy Inc.
Brownstein said he was working out at the gym with his long-time friend, Drew Peterson, who mentioned the sale of Mariner Energy because Peterson’s father was on the board. Brownstein wound up serving four months in jail. He said he returned his investors’ money and closed Big Five Asset Management. Brownstein’s focus soon returned to his other love, sports, and he turned to some of his former hedge fund investors to help kick off the Fantasy Sports Combine.
“Bo was faced with a challenge, accepted his responsibility and resolved his issue with no continuing obligations,” Fantasy Sports Combine organizers said in a statement.
Natural Direction
Brownstein said moving into fantasy sports was the natural direction for him to take.
“I made a decision that I’d really pursue something I was as passionate about as I was being in the investing world,” he said, without disclosing the initial investment in the event. “But I couldn’t have done this alone. We built a strong team and went at it full sprint. When you see the opening, you better run through it while you still have the chance.”