Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson are building a media empire.
All the Smoke has never been bigger. Barnes and Jackson originally left Showtime for Meadowlark Media at the start of 2023. While that partnership with the company founded by Dan Le Batard and John Skipper has since ended, their collaboration with DraftKings has only grown stronger and expanded beyond basketball to include combat sports, football, and may now possibly extend into Major League Baseball as well.
Just months after All the Smoke launched its new combat sports platform, Barnes revealed that they had signed a seven-figure deal with DraftKings. The duo has also conducted high-profile interviews with Kamala Harris and Barry Bonds, continually reaching new heights.
On top of that, they launched their own label — All the Smoke Productions — in January of last year.
“It’s such a tremendous blessing,” Barnes told Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show this week. “Obviously, we have verticals in basketball, which are doing well. We’re launching our football department, so All the Smoke: Football is coming. We already launched All the Smoke: Fight, which is MMA and boxing, so we have Roy Jones and Andre Ward heading up the boxing side. We’re in the fight side.”
While Barnes couldn’t yet name who will lead their NFL vertical, he said they’re in negotiations with a “good name” to head that space. In addition to expanding their footprint in football and combat sports, Barnes and Jackson have secured partnerships with Amazon and Netflix, including a recent collaboration on the Happy Gilmore 2 launch.
Barnes also revealed that Major League Baseball has reached out to them, inviting All the Smoke to the All-Star Game in Atlanta next month.
“They want a little bit of our demographic,” Barnes said, adding that he’ll be working alongside C.C. Sabathia to help bring fresh voices and perspectives to baseball coverage.
This feels like a concerted effort by MLB to meet fans where they are. Earlier this month, MLB bought a digital stake in Jomboy Media, and now they’re attempting to expand into a different demographic, one that All the Smoke naturally appeals to.
“I’m a huge baseball fan, so looking to really jump into that space,” Barnes said. “And, hopefully, by the end of the year, golf, as well.”
By teaming up with culturally relevant voices like All the Smoke, MLB is clearly focused on evolving its connection with new and diverse audiences. And Barnes and Jackson seem perfectly positioned to lead that charge.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.