Sports Creator Frank Michael Smith Partners With The Athletic

Sports creator Frank Michael Smith has achieved significant success through a six-month pilot program with The Athletic, a sports media organization. During this partnership, Smith produced 24 videos that garnered 27 million views across social media platforms. This figure represents more than half of the total 50 million video views generated by the entire cohort of creators participating in the program. Smith stated on LinkedIn in April that this collaboration established a "blueprint" demonstrating that the creator economy and legacy media can be mutually beneficial rather than competitive, asserting their combined power. He believes they are "much more powerful together."

Smith's success as an independent creator has also led him to launch new ventures. In the spring, he introduced Geo-Games.com, a website dedicated to geography, history, and trivia games. This platform has seen substantial engagement, with its games played over 15 million times. Smith began his journey in sports content creation in 2007, during his seventh grade year, by making YouTube videos. His early channel, which amassed a thousand subscribers, focused on sports highlights and mixtapes, using clips and audio to narrate athletes' careers without showing his face or offering original commentary. His interest in sports narratives is rooted in his family history, which includes his great-grandfather, Jimmy Smith, a participant in the 1919 World Series, and his great-uncle by marriage, Billy Conn, a former light heavyweight boxing champion featured in Frank Deford's "Sports Illustrated" article "The Boxer and the Blonde."

After graduating from Miami University in Ohio in 2016, Smith relocated to Los Angeles to work for ClutchPoints. There, he played a key role in building the company's graphics and video teams, contributing to the production of various sports content. He remained with ClutchPoints until 2020. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Smith to transition into independent content creation, viewing it as an opportune moment to pursue his own ventures. This period marked a significant shift in his career, allowing him to leverage his accumulated experience and creative vision to establish his own brand and explore new avenues in digital media and interactive content. His work with The Athletic and the launch of Geo-Games.com highlight his ability to bridge traditional media with the dynamic landscape of online content creation and audience engagement.