Rick Cordella
President, NBC Sports
Rick Cordella is President, NBC Sports. He assumed the role in September 2023, and oversees all aspects of NBC Sports’ collection of brands and platforms, which includes NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Digital and two transactional sports businesses, GolfNow and SportsEngine. In addition, Cordella works with NBC Local on the company’s Regional Sports Network strategy, and he also oversees Sports on Peacock.
He joined NBCU in 2006, and has served in a variety of leadership roles. In 2022, Cordella was named President, Programming, NBC Sports and Peacock Sports, where he led NBCU’s sports programming strategy across broadcast, cable and streaming, as well all oversaw sports betting, sports fantasy and related efforts.
Cordella previously served as Chief Commercial Officer, Peacock, NBCUniversal, where he led business efforts across several content pillars, including sports, streaming channels, and live events. Under his leadership, Peacock’s Editorial and Content Operations teams developed and executed content strategy driving consumer engagement. Cordella was instrumental leading Peacock’s record-breaking start to 2022 with two of the biggest sporting events in the world, the most-streamed Olympics and most-streamed Super Bowl in history.
Previously, Cordella served as Peacock’s Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for launching the service’s product, programming and content strategy, live content partnership management, monetization, editorial, channels, standards & practices, and program acquisition of topical, short-form and sports content. Prior to Peacock, he served as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Digital Media, NBC Sports Group. In his former role, he oversaw all aspects of NBC Sports Group Digital: direct-to-consumer services, including NBC Sports Gold; NBCSports.com; NBCOlympics,com; Rotoworld.com; the NBC Sports Talk franchises, inclusive of Mike Florio’s ProFootballTalk; and the NBC Sports, NBC Sports Talk and NBC Sports Scores apps.
Under Cordella’s leadership, NBC Sports Digital streamed the Olympics, NFL games, and the Super Bowl (2012), among many firsts, while hosting thousands of on-demand video clips, in addition to streaming more than 10,000 events in 2018 across NBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel, Telemundo, NBCUniverso and six NBC Sports Regional Networks. He began as General Manager for NBC Sports Digital in 2009, and expanded responsibility and leadership, ultimately becoming Executive Vice President and General Manager in September 2016. During this time, Cordella served on the Board of Directors of Fanduel.
Cordella previously served as General Manager, Fantasy Sports, where he managed NBC Sports’ fantasy sports properties, including Rotoworld.com, SnapDraft.com, Allstarstats.com and Sandbox.com. He joined NBC Sports in August 2006 with NBCUniversal’s acquisition of AllStar Stats, Inc., the parent company of Rotoworld.com. As Rotoworld’s general manager, Cordella handled all day-to-day duties including management, product development, computer programming, and ad sales.
A six-time Sports Emmy Award-winner, Cordella was named one of SportsBusiness Journal’s “Forty Under Forty” as one of the best and the brightest of the rising generation in sports business in 2012 and 2014. Cordella earned a B.S. degree in Business Management with a minor in Computer Science from Providence College, and he was a member of the Providence Friar men’s basketball team that reached the NCAA Elite Eight in 1997. He holds an MBA from Boston College. Cordella resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife and five children.
