Better Collective head steps down after seven years
Brandon Cohen leaves his role heading up product and strategy, while the CEO of affiliate’s subsidiary Yardbarker also vacates his position
Better Collective’s vice-president of product and strategy Brandon Cohen is set to step down from his role with the affiliate.
Cohen first joined as director of product for The Action network in April 2018, before the company was acquired by Better Collective in 2021 for $240m.
He held the director of product role until June 2023, when he moved to the position of vice-president of product and strategy.
Prior to joining Better Collective, Cohen spent time working on NHL network programming for Major League Baseball between September 2015 and April 2018.
Writing about his departure on LinkedIn, Cohen said: “After seven years at Better Collective, which went faster than imaginable and brought many rewarding experiences and lasting friendships, I’ve made the difficult decision to step away.
“I’m proud of the products we’ve built and grateful for the people I had the opportunity to build them with. I feel fortunate to have had a front row seat to so many masterclasses. Whether they were led by experts in betting, professionals in product development and content creation, or leaders in positioning, storytelling and strategy, I learned so much.
“It was truly a privilege to work alongside enthusiastic collaborators willing to experiment, go beyond their mandate and push unrelentingly – and for one another – to tip the scales in our favour.
“I’ll miss being in the thick of the action this season with my colleagues and friends, though I’ll be in the app daily. I’m eager to see, and use, all the amazing features yet to come. As for me, I’ll be taking a break to spend time with family, connect with friends and figure out my next move.”
Meanwhile, Ben Maggin, CEO of Better Collective subsidiary Yardbarker, also announced he will be stepping down from his role.
Yardbarker was acquired by Playmaker Capital in 2021, which itself was snapped up by Better Collective in 2024.
Maggin first joined Yardbarker as principal in January 2018, before moving up to the CEO role in July 2021.
Before joining the company, he worked as vice-president of business development at Fox Sports from September 2007 to September 2017.
Taking to LinkedIn, Maggin wrote: “After eight years, I will be wrapping up my Yardbarker tenure in the coming days. It’s been an honour and a privilege to help run this brand and carve out a unique place in the competitive digital sports media landscape.
“As I reflect on the run, I’m proud of our accomplishments since I joined. Page views are up 5x. Onsite revenue is up 15x. We built out our unique content syndication program that now works with over 300 sites and has paid out more than $6m to primarily independent publishers. We built out a highly functioning news desk operation. Our core team has grown to 20 and has never been as strong top-to-bottom as it is right now.
“The quality of the site is at an all-time high. Our growth and success hasn’t come from shortcuts or chasing the latest trends. It has come from having good people, working hard and striving to make the product a little better every single day. As to what’s next – I’m an unrestricted free agent. I’m excited about the opportunities ahead”.
Better Collective recorded revenue of €82m (£71m) for Q2 2025, down 18% year on year.
The company’s North America CEO Marc Pedersen also announced his departure from the role in July following an 18-year tenure.
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