Just like last year, RotoWire took six of the trophies given out by the FSWA on the first day of the FSTA’s winter conference.

As RotoWire president Peter Schoenke walked up to accept the awards for his company and staffers, emcee Matthew Berry met him with comments such as “I wouldn’t go too far” and “you might want to just start walking up now, Peter.”

That second one came as the nominees for Best Online Football Article were displayed: a category composed solely of RotoWire submissions.

Derek VanRiper’s victory over two colleagues in that category marked the second straight year that RotoWire has taken that award. Chris Liss’ entry took the online article prize in 2009.

RotoWire also repeated as top baseball magazine, claiming that trophy for the third year in a row. The company also saw Mark Taylor repeat as the top racing writer but saw the top writer honors in golf, baseball and college sports go to other sites (after claiming those three in 2009.

Other victories came for best basketball writer (Andre Snellings, another previous champion, though not in 2009), best baseball Web article and best baseball series (both David Regan).

Here’s the full list of finalists (with winners in bold) for those six categories …

Best Online Football Article
Dalton Del Don, RotoWire
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Fantasy Baseball Publication
Fanball
Fantasy Baseball Index
RotoWire

Best Online Baseball Article
John Rakowski, Sports Grumblings
David Regan, RotoWire
Scott White, CBS Sports

Best Baseball Series
Jason Grey, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Mark Strausberg, RotoExperts

Basketball Writer of the Year
Cory Elfrink, Fanball
Tom Lorenzo, RotoExperts
Andre Snellings, RotoWire

Racing Writer of the Year
Scott Engel, RotoExperts
Brian Polking, Fanball
Mark Taylor, RotoWire

XML Team has announced an acquisition that it sees as a boon to its content offerings.

“We’ve been known as a stats distributor and tech-savvy sports content distributor,” XML Team president Alan Karben told FSB.com. “Now we’ve added to that a team that publishes high-end original content (player profiles and trade analyses), plus a lineup of fantasy games that we brand for media companies and pro teams.”

Fantasy Sports Services is a Canadian company that has been around since the 1980s and “specializes in interactive content and games for sports fans.” It was previously owned by Toronto Star Newspapers.

XML Team points to FSS’s player profiles as a key point of value, highlighting the amount of detail included. Karben also lauded material such as FSS’s analysis of player trades.

Beyond its Canadian market, Fantasy Sports Services has provided content and services for U.S. outlets such as the Yankees Radio Network, the Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network, Tampa Bay Online, Topps and the Carolina Panthers.

Karben said it is the company’s first acquisition, one that the XML Team site says actually took place back in October.