Organization: Fantasy Sports Writers Association
Launch date: 2004

The close of the NFL season ends the busiest portion of the calendar for many around the fantasy sports industry, but it opens the most hectic stretch for the FSWA. Board members are working feverishly to process entries for the association’s fifth annual writer awards, which will be given out later this month. Even so, President Mike Beacom — who succeeds Ryan Houston and Kirk Bouyelas in that position — managed to find time to sit down and answer some questions for FSB.com.

1) What was the motivation for the formation of the FSWA?
Ryan Houston and Kirk Bouyelas — both of Fantasy Asylum at the time — started the effort with Emil Kadlec and Bob Harris of Fantasy Sports Publications. The group felt that there was nothing that recognized writing in the industry. There are so many writers, and there wasn’t anybody to represent them. It’s been our mission to recognize excellence in fantasy writing ever since.

2) How did you enter the picture?
I stumbled upon the site in the early days in 2004 and noticed that there was no chairman, so I offered to serve in that capacity. We had several meetings, got things organized and before long we had a major sponsorship in place (a Ford fantasy contest).

3) Why is it important to represent fantasy writers?
Writers are the little guys in the industry. They don’t do it to make money. They do it because they love fantasy, and because most of them love to write. We’re a community, and we try to give a little bit extra to the writers. We’re trying to build a place for them to come together.

4) How did the FSWA go about building its membership?
It’s a grassroots organization. Unlike the [Fantasy Sports Trade Association] and most other trade organizations, we’re writers more than businesspeople. We had to put out the product, and, slowly but surely, people came to us. Companies such as Rotowire and Talented Mr. Roto really pushed the importance of the organization with their staff and encouraged their writers to join.

5) How strong is membership today?
Close to 100 new members have joined this past year alone. We’re thrilled with that number. We’ve pushed FSWA membership harder, but I don’t know if I could attribute the growth to any one thing. There’s growth in the industry, and now we’re more established. We had a long list of things we wanted to offer from the beginning, and more of that is coming to fruition.

6) How important is the board of directors?
Our board is really important and is a huge part of who we are. The members care about their staff and about strong writing in the industry. Peter Schoenke (Rotowire), Matthew Berry (ESPN), Gregg Rosenthal (Rotoworld) — those are people that have been on the board for a long time. This year we added Michael Fabiano (NFL.com) and Brandon Funston (Yahoo), both of whom we’re thrilled to have. It’s been important to us to not only have names but people who support writers in this industry.

7) What has the FSWA accomplished so far?
Like the FSTA, one thing that we’ve done is to help create discussion among people from different sites. It’s one place that a discussion can occur among sites of different sizes.

8) What was the impetus for the creation of the annual FSWA awards?
It was a no-brainer. There were no awards for individual writing categories. There were people contributing an incredible volume of content, but there was nothing to recognize it. We’re very happy to have a strong relationship with the FSTA (at whose winter business conference the award winners are announced), and we do what we can to give back to that relationship.

9) How integral have they become to the FSWA’s image and mission?
It’s one of the things we do. It’s probably recognized as the biggest thing we do as far as the members go. Certainly in the future we want to do more and more, but it’s our big show. It gets a lot of recognition inside and outside of the industry, and that’s good for us. By recognizing those in the industry, I think we have gotten people excited. I don’t think that people write to win awards, but it’s nice to get recognized for your work.

10) Please describe what goes into deciding the recipients.
First of all, [FSWA technical director] George Kerwood plays an important role in posting all of the entries to the site. He burns the candle at both ends to get everything set up for the judges. Same is true of the rest of the executive committee. This year we had more than 800 articles submitted, easily a record number. Last year, we had a record, and it was a little more than 500. After everything is in place and categorized it becomes a two-step judging process. Our board reviews all of the nominations, and the finalists are reviewed by an independent panel of judges (two college journalism professors and a longtime sports columnist at a major market newspaper).

We go to large measures to keep it anonymous, which is very difficult when you have a community like ours where many people are familiar with each other and their writing. But we do everything we can to keep this awards process honest. No names on the articles, no titles, and we scan through each article to identify and remove any site references. It’s a lot of work, but the contest continues to grow each year so it means it’s worth all of the effort.

(Note: Beacom also serves as the publisher of SportsBuff.com, part of the same company that owns this site.)

Company: Allstar Stats / Rotoworld.com / Sandbox.com (NBC Sports Fantasy Division)
Launch date: January 1, 1989 (Internet March 1995)
Became full-time operation: 1989
No. of employees: 10

This week we debut a new format for the business profiles, where one or more representatives of the company tell you about the operation via a Q&A format. This first edition draws together several businesses under the NBC Sports fantasy umbrella, with answers provided by Rick Wolf, director of business development for NBC Sports.

1) What was the impetus for the creation of Allstar Stats? What did it offer in its earliest stages?

Rich Pike and Mike Oliveto were high school friends and coworkers at Friendly’s restaurant in Thornwood, N.Y. In 1988, Oliveto worked as a developer at the Power Authority and Pike worked in marketing for online services CBS/IBM/Sears joint venture Prodigy. They played in a fantasy league and hated the reports. Oliveto took the data from the reports and generated better ones. The next year, they decided to run the business out of their parents’ house. Oliveto would do technology and Pike would focus on marketing. They bought a stats feed, bought ads in magazines and started running leagues.

The leagues came in very fast, so they bought hardware and worked long hours to make sure that their customers had the highest level of service and the best reports in the biz.

• In 1992, they added an IVR (interactive voice response) system so people could do transactions by phone.
• In 1995, they went on the Internet with an automated transaction system called the Evaluator.
• In 2002, they brought on Rick Wolf and his Full Moon Sports consulting company.
• In 2003, they hired Gregg Rosenthal as lead NFL writer.
• In 2004, they hired Rick Cordella, who wrote as a stringer to program Rotoworld.com. Cordella quickly became part of the management team and has carried the vision for Rotoworld.com from 2005 to today.

2) How did Rotoworld.com come about, and what has driven it to its current position in the industry?

Rotoworld.com was created as a news source for Allstar Stats leagues in 1998. Matthew Pouliot and Troy Beech approached the Allstar Stats owners with the idea of working for advertising money. Those four initially split all revenues for Rotoworld.com. In 2002, it became a destination site when Allstar spent money at a new design and Pike and Wolf developed our first online draft guides and Assistant GM products (now called Season Pass).

3) What kind of startup costs did each incur, and how did you come up with any necessary capital?

Pike and Oliveto started Allstar as a side job in 1989 and they quit their day jobs in 1990. They spent $10-15k on print ads the first year that they got back in signups in 1989.

4) Was there a big break, a specific occurrence, move or chain of actions that vaulted Rotoworld.com to its status as a leader in fantasy content?

Two moments: The first major moment is when Fox decides (in August 2003) to buy fantasy content instead of hiring writers. They pay us MUCH less than what they would pay a staff, but it allows us to invest EVERY dollar back into the site/personnel. It allows us to keep all our best people and extend technologically and content to achieve our leadership position, especially in content premiums.

The second major moment happens when Rotoworld.com takes a risk on an idea from Rick Cordella on how to maximize advertising on the site. In August 2004, Rotoworld.com begins to use ad networks to fill inventory that is not sold. An innovative method of using five to six ad networks at the same time results in triple the ad revenue for Rotoworld.com. Again, Pike and Oliveto are smart enough to pump it ALL back into Rotoworld.com and rebuild infrastructure of Sandbox/Allstar Stats, automating most of the two legacy sites.

5) How much of the revenue is connected to Rotoworld’s various deals to feed player updates? How many partners does the company have on that front?

Rotoworld.com has only a small number of clients (about a dozen). The content is also distributed to the 235 affiliates of NBC Sports.

6) How did the arrivals of Rick Wolf and Rick Cordella alter plans for or directions of the businesses?

Rick Wolf would never have played fantasy sports if it wasn’t for Rich Pike. In 1989, Pike, who played softball with Wolf, convince an owner in the Prodigy Rotisserie league to add Wolf as his partner since Wolf was on the development team for Baseball Manager, the first online fantasy baseball game. Wolf returned the favor in late 2001, by creating a set of suggestions for how to grow the Allstar Stats business, including private label games for media companies, Rotoworld.com as a destination site and content premiums. In January 2002, Wolf’s Full Moon company contracted with Allstar Stats in a heavily performance-based deal to raise top-line revenues.

Lost in the Allstar Stats success story is the impact of Rick Cordella. His advertising system innovation that tripled Rotoworld.com’s revenues starting in 2004 turns out to be the critical Allstar Stats/Rotoworld.com innovation since it drove high-margin revenue and set the stage for NBC’s involvement.

Most important is Cordella’s daily focus to quality, coupled with his ability to find, sign and most importantly retain great fantasy sports writers and understand what great sports content is. This is what makes Rotoworld.com continue to lead in fantasy news and premium content products.

7) How did the relationship with NBC generate?

NBC bought the rights for NFL football and wanted some contests and fantasy content for their soon-to-launch NBCSports.com. They called their old friend Brett Vandermark, who worked for the Arena Football League. Sandbox.com did the official Arena Football League games using an Allstar Stats engine and content from Rotoworld.com. VanderMark recommended Allstar Stats and Wolf, then acting chairman of Sandbox.com.

Allstar Stats execs worked with NBC Sports veteran Kevin Monaghan to create a partnership deal to produce games/content. At that time, NBC Universal became interested in owning it all to jumpstart its new NBCSports.com initiative. NBCU purchased Allstar Stats, Rotoworld.com and Sandbox.com on August 18, 2006.

8) What have been the biggest benefits of NBC’s acquisition of Allstar? If you could go back, is there anything you would do differently?

NBC brings a level of expertise, passion and economies of scale that taught us how to be better at what we do. They have shown a keen interest in the Rotoworld.com property as a breaking sports news property and continue to be very supportive of the premium content business. It really is a family.

As for what I would do differently, I believe you should never go back. Look ahead and the future is bright!

David Bowie said: “Things that happened in the past only happened in your mind. Forget your mind and you’ll be free.”

9) What examples can you point to of NBC’s commitment to the fantasy platform?

We had 30-second spots on preseason games. We have had integrated information in all telecasts and in every Football Night in America. We have been promoted in every type of NBC Sports telecast.

Most importantly, they include fantasy in EVERY discussion. NBC Sports simply gets it on all levels.

10) What can we expect to see from you guys going forward?

We will continue to innovate whether in content premiums, fantasy content and/or content strategies. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to speed of delivery and depth of coverage. We will continue to expand fantasy sports news to be thought of as sports news.

Company: Sideline Software Inc.
Launched: 1994
Site: www.myfantasyleague.com

Research shows that more than half of fantasy players don’t spend anything on their games. With so many free sites out there, why should anyone pay to play?

“To be honest, if you have a simple league with a standard set of rules and you’re looking for a minimal set of options, then you’ll probably be happy with a free league on Yahoo,” says Mike Hall, president of Sideline Software Inc. and owner of MyFantasyLeague.com. “But if your league is ready to graduate to a more complex set of scoring rules, then we have you covered. We focus on offering the most flexible and customizable fantasy football league management system available.”

Beyond the large group of people that simply play fantasy football for fun with their friends, we also know that there is a very large market of more serious players who aren’t afraid to open their wallets for their game. That’s the segment that this subscription-supported company targets.

MyFantasyLeague.com launched 14 years ago as a service that would allow fantasy-league commissioners to enter their league scoring rules and obtain weekly scoring summaries. Actually, it would be more accurate to say just “commissioner,” as Hall points out the MFL catered to a whopping one customer that first year.

Quickly thereafter, though, the site branched out to include full league-management capabilities, and it now touts itself as the most flexible system around. Whereas the free sites tend to limit your options for scoring, roster sizes, drafting and other features, MyFantasyLeague.com prides itself on allowing commissioners extensive control on everything from draft type to waiver settings to the display of the league’s homepage.

“We’ve always emphasized and targeted the hard core commissioners that really want full control of their league in every aspect with maximum flexibility,” Hall tells FSB.com.

Hall concedes that survival in a competitive market hasn’t always been easy, but the company has waded through waters rough and smooth and appears to be in good shape today.

“We’ve definitely experienced the ups and downs of the market forces, but we’ve held pretty steady through it all,” Hall says. “In the 1990s, it was a matter of getting your name out there in a crowded field of options. Then in the early part of this decade, it was a matter of surviving the massive switch in strategy from paid services to free sites. But in the end, after the dot-com flameout, we were able to stay ahead of the game by focusing on a quality, reliable and flexible site.”

The flexibility is extended by an API open to any third-party developers looking to build a tool that can assist MFL users. That avenue has yielded such programs as Lineup Coach and Draft Coach by FantasySharks.com and the MFL Power tools developed by FFToday.com. The Fantasy Sharks tools even led to a partnership between the sites.

“We were so impressed with [Tony Holm's] work that we integrated those tools into our site to make them easily accessible for all owners,” Hall says. “Last year we took it a step further by hiring Tony to continue integrating our two sites.”

The integration has brought Fantasy Sharks content and tools to the My Fantasy League platform, and Holm — founder and publisher of FantasySharks.com — says it adds a “true sense of league management” to his site.

“I’ve always considered My Fantasy League the premier league management service in the industry and also very much like how the company fits in the landscape,” Holm says. “To me, it was a no-brainer to join the team and contribute my experiences to help build the business and hopefully create some unique and useful offerings for the fantasy football community.”

MFL also integrated the fantasy football leagues from StatsWorld into its system for this season, keeping all existing league information and settings intact.

“The StatsWorld acquisition worked out very well for us and for their customers,” Hall says. “We were able to transfer all of their league settings and options directly into our system, so it was as transparent and smooth as possible for their customers to switch over to MyFantasyLeague.com.”

(For those of you you might have arrived late to the FSB party, here’s another chance to get acquainted with the first business we profiled.)

Company: Advanced Sports Media LLC
Sites: www.draftanalyzer.com and www.playersearch.com
Founder and CEO: Ted Kasten
Launched: 2004
Full time: 2004

Back in 2004, Ted Kasten believed the fantasy football marketplace needed a better draft companion than the “static and outdated rankings provided by magazines,” at least according to the company bio at draftanalyzer.com. To fill the void, he developed Draft Analyzer and launched Draft Dynamix, which now resides under the umbrella of Advanced Sports Media.

The plan that started the whole venture, though, began to form at least two years earlier.

“I began designing the Draft Analyzer prototype as a fun side project on nights and weekends in 2002, when I needed help as a commissioner tracking everyone’s draft picks,” Kasten says.

As those of us who play fantasy sports - or video games, for that matter - well know, it takes folks with such a geek streak to come up the innovations that enhance our games. Kasten’s fun, self-serving side project quickly started to grow.

After beginning with just the draft tracker, he says, he continued to add features that took the platform from merely keeping up with picks to helping him build a better team. Those features include the ability to draw in and combine rankings from various online fantasy-content providers into printable cheat sheets.

The Analyzer also carries a proprietary player-recommendation engine, for which Kasten submitted a federal patent application before launching his business. (Maybe I could explain the algorithmic workings of that tool if I hadn’t skipped out on math classes in college.) Once Kasten had Draft Analyzer build, he headed for the March 2004 Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference, a move he said was crucial to starting and growing his business.

I left the conference with three key partnerships, a better understanding of the fantasy sports market and the confidence that I could be a leader in this critical market niche,” Kasten says. “I became a staple at the FSTA conferences and had a booth showing my software every time. All of my partnerships have come from meeting people at the FSTA conference.

From there, Kasten has licensed his product to five of the top six fantasy football league-hosting sites - including ESPN and CBS Sports - and taken home two industry awards. Draft Analyzer claimed the FSTA’s Best Draft Assistance Tool prize in 2005 and 2007, and the player-recommendation engine was a finalist for best innovation in 2005.

With Draft Analyzer plugging along, Draft Dynamix became Advanced Sports Media in February of this year, the same time that it launched PlayerSearch.

“It took forever to dig through numerous websites to find the latest information on individual players,” Kasten says of his motivation to create a search tool. “There is an enormous amount of great sports content sites, and more and more of them are offering everything for free. We are simply trying to bring all of the great sports content to the surface of the Web, much like Google has for general search.”

PlayerSearch.com does just what it says, gathering news, video, blog posts and the like that relate to a particular athlete and grouping the links in categories national news sources, local video and podcasts.

“We are not trying to create another sports portal. That has been done,” Kasten says. “All of our links take users to the original article or video, so the publisher gets full credit for their work. The ultimate goal of PlayerSearch is to make it quick and easy to access the best sports content on the Web.”

In addition to its free-standing site, PlayerSearch offers a widget that can be picked up by other sites. SportsBuff.com, which is part of the same company that owns this site, is among those that carry the widget.