Wednesday, January 7

Buying Fake Stuff for Real

The Hartford Courant profiles PageFad, a company that enables you to create competitve sports teams composed of your online friends. More significantly, though, the article offers a primer on the virtual-goods market, which is still young but reportedly growing.

PFW in Your Pocket

Pro Football Weekly, one of the most respected football publications on the market, is debuting a mobile site this playoff season. Life keeps getting better for the fantasy player on the go.

Professorial Fantasy

How far can we take this fantasy concept? How about putting together your own team of law professors?

Monday, January 5

In Search of Counsel

The Fantasy Sports Counselor is looking to add writers, particularly those with competence outside the mainstream fantasy areas of football and baseball.

Thursday, January 1

Use Fantasy to Draw in Your Consumer

STATS executive vice president Steve Byrd says that companies are beginning to learn how to “leverage their brand and interact with their customers using unique sports content and games.”

Wednesday, December 31

What if You Could Actually Talk Your Smack?

John Hermansen of Global IP Solutions thinks that the fantasy league experience would benefit from the addition of voice over IP capabilities.

Tuesday, December 30

Bike Fans Get Their Fantasy, Too

Not only is there an outlet for you to play fantasy supercross, but you can win an actual race-used bike.

Friday, December 26

Ideas for Coping with Fantasy Withdrawal

As we all deal with the end of fantasy football season, the Fantasy Football Librarian suggests scouting next year’s rookies during the bowl games. She also is putting together a league in the NFL.com playoff fantasy contest. Guess some of us simply can’t let the season go …

Monday, December 22

FSTA Announces Agenda

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has posted the agenda for its upcoming winter business conference online, including the roster of panel participants.

Want a Fantasy Site?

MonsterDraft.com, which launched in April 2006 and is part of the Fantasy Players Network, is up for sale.

No Surprise: Fantasy on the Rise

The Game On! guys at USAToday.com report that Nielsen says the 11.6 million unique visitors that sought fantasy content over the past year could double over the next five years.

Saturday, December 20

Get Your Kicks

Soccer Lens ranks its top five fantasy “football” (European division) providers for 2008. ESPN makes the cut, while the rest reside across the pond.

Thursday, December 18

Driving Under the Influence?

Whereas home runs have dipped in baseball since drug testing tightened, it’s tough to imagine much of a change in performance by NASCAR drivers because of stricter drug screening. Starting in the 2009, 12 to 14 drivers are expected to be tested randomly every race weekend.

Wednesday, December 17

Express Lane to Knowledge

The Fantasy Man wants his new site, FantasyPlayersExpress.com, to serve as a fantasy player social network and repository for fantasy-related information and analysis.

New Stock Game Opens Up the Market

kaChing seeks to use open-source principles and social networking to allow users to follow the investment practices of more accomplished users. It’s fantasy expertise for the stock-trading players.

Keep on Playing

Anyone who’s not ready for fantasy football season to come to a close just yet can start a playoff league on MyFantasyLeague.com for free.

Tuesday, December 16

Who Cares Who’s Coaching?

ESPN’s Eric Karabell says coaching changes don’t alter fantasy fortunes, at least in basketball.

Fantasy Sports Ventures’ Reach Keeps Growing

Fantasy Sports Ventures’ Fantasy Players Network reached 10 million unique visitors in November, according to a recently released report by Nielsen. That placed the network of 350 sports sites sixth among online sports properties for the month and kept up a tremendous growth rate that far outpaces the rest of the top 10.

RotoExperts Acquires Software Developer

RotoExperts announced Tuesday that it has purchased Diamond Draft Software, a 7-year-old company centered on fantasy baseball drafting software. RotoExperts will rebrand its current draft software, Xpert’s Edge, to carry the Diamond Draft name and will continue to serve current Diamond Draft subscribers.

Rewind the NFL Action

Fantasy players who want to get deeper into scouting Maurice Jones-Drew’s new life as a receiver, look back over Joe Flacco’s throwing motion to project what will come in his second season or simply relish Andre Johnson’s 200-yard day can pay $20 to be able to play back the whole season on their computers. If you just want a particular week, you can get that for $5.

Arena League Benched for a Year

The Arena Football League announced Monday that its board of directors has voted to suspend play for the 2009 season. The move is pending player approval, but many involved with the league have reportedly begun to scramble to secure other employment.

Monday December 15

How Del Grande is Your College Knowledge?

Dave Del Grande is hosting his own college-bowl competition. Although he refers to it as “fantasy,” it looks more like a pick ‘em contest, at least at the outset. Still, though, he’s Dave Del Grande — Mr. Fantasy.

Recession-Proof

Among the predictions made by sports marketing veteran Glenn Horine in this Sports Business Journal column is the following: “Look for an uptick in consumer electronic expenditures as stay-at-home fans enhance the home entertainment experience. Young and old will spend more discretionary time with social media outlets and fantasy sports. It’s affordable, entertaining, and a connection vehicle for friends and family.” Add him to the list of those who think sports to be recession-proof.

Sunday, December 14

Switching Over

The Charlotte Observer has yet another story of women who have embraced the game (fantasy football) that could otherwise alienate them from husbands or boyfriends.

Liberty Media Splits Stock

Liberty Media’s Board of Directors Friday approved a spin-off of its entertainment properties, including 52 percent of DirecTV and 100 percent of Fun Technologies Inc. (owner of Fanball and CDM), into a new stock for trading purposes. Liberty feels that its assets are under-valued and breaking them apart will demonstrate the value to the market. The new combined entity will continue to be the obligor for $2 billion in debt accumulated by Liberty Media and associated with these entities.

Saturday, December 13

Fantasy Sports Ventures Dives into College Basketball

Bob Knight and Billy Packer will be featured on a new website by Fantasy Sports Ventures, set to launch in mid-February. In addition to content, the site will reportedly feature a bracket game.

Fantasy Sports Live Likes Competition

One of the founders of Fantasy Sports Live believes that the entry of bigger-budget players into the daily/weekly fantasy genre can actually help FSL look even better. Specifically, the blogger says the latest “imitation” — see if you can guess what the new game is — falls short.

Friday, December 12

Gifts for the Fantasy Player

Jim Nguyen of Fantasy Sports 2.0 has some ideas for the fantasy geek on your holiday shopping list.

Thursday, December 11

Fantasy Fishing Grows Prize Pool

FLW Fantasy Fishing is increasing its total award purse from $7.3 million to $10 million in the second year of its game. The competition is also adding a couple of multimillion-dollar “exacta” prizes that will go to any contestants who can correctly predict a series of top finishers in two select tournaments. The top prize for the season will still be $1 million.

Looking for Money

As colleges and universities look for additional fund-raising opportunities amid a stumbling economy, one panel at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum on Wednesday discussed the possibility of revenue-producing fantasy leagues. (Scroll down.) Knight Commission executive director Amy Perko stuck to her stance that fantasy has no business being in college. Nothing new appears to have come from the debate, but it’s interesting that such discussion is even going on.

Wednesday, December 10

Holidays Keep Coming Earlier

FanSoft Media expects to release the 2009 version of its FanDraft baseball product in December — ahead of its usual January release.

NHL Troubled by Economy

The global economic downturn could impact the National Hockey League more heavily than other major American sports leagues, largely because of the lack of a solid television contract and the weakness of the Canadian dollar.

Roto Golfing

This columnist in California has found fantasy golf lacking and wants to play with rotisserie scoring.

Kokomo, That’s Where We Want to Go

Trying to figure out where everyone in your league should gather for your draft next year? How about Aruba?

Tuesday, December 9

Giving a Reason to Click

eROI offers a look at how it developed content e-mails for CBSSports.com (free download) and how important such a tool can be.

Sherpa Cuts His Own Path

Once you get past a couple of other folks in far less interesting industries, this New York Post story tells a bit about how Scott Swanay rebounded from two corporate merger-driven layoffs to develop his Fantasy Sherpa sites (baseball and football to date, with basketball and hockey in the works).

Monday, December 8

Baseball Digest Coming Online

Baseball Digest, which touts itself as “the oldest continuously published baseball magazine” in the country, is finally making its way to the Internet. The site is set for a March 1 launch. Excited readers of the magazine can head to the already established domain to sign up for an RSS or e-mail feed.

Survey Finds Web Users Increasingly Confident in Skills

A study by the Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California found that 78 percent of Internet users consider their online skills to be “good” or “excellent.” That is way up from 44 percent the last time the study was done, in 2000. More savvy surfers should make it easier for online advertisers to execute their campaigns and enhance the likelihood that smaller sites with quality content but little name recognition will find an audience.

Friday, December 5

Ranking the Rankings — a Preview

The Fantasy Football Librarian is taking an early peek at the accuracy of fantasy football site player rankings as part of her accuracy award project (in conjunction with the FSTA). The Fifth Down blog post gets into the top early performers in the running back category, but she promises to go deeper in her regular blog.

Thursday, December 4

Watching Football at a Bar Comes with Rules

Esquire columnist Peter Schrager says to shut up about your fantasy teams (and other things) if you’re watching football in public. Lower in the column, Darren Rovell says the tough economy is rendering all football players virtually unmarketable and threatening to wipe out lavish Super Bowl-week parties. The horror.

Wednesday, December 3

What Should You Pick Up in Fantasy Downtime

You know it’s coming. The gap between the end of football season and the beginning of baseball presents a lull for many a fantasy player. The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino offers some ways to feed your fantasy hunger before Mike Hampton’s next failed comeback. There are plenty of intriguing options, but I feel compelled to say don’t overlook the “spending time with your family” plan. They miss you.

Fantasy Hoops Reaches the Middle East

Meet Yossi Tamari, an Israeli software engineer who can’t get enough fantasy NBA.

Monday, December 1

Fantasy Sports Still New to India

This view of fantasy sports in India is pretty superficial, but it’s still interesting to read about the status our games carry in other countries and what matters to foreign consumers. For instance, NFL football is mentioned among the available fantasy sports, but only after cricket, soccer and Formula One racing.

Fantasy Farming

Just click here to learn about the Fantasy Farming Beef League. Yeah, seriously.

Man, That’s Just Stupid

The Fantasy Sports Forum blog rounds up and rates some of the stupidest actions among current NFL players.

On ESPN, ‘Monday Night’ Lasts All Day

As Houston prepares for the Texans to make their first even Monday Night Football appearance, the Houston Chronicle breaks down the multi-platform approach that ESPN now applies to the final NFL game of the week.

Monday, November 24

Being a Fantasy Writer

This somewhat lengthy Q&A with Sportsnet.ca fantasy hockey writer Chris Nichols touches on topics that could apply to writers of any sport.

Meet Boris Silver

Most college students are merely trying to gather the skills and knowledge that will one day lead to professional success. Boris Silver developed Sport Interactiva, a purveyor of sports-related Facebook applications, and recently sold it to Citizen Sports. Wonder what he’ll do after he graduates.

Saturday, November 22

No Fantasy on MLB Net

When Major League Baseball’s 24-hour television network launches on Jan. 1, it will include no regular fantasy content.

Don’t Forget the Guy Who Calls the Plays

In a guest turn for USA Today, Sports Data Hub’s Kevin Goodfellow tells fantasy football players to pay attention to the tendencies of certain coaches.

Fantasy in the Field

Fantasy football helps to serve as a distraction, pastime and chance to build camaraderie for many soldiers serving overseas. Making sure that your lineup is up to date, however, can be a bit of a challenge.

Friday, November 21

Missing a Friend

Even if you’ve never heard of Tom Borrelli before, this is a touching tribute to the former Buffalo News writer who died at 51 this week after a fall left him paralyzed. Among his duties at the News was a regular fantasy column.

Thursday, November 20

If You Can Join ‘Em, Beat ‘Em

Canadian Tricia Jonker might be representative of a growing number of female fantasy players, who are joining and beating their male counterparts. The Toronto Globe and Mail even found our own Jeff Thomas for a quote.

Yahoo Fantasy Show Leads the Way

According to Yahoo, it’s “Fantasy Football Live” is the most-watched live show on the Web, getting streamed as many as 250,000 times a week.

Fun with Government

The Obama administration has already begun tapping Cabinet members, so you’re running out of time to show off your predictive ability in the Fantasy Cabinet competition.

Wednesday, November 19

Here to Serve

Here’s a look at how Open Sports is being powered. I’d explain more about it, but I don’t know what the heck any of it means.

Manage Your Real Fantasy Anger

Author Drew Magary offers four outlets to help control the anger induced by fantasy sports. I’m a regular practitioner of the being-surly-at-work method.

Monday, November 17

Driving Revenue Through the Wickets

Live Current Media is reporting record third-quarter earnings for this year, and its cricket-related ventures seem to be prominently involved. Though the sport remains a bit of an oddity to most Americans, cricket enjoys a tremendous international presence.

Fantasy Winnings Put Food on the Table

Your championship pot is not long for your bank account.

Sunday, November 16

New Fantasy iPhone App

November seems like an odd team to release a fantasy football product, but iLove Fantasy Football ‘08 is now out for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The application is powered by Fandora’s Box, The Sports Xchange and PA SportsTicker.

Fantasy, It’s Big

Blogger Jon Haber offers another view of the burgeoning fantasy sports industry. So does Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. (Although, the annual growth rate is misidentified in the second. It should be about 25 percent a year over the past five years, as we’ve reported here before.)

Fantasy in India

Latha Iyer sees potential for fantasy sports and sports-themed social networking in India. That’s why she founded Presino.

Thursday, November 13

Tips for Racing Success

It’s never too early to start seeking out advice for your 2009 F1 racing fantasy squad.

MLB Network Adds to Roster

Major League Baseball’s official network, set to launch with the dawn of 2009, has added former major leaguers Harold Reynolds and Al Leiter as analysts and Trenni Kusnierek and Hazel Mae as reporters.

Wednesday, November 12

The Future of Fantasy

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has turned his sports business blog over to a guest host while on vacation, and the guest recently chatted with RotoHog CEO Kelly Perdew about the future of fantasy sports.

What’s Wrong with Fantasy High School Sports?

Two years after his newspaper met controversy with its foray into fantasy prep sports, this columnist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette News still sees no issue with the fantasy high school game.

Tuesday, November 11

Boss on the iPhone

BaseballBoss.com is now offering its game via the iPhone. The online competition uses virtual baseball cards to simulate baseball games.

NBA Teams Could be More Social

Sports business blogger Jason Peck says he’s surprised to find just four NBA teams on Twitter.

Home Boys vs. Fantasy Joy

This Staten Island Advance columnist makes a case for rooting against your favorite real team if enough money is on the line in your fantasy league. I can’t get behind the idea, though, although we all know the pangs that come with watching your team shut down your quarterback.

Friday, November 7

Just for Kicks

Sure, you might control whether Deron Williams or Orlando Hudson starts for your made-up team that’s named after your dog, but a bunch of soccer fans own and run their own British “football” club.

Silver is Gold

We’re all sports and/or stats geeks here, and Nate Silver just might be our king.

Thursday, November 6

PASPN.net Gets Play in Journal

Ngozika Nwaneri’s unique fantasy GM basketball game gets the focus of The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino this week.

Wednesday, November 5

Obama Promises to Improve Fantasy Football

Among his first stated goals as president-elect, Barack Obama has vowed to hold fantasy football sites more accountable for their poor predictions.

Tuesday, November 4

Devil of a Fantasy Issue

It’s not exactly Tom Brady tearing up his knee in Week 1, but the expected monthslong absence of New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur could be quite impactful for fantasy hockey players. Both of them. (Sorry.)

Monday, November 3

More Bad News for Online Ad Market

The online forecasting team at J.P. Morgan has lowered expectations for online advertising for the second time in two months. The struggling economy was blamed, but the team emphasized that this could be the last downgrade for a while.

Sunday, November 2

The Endorsement That Matters

After long months of consideration, Fantasy Baseball Dugout has thrown its considerable political weight behind Barack Obama. I had no radar gun trained on Obama’s ceremonial first pitch from the accompanying pitcher, but it’s apparent from the southpaw’s motion that he throws harder than Jamie Moyer.

Fantasy Helps the NFL

Football season tends to bring out the old, stodgy contingent of newspaper sports columnists who love to say that fantasy is killing football because this 23-year-old guy they know roots for both Tony Romo and Plaxico Burress on a given Sunday. Appalling! Fortunately, this columnist for the Eagle Tribune gets it.

Friday, October 31

Sports Video Analysis for the Masses

Match Analysis Inc. wants to take the sports video service it has been selling to teams for analytical purposes and market it for public consumption. Our own Jeff Thomas believes the company could find a market.

Fantasy Football Revival

The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino applies the tools available via Accuscore and Sports Data Hub in hopes of resuscitating a 1-7, last-place fantasy football team.

Thursday, October 30

Buy a Share of a Pro Team

iTeam Sports purports to offer fans a chance to buy stakes in various professional sports teams, using a system similar to how one becomse a shareholder in a large corporation.

Senators Call for NFL Programming Changes

Thirteen U.S. senators have sent a letter to the league, criticizing its restriction of a slate of games on NFL Network. The current plan is to simulcast the weekly NFL Network games — which begin Thursday, Nov. 6 — on network television in the home markets of the teams involved. The senate letter calls for an extension to the national audience, as the NFL did with the Week 17 Giants-Patriots meeting last year.

NBA Online Package Now Separately Available

The league announced Wednesday that it will now offer the online component of the NBA League Pass programming package as a standalone product. The plan ($84.95 for the season), which provides broadcasts of out-of-market games, was previously only available as part of the League Pass television package.

Distance Running, the Way it Should be Enjoyed

Toyota and the New York City Marathon have teamed up to offer a fantasy contest that will give winners a chance at a free Prius. All you have to do is correctly predict the top three finishers from the men’s and women’s fields … among the thousands of entrants. Fortunately, the site boils it down to 10 athletes in each group. For those of us who believe a sport should not be derived from an activity that coaches in other sports use as punishment, this is the only way to participate in distance running.

Wednesday, October 29

Fantasizing the Election

One Associated Press sports writer tells about how he and a group of friends/colleagues have turned the upcoming election into a fantasy competition, complete with auction draft. Of course, seeing as how at least one participant is a sports writer, the prize is free food.

Tuesday, October 28

SN Baseball Guide Wants You

Sporting News is looking for reader questions to be included in next season’s fantasy baseball yearbook. Submissions should be made within the next month, as the guide goes to press in early December. Those whose questions are chosen will be mailed a free copy … and get their question answered in pring by the SN fantasy folks.

Subtracting Ad Networks

The number of online ad networks has skyrocketed over the past few years, but The Wall Street Journal reports that the economy’s downturn is expected to thin the market. Be careful about who you choose to handle your site’s advertising.

Dime Sports Offers Midseason Game

The site is taking registrations until next Tuesday (Nov. 2) for its $29.99 midseason salary cap game with a $10,000 top prize.

Monday, October 27

FSTA Award Nominations Open

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is now taking nominations for its slate of annual industry awards. Nominations must be submitted by Nov. 21, and voting will take place from Dec. 10 to the end of the year. Winners will be announced at the winter business conference on January 27-28. Nominees/winners must be members of the association.

Online Advertising Could Stay Strong

While acknowledging plenty of negative forecasts and conceding that its numbers could trend high in light of the economic changes since the studies, eMarketer projects that online ad sales will continue to grow at strong rates for this year and next.

A Ranking Canadian

KFFL’s Bryce McRae introduces himself as the site’s newest managing editor.

College Fantasy Still Up for NCAA Debate

Although it doesn’t appear that anything new came up, the NCAA’s Knight Commission continued to discuss the impact of fantasy college football Monday, particularly in relation to the question of whether to pay players at all. Of course, everyone involved still seems to be confused about what athletes are actually entitled for their inclusion in fantasy games. Will the Steelers’ Mewelde Moore see a dime for becoming one of the hottest waiver-wire picksup of this NFL season? Nope.

How Do You Stack Up?

Real Time Sports has begun posting a set of National Fantasy Football Rankings, combining the number of leagues in which users participate and their performance to figure out who’s faring best among RTS fantasy players. The current leader “Troy R.” sits in first place in eight leagues and second in seven others. Not bad.

Saturday, October 25

Lions Fans Won’t See Team Locally

For the first time since the team moved to Ford Field in 2002, Detroit Lions fans within the local market will not be able to see their team on TV this weekend. The team failed to get an extension from the league to sell 5,000 remaining seats for Sunday’s matchup with Washington to avoid the blackout.

Friday, October 24

B2B Marketers Spend in Familiar Ways

Everyone claims interest in the new attractions of social media and Web 2.0, but 60 percent of business-to-business marketers still say they prefer more traditional methods in their actual practice, according to a survey by Forrester Research.

Nielsen Moves Toward Online Accreditation

Nielsen Online announced that is has completed a Media Rating Council audit, which reportedly is a significant step in its race with comScore to become the first accredited service for Web audience ratings.

Fantasy Football Parlay

BetAmerica.com is tying fantasy football into a new contest by having bettors select individual players in a parlay format with winning teams.

Thursday, October 23

Bust Pitchers Around

Fantasy baseball players who drafted one of these 20 pitchers probably don’t have to be told that they were among the year’s biggest busts.

Online Community Growing Steadily

According to eMarketer, 63.4 percent of Americans use the internet at least once per month. That’s up from 62 percent last year and due to hit 70 percent around 2014. Graphs within the article show different estimates from other companies.

Democratic Fantasy Football

According to Rick Reilly, Barack Obama knew a thing or two about picking fantasy players for Week 6.

Tuesday, October 21

Yahoo Expected to Cut Thousands of Ad Jobs

The downturn in online display ad sales is leading industry analysts to project that Yahoo will have to cut 12,000 jobs, probably in the ad sales department.

Monday, October 20

Play Free on MFL the Rest of the Way

Anyone who wants to start a football league at MyFantasyLeague.com now that the season is nearly half over won’t have to pay.

Younger Adults Not Watching As Much TV

Anyone worried about their ad sales because of the post below this one can take heart in the fact that 18-to-29-year-olds are watching TV less often than the older age groups. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that just 58 percent of respondents to their study within that age group say they watch TV almost every day. Compare that with 72 percent of people in the 30-49 age bracket, 80 percent of those ages 50 to 64 and 89 percent of folks 65 or older, and it becomes apparent that advertisers seeking the young crowd need to look online pretty seriously.

Economic Downturn Could Deflate Web 2.0 Bubble

Advertising executives warn than the slowing global economy could negatively impact the new generation of Web startups that have been anticipating ad support, particularly limiting free site features or turning them into pay services.

NFL Labor Issues Continue to Linger

SI.com’s Peter King sees signs of collective bargaining trouble in the new contract the Cowboys gave WR Roy Williams over the weekend, which is only the latest example of worry over the NFL’s labor situation. Any stoppage in play in 2011 (or any other year) would quite likely have an enormous and potentially lengthy impact on the fantasy industry, which counts football as its overwhelming leader.

Fantasy Sports Ventures Gets Traffic Boost

Fantasy Sports Ventures ranked fourth in September among comScore’s top 10 gainers by percentage change in unique visitors over August. FSV reportedly saw a 48 percent increase in unique visitors to its site, ranking behind only Technorati, ABC.com and ManiaTV.com in comScore’s list.

Saturday, October 18

Fanball Brings Basketball to iPhone

Fanball.com Fantasy Basketball Draft 2008 says its the first such basketball application for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The application includes cheat sheets, allows users to track opposing teams in the draft and provides player information and analysis via Fanball-owned Owner’s Edge. The app costs $1.99.

Friday, October 17

Fantasy Football As a Teaching Tool

The math department of one Massachusetts high school uses fantasy football to reach a section of students who could otherwise be especially tough to reach.

Thursday, October 16

A Fantasy Life

Paul Bruno, Canada’s “The Stats Man,” is living the dream that I think we all probably carried with us into the fantasy sports industry.

Impossible to Marginalize Bloggers at This Point

A recent study by Technorati finds that blogs are increasingly adapting into the mainstream of media coverage, while more traditional mainstream sources are increasing their blog profiles. Although the eMarketer article makes no specific mention of sports, I think we all know that this is a primary zone for such phenomena.

iPhone Going Strong

iPhone sales continue to increase despite recent new product releases meant to challenge the Apple product. That should be good news for those fantasy companies developing and releasing iPhone applications.

The New Era of Sports Marketing

The Sports Marketing 2.0 Summit will take place in New York City this weekend. Here’s a video summary of the event. Registered members of the sports marketing group include our own Jeff Thomas, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, and chairman Rick Wolf (NBC Sports/Rotoworld) and president Greg Ambrosius (Krause Publications) of the Fantasy Sports Association.

Wednesday, October 15

College Football Folks Get an iPhone App

Fandora’s Box announced today the release of “iLove College Football 2008,” an application designed to help customers track scores and stats every Saturday via their iPhone or iPod Touch. The service is also supported by PA SportsTicker and The Sports Xchange, and should certainly cater to the growing audience of fantasy college football players.

FF Starters to Stream Radio Show

FantasyFootballStarters.com announced today that it will stream its weekly radio show, “The Red Zone,” live via its website, beginning this week. Surprisingly, the press release doesn’t mention the time or date of the show, but the site says it’s on “Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.”

Online Ad Prices Falling

A report by PubMatic says that third-quarter prices for online display ads were the lowest of the year so far, continuing a downward trend, according to MediaPost. The company’s survey also finds that “Small sites continue to monetize their inventory better than large sites, especially as it relates to advertising networks,” according to PubMatic president Rajeev Goel.

Sports Calendar Packed Right Now

The Chicago Tribune points out that sports fans can select from a veritable buffet of offerings at this time of year — from NFL games to baseball playoffs and the opening of hockey and basketball seasons — and seeks perspective from nine individuals of varying viewpoints.

6 Reasons to Play Fantasy Basketball

Why should you join a fantasy NBA league? This blogger offers six reasons. Of course, the downside is that you have to follow the NBA. (Just kidding … kinda …)

NCAA Graduation Rates Reach Record Level

College athletes are graduating at the highest rate ever and more frequently than their non-athlete classmates, according to a report this week from the NCAA. Of course, I pass this along here because we all know the trend is about to reverse now that fantasy college football is killing amateurism.

Madden Takes a Break

Cris Collinsworth will sit in for John Madden as the color analyst for the Week 7 Sunday night contest between Seattle and Tampa Bay in Tampa. NBC’s Dick Ebersol says he offered Madden the week off as a way of resting his “best player,” saving the no-fly analyst from an extra cross-country bus trip. The Sunday night crew was in Jacksonville for Week 5 and San Diego in Week 6.

Tuesday, October 14

Merton Hanks Not Too Bad at Fantasy

Those of you who thought the former Niners defensive back was little more than a freakishly long neck of silly putty might be surprised to learn that the current league employee is apparently pretty decent at fantasy football. He was among the few who drafted Denver’s Eddie Royal and then turned him and Ryan Grant into LaDainian Tomlinson.

Monday, October 13

Make Sure Your Video Delivers

Mediapost offers three keys to producing and presenting original online video successfully. Included is this helpful metric: “In our experience, the minimum standard for delivery is 97% error-free multimedia performance. Anything less represents a risk of angry or lost customers.”

What’s Going Online?

Sports Business Journal (subscription) takes a broad look at what some of the big boys in online sports are doing to grab a bigger share of the audience these days, as well as the role of advertising and sponsorships.

Economy’s Weak, but Fantasy’s Strong

Amid a wide-ranging chat session with seven executives from leading online media companies, NBC Sports’ Perkins Miller and the NFL’s Brian Rolapp mention the strength of the fantasy sports market (subscription, scroll down) and discuss some of their focus on growth in that area.

NBA Continues to Build China Presence

The league has reached a deal to help build 12 arenas throughout China, which continues to look like a much hungrier market for professional basketball than the United States is.

Sunday, October 12

A Class by Himself

The first 20-win season of Mike Mussina’s career was good enough to make him the only 2008 enshrinee in the Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame.

Friday, October 10

That’s a Wicked Googly

As we all well know, the second week of October brought with it the India-Australia cricket series. Cricket.com, a fantasy cricket site that promises to soon tailor its game to mobile users and social networks, chose to launch at the same time.

Hockey’s Still Around?

Just kidding. Amid a manifesto on why you should try fantasy hockey, The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino says that the NHL has avoided the path of challenging the rights of fantasy providers and is instead embracing the games. Of course, the NFL and Major League Baseball also offer fantasy games and content through their league websites.

Cool, but Not Fantasy

The new Front Office Manager simulation game from 2k Sports sounds pretty cool, and if I could still make time for video games, I’d probably be buying it. However, although many of the features figure to appeal to baseball fans in the same way that the fantasy game does, it’s not really fantasy baseball.

You Can Reach Me on Facebook

A September study by Opinion Research Corp. found that nearly 60 percent of social media users interact with companies on those sites and that about 85 percent of users have no problem with companies seeking them out via the social medium. “Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” Mike Hollywood, director of new media at Cone Inc. — which commissioned the study — said in a statement, according to eMarketer.com. “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”

Thursday, October 9

Playoffs?!? I’m Just Trying to Win a Fantasy Football Game

Phillies’ ace Cole Hamels is just one of many Major League Baseballl players who enjoys playing fantasy football.

Playing Through the TV

Some cable customers in the Kansas City market just got some new interactive features added to their coverage, including the ability to play track some fantasy football through their television.

Wednesday, October 8

Stats Dispute Needs Ultimate Resolution

Lawyer and law professor Marc Edelman, creator of SportsJudge.com, told a gathering of lawyers Tuesday night, “The Supreme Court really needs to hear one of these cases, because we’re going to see a lot more of them.” He was speaking, of course, of the lawsuits between fantasy sports providers and the professional leagues over rights to statistics and player names.

Online Ad Sales Strong in Weak Economy

Despite the well-publicized troubles of our economy, internet advertising grew by 15.2 percent in the first half of this year over the same period in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Tuesday, October 7

PlayerSearch Fights in Open-Source Battle

Ted Kasten’s PlayerSearch is one of 10 finalists in the BOSS Mashable Challenge for Web developers. The competition challenges developers to build the best application on the Yahoo! Search BOSS application programming interface (API). Anyone can participate in voting, which is slated to end Sunday (Oct. 12). The winner gets $2,000 and a feature article on Mashable.com. The runner-up gets $1,000. Kasten is the founder and CEO of Advanced Sports Media, which also encompasses DraftAnalyzer.com.

Young Men Really Love the Internet

A study commissioned by Break Media found that 70 percent of men age 18 to 34 would rather give up television than the internet and that 26 percent would rather surf the Web than have sex. Of particular interest to potential advertisers could be that nearly half of the respondents in that age range spend at least 22 hours a week online and about the same number have made a purchase after seeing the item in an online ad.

Monday, October 6

MLBAM, Boingo Combine for Playoff Coverage

Major League Baseball Advanced Media and Boingo have reached a deal to carry live footage of some playoff games to mobile customers at select U.S. airports. Boingo customers will be able to buy a four-hour pass which will allow them to watch American League Championship Series games and old contests from the archives.

‘Women Are a Different Story’

Yahoo Sports’ Ashley Russell tells Men’s Fitness about draft-night fights that nearly had to move outside and encourages guys to involve their significant others in fantasy football leagues.

New Ad Formats Not Necessarily Better

A study by Montreal-based iPerceptions found that online consumers respond better to text ads than display, and that those most likely to click through ads are actually the less-affluent Web surfers.

Global Brands Taking Advantage of Social Networks

Top-name brand advertisers are finding new ways to market their products via social networking sites, such as driving consumer conversations about the products. Although many companies within the fantasy sports industry don’t have the wherewithal to approach the market the way that Coca-Cola or UPS do, there it’s certainly possible to derive a lesson or two on marketing your product. Those sites that offer social-networking applications could get an idea of how to approach potential advertisers about the opportunities available.

Whither the NHL?

A pair of Hartford Courant reporters debate the merits and value of the NHL following the opening of the season. Hartford, of course, was once home to the Whalers (who are now the Carolina Hurricanes) and stands as a prime example of the league’s misguided business plans — the swiping of a franchise from its traditional home in an area of the country that actually likes hockey in search of larger coffers and a region that thrives on college football and basketball.

Sunday, October 5

Gas Prices Hurting College Sports

The New York Times reports on the various effects high gas prices are having on collegiate athletics. Budgets are being stretched so thin that there’s concern about some sports having to be eliminated. The most noticeable potential change on the national scene could be increased time between the announcement of playoff tournament brackets and the start of play. Such an alteration would allow schools more time to shop for cheaper flights. If it were to be implemented for the Division I men’s basketball tournament, it could also mean more than three full days for us to fill out our brackets.

Thursday, October 2

New FSTA Newsletter

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has released the first issue of its new newsletter, “FSTA Frontline.”

RotoHog Wants to Take Bartman to a Game

RotoHog has offered Steve Bartman $100,000 to attend a potential Game 5 in the Cubs-Dodgers National League Division Series. For anyone who was living in a cave in 2003, Bartman was the unfortunate Cubs fan who got in the way of leftfielder Moises Alou on a foul ball into the stands. Despite the words about trying to give Bartman his life back, this is obviously no more than a marketing gimmick. Interesting, nonetheless.

How Would the Players Do It?

The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino gives an inside look at the NFL PLAYERS fantasy league that has been mentioned a few times on this site, starting with Maurice Jones-Drew drafting himself first overall. (Good, now he can be as angry about his crappy fantasy season as the rest of us.)

iPhone App Development No Longer a Secret

Apple has decided to drop the nondisclosure agreement it had been requiring for companies developing iPhone applications. Critics of the restriction said it kept developers from communicating to avoid and resolve common issues, so the change should smooth the development process a bit going forward. The move was likely spurred by the recent release of the open-source Google phone. Applications for the iPhone have been popular recently among fantasy football content and league-hosting providers and are sure to continue to play a prominent role in the industry.

Yardbarker Looking Beyond the Yard

Yardbarker, most notably an online gathering of sports blogs, is expanding its reach beyond sports to other areas targeting the 18-34 male demographic. Among the sites set to join the network are Fark.com, FilmDrunk.com, RealTalkNY.com and WithLeather.com. Those last three come as part of a deal with the Uproxx.com network.

Wednesday, October 1

Sports Network Gets Exclusive with NHL

The Sports Network has reached a deal with the National Hockey League to be the exclusive global distributor of a feed delivering stats, information and video direct from NHL teams and arenas. The coverage includes an online show, “The Daily Dose,” produced in conjunction with NHL.com.

OneSeason Opens Its Sportfolios

OneSeason.com launched its virtual day-trading platform for professional athletes and teams today. The site allows you to buy shares in players or teams and then make or lose money based solely on market, i.e. popularity among traders rather than in-game performance. OneSeason.com — like just about every new site launching these days — also touts its social-networking capabilities. Where this outlet seems to differ from existing trade-market contests is that participants invest and can get back real money, rather than trading in virtual dollars and winning prizes for good performance.

Tuesday, September 30

Helmets Come Off Oct. 4

“NFL PLAYERS Helmets Off” debuts Oct. 4 on Fox Sports Net with a recap of the fantasy draft for the public league involving eight NFL players: Brian Brohm, Steven Jackson, Maurice Jones-Drew, Cato June, Jay Feely, Larry Fitzgerald, Will Witherspoon and Tatum Bell. “Helmets Off” is a reality show presented by NFL PLAYERS Inc., the marketing arm of the NFL Players Association.

FFOC Considers Midseason Game

A message from Fantasy Football Open Championship co-founder Stan Misthios posted on the FFOC boards late last week seeks to gauge participant interest in a midseason contest. The proposed game would be open to FFOC participants for a separate entry fee, begin with a new draft, exclude any waiver/free-agent moves and be decided by total points rather than head-to-head records.

TSN Launches Mobile NBA Content

The Sports Network has announced the global availability of NBA content for mobile users via its partnership with Contec. The brandable service with real-time updates joins the list of offerings under the BUZmob heading and could be of particular value in overseas markets. China, specifically, has been a fast-growing NBA market since Yao Ming became a Houston Rocket, and The Sports Network has been building a significant Chinese presence this year.

Monday, September 29

New York Sun Setting

The still-young New York City newspaper is going out of business, but it accomplished enough in its seven-year run to motivate Congressman Anthony Weaver, D-N.Y., saw fit to deliver remarks about it on the House floor earlier this month. Serious football fans might recognize The Sun as one of the many outlets for Football Outsider Michael David Smith, and it hosted guest pieces from other Outsiders as well.

Draft Sharks Shed Old Skin

DraftSharks.com, a fantasy football content site founded in 1999, has just launched a redesigned website, developed by Atomic Design.

A Little Antsy, Huh?

The regular season hasn’t even ended yet — as I type this, the White Sox and Tigers are waiting out a rain delay — but some fantasy baseball folks are already mock drafting for the 2009 season.

STATS Reaches Deal with PGA

The PGA Tour and STATS LLC have announced an agreement that makes the sports information company “an official provider of in-progress hole-by-hole results for all PGA TOUR,Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events,” according to the press release.

LeagueSafe Goes Banking

Paul Charchian’s still-new service that handles the collection distribution of fantasy league fees has partnered with Bancorp in applying payouts to prepaid Visa cards.

Sunday, September 28

Can You Crush Charch?

Grain Belt Beer is presenting a weekly fantasy contest in which users can try to outdo radio host and Fanball co-founder Paul Charchian. “The Crush Charch Challenge” asks you to select a fantasy lineup each week that will go up against the players chosen by Charchian each week. For each point by which you beat Charchian, you get one entry in the weekly prize drawing and one in the end-of-season drawing. The grand prize for the season will be $2,000.

Face the Former Pros

Open Sports is hosting a contest in which fantasy players pick a team each week to try to beat a different former NFL player. “Tackle the Pros” presents former Eagles QB Rodney Peete in Week 5, former Niners RB Roger Craig in Week 6, Hall of Famer (and Open Sports stakeholder) John Elway in Week 7, former Dolphins receiver O.J. McDuffie in Week 8, future Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk in Week 9, former Rams corner Todd Lyght in Week 10 and former Bengals first-round RB Ki-Jana Carter in Week 11. “Pros” beyond that point have yet to be announced.

We’re Talkin’ Playoffs

As the fantasy sports industry grows ever more saturated, one area that remains largely untapped is the postseason. FantasyPostseason.com, though, makes the playoffs its sole focus.

Too Early to Think About March?

Most Valuable Network Outsider Jeff Freels already has a top 100 for next fantasy baseball season. I’m going to go ahead and guess things will change a bit between now and draft time.

Cubs Field the Best Fantasy Team

FeinSports.com determined that the Cubs led Major League Baseball in rotisserie points heading into the final weekend of the regular season.

The Hockey Experts are Drafting

Dobber Hockey posted the results of its third annual industry experts league draft, which it apparently has changed to a keeper format.

Friday, September 26

What Kind of Dealer Are You?

Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll is hosting a contest in which users can propose hypothetical trades for a chance to win a year’s premium BP subscription. The judges will be actual baseball decision makers, so the coolest aspect seems to be having the professionals rating your trading acumen (rather than the actual prize).

But, My Fantasy Team …

The Serious Sports News Network has the real reason that John McCain wants to delay tonight’s debate. Apparently, it has nothing to do with the economy.

More Anti-Fantasy From Knight Commission

College Times interviews Knight Commission executive director Amy Perko about fantasy’s presence in college football. Not to ruin the surprise, but she’s still against it.

Thursday, September 25

Celebripresident Seeks to Elect a Different Kind of Leader

The folks at Celebrifantasy.com will an online “tournament,” beginning Oct. 1, to elect a celebrity as fake president. Celebripresident.com will line up 64 celebrities in mock NCAA brackets, and users will vote their favorites through. It’s a silly idea, to be sure, but a couple of minutes of silly a day can’t hurt, especially in times such as these.

If You Win in Fantasy, So Should Your Spouse

The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino writes this week about fantasy baseball icon Ron Shandler’s rule that all fantasy winnings should be spent on your significant other. As an example, he points to a Long Island couple with plenty of fantasy-funded loot. (My wife and I revel in the $10-entry league in which the champ is required to spend the winnings on beer. I’ve ended each of the first two seasons with a shopping spree.) (As another side note, Philly’s “700 Level” bloggers are not amused.)

Forty Under 40

Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily are taking nominations for the 2009 Forty Under 40 awards, which recognize the top 40 executives in the sports industry who are younger than 40.

Wednesday, September 24

Fantasy, Technology Grow Together

Here’s a mainstream story about how advances in technology are affecting fantasy sports. (Or is it, how a growing fantasy sports market is taking advantage of new technologies?) Either way, the bond is unbreakable.

Marketing to Fantasy Consumers Now a Reality

Here’s an interesting take from someone in marketing on the change in the fantasy landscape and the impact its mainstreaming as had among brand sponsors.

Sporting News Content Coming to Your Phone

Sporting News and go2 Media are collaborating to deliver SN content to mobile phone users. The press release doesn’t mention the service being available only to those on certain networks. Rather, it looks like anyone with a Web-ready phone will be able to visit the site at http://wap.go2sportingnews.com/.

Get to Know Sportgenic

Sportgenic, a “digital media and technology company that is focused on monetizing sports sites” gets profiled by paidcontent.org via the Washington Post’s website. (Or is it the other way around?) Those who were in Chicago for the July Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference might remember Sportsgenic founder Robert Tas from one of the discussion panels.

Tuesday, September 23

Facing Their Weakness

ESPN.com’s fantasy hockey folks each reveal a player who represents their fantasy “Kryptonite,” guys whom they can’t stay away from despite repeated disappointment. (”Kryptonite” seems to be misapplied here, because — if I remember correctly — Superman wasn’t/isn’t drawn to the stuff at all. It’s just his lone weakness. Of course, I’m no comic book expert.)

Value Comes Differently in Fantasy Basketball

ESPN.com’s Adam Madison says that playing time tends to dictate fantasy value more than talent in basketball, which he sees as differentiating it from other sports. I kinda think that situational opportunity is key to a player’s fantasy value in any sport (see Brady Quinn vs. Trent Edwards in football, for example), maybe just manifesting itself a little differently. I honestly don’t play fantasy basketball, though, so I’ll defer to a more authoritative voice on the subject.

The Flow of Sports Video Streams

Adweek takes a look at where how online video streaming is being treated and is effecting sports coverage, specifically what the potential impact might be on television audience size and accompanying revenue. Sports business blogger Jason Peck has sifted through the material to filter out the streaming tendencies of the major leagues (oh, and the NHL and MLS).

Monday, September 22

Killer Startups Features Fantazzle

Fantazzle.com, a fantasy site centering on contests that renew each week, just got featured on KillerStartups.com.

Changing Seasons

Now that we’ve gotten past the fully speculative portion of the NFL calendar and into some actual games, it’s time to turn full-speculation mode toward the winter sports. With that, here’s the first 10-person head-to-head basketball mock draft from the folks at CBS Sports.

K-Rod Set to be Overpriced

Newsday’s Adam Ronis is already warning against overvaluing Angels closer Francisco Rodrigues in your 2009 drafts. K-Rod set the single-season saves record this season (59 as of this posting).

Saturday, September 20

Ryder Cup Available on Your Phone

Golf fans on the go this weekend can watch coverage of the Ryder Cup on their mobile phones. MediaFLO announced its deal Friday to carry NBC’s coverage to customers with AT&T or Verizon mobile service.

Thursday, September 18

ESPN Launches App for TV

The Worldwide Leader has rolled out a fantasy-team tracking application for television to Verizon FiOS customers in select markets. The application allows one to access real-time scores and track the totals for their weekly matchups in ESPN fantasy football leagues.

Social Networks More Popular Than Porn

As a growing number of fantasy sports companies introduce forays into social networking, it’s worth noting that one author’s study of online search tendencies shows that social networks are now sought out more often than pornography.

Fashion Company Aims for Tweens

R. Lilly Tuckerwear Co. has launched FantasyFashionGame.com with the expressed goal of teaching business principles to young girls. The game gives paricipants the opportunity to design stores, select locations, choose products to sell and develop marketing plans. The press release specifically focuses on “Tweens,” the age group right at the end of elementary school and before the teenage years.

Wall Street Refugees Have to Land Somewhere

An employee of a Philadelphia-area venture capital firm is looking to take advantage of the current and approaching layoffs in the troubled financial sector by directing folks to startup businesses. LeaveWallStreetJoinAStartup.com wants to capitalize on the skills honed in Wall Street firms and touts that “startups are more stable than Wall Street (seriously).” Anyone around here know an industry rich with startups … ?

Wednesday, September 17

What the Sponsors are Thinking

From the Sports Sponsorship Symposium currently taking place in New York City, this smattering of video chats with company leaders, as well as seminar summaries and other features, provides a picture of what potential sponsors are looking for in the marketplace right now. Some items also address how the troubled economy is affecting the sponsorship landscape, possibly pushing some companies to seek out more proven integrity before attaching their brand to something.

The Talented Mr. Soap-o

ESPN fantasy face Matthew Berry will have a role in at least a couple of episodes of ABC daytime soap One Life to Live. The “Talented Mr. Roto” says he’ll be playing a jeweler. Just how much of a stretch that is for someone who appraises athletes for a living remains to be seen.

‘Own the Moment’ Ahead of Time

The NFL has announced to its business partners that its marketing theme for 2009 will be “Own the Moment.” The irony in a line centered on immediacy being released in the marketplace a year in advance, I suppose, is open to interpretation. The league can only hope that this season’s Super Bowl provides a moment with a fraction of the impact of David Tyree’s catch in February.

Doing Business with China

Leaders from several Milwaukee-area businesses will accompany the Bucks to China in October, in hopes of developing business relationships. Both the NBA’s plan to play games in the country and yet another example of American businesses extending there should be of interest to anyone looking to grow their fantasy operation beyond U.S. borders.

Tuesday, September 16

Sports Bloggers at the Fore

The BlogWorld Expo will feature sports bloggers at its conference this weekend, including representatives from Yardbarker and NFLGridironGab.com.

We’re Not the Only Ones

Thank goodness someone else can see through the ridiculous Challenger productivity-loss statistics related to fantasy football at the office. Most outlets have just been blindly passing the numbers along.

Some Things to Think About

Joe Marchese of MediaPost.com ponders some questions as he gets ready to emcee this weekend’s OMMA Global online media conference in New York City. Although fantasy is not expressly mentioned, the Web is obviously the primary frontier of our business, and each category represented can easily be linked to fantasy sports.

Fantasy Football Breeds Future Economists?

This post from a public-school teacher (I can only assume, from the context) lays out a case for fantasy football serving as a gateway to business and economic theory for students today. Although I think this article makes an enormous — and fallacious — leap by insinuating that most teens who play fantasy sports are also watching CNBC, the theory of fantasy sports as learning tools seems to be gaining popularity.

Old Topps Gold Cards Not Worth Much

The 1965 set of gold-embossed baseball cards from Topps don’t find much value today, in part because they don’t display the statistics that future fantasy players used for Strat-O-Matic baseball.

More Fantasy for the iPhone

Fandora’s Box adds to the choices of fantasy football applications for your iPhone.

Monday, September 15

FF Nerd Joins Players Network

FantasyFootballNerd.com, which aggregates weekly player projections from various fantasy sites, has joined the Fantasy Players Network. (I thought this had been announced previously, but I couldn’t find an earlier mention.)

Sunday, September 14

Berry Against Women Against Fantasy Sports

The gauntlet has been thrown down. ESPN’s Matthew Berry wants Allison Lodish of recent Women Against Fantasy Sports fame to give fantasy a try. Although Lodish hasn’t mentioned Berry by name on the WAFS site, a blog post from the same day as Berry’s column says she refuses to “try it.” Could this come to fantasy blows?

Saturday, September 13

Happy to Shed the Fantasy

This first-week testimonial for the pleasure of quitting fantasy football comes not just from some columnist but former Texas and Arizona coach John Mackovic. Turns out the old coach gave fantasy a try but got turned away by Chad Johnson. Someone should tell him that nobody by that name plays in the NFL anymore.

Ultimate Football Network Brings Teams Together

UltimateFootballNetwork.com launched this year, providing one site by which users can update all of their fantasy lineups. There are other features as well, but that figures to be the most useful for fantasy players dealing with the bevy of commissioner sites. Here’s a video of founder Jonathan Joseph (unfortunately, not the Bengals corner) describing his site at TechCrunch50.

Friday, September 12

TSN Launches Soccer Mobile Service in China

As part of its growing presence in the Chinese sports market, The Sports Network announced Thursday that it is rolling out a subscriber service that will provide content on the English Premiership soccer league for Chinese mobile users.

Gotta Set Your Lineup

As Hurricane Ike threatens landfall in Texas and delays sporting events, Sports Network fantasy editor Steve Schwartz offers an account of one owner in his league who didn’t even let his team lag when Katrina and Rita ravaged his community.

Wednesday, September 10

New ‘Inside the NFL’ Debuts Tonight

The HBO staple for many years will premier its new incarnation tonight on Showtime at 9 p.m. A story on SmartMoney.com mentions it at the end with the line “Fantasy football aficionados will flock to the first episode of the show on its new network.” I can’t imagine why we would. The show never offered much value to fantasy players in the past, and now the cast is terrible. I guess we’ll see, though.

CBS Sports Online Gamecasts Begin Saturday

This weekend’s Georgia-South Carolina matchup will open a run of 17 SEC football games that CBS Sports will stream live over the Web this season. The company and conference are talking about a deal for basketball season.

Fantasy Trading Adds Private Companies

New venture ExchangeP presented its plan Tuesday to the crowd at TechCrunch50 for a fantasy stock-trading game that deals with privately owned companies. This blog describes the plan and provides comment from a few tech industry experts, including (at least as far as we know) Mark Cuban.

Tuesday, September 9

Fantasy Hockey, Eh?

Now this is more my level if we’re talking fantasy hockey.

Sports Network Goes Mobile

The Sports Network, which provides real-time stats and original content in various sports, has teamed up with Contec Innovations to offer its material globally to mobile phone users.

Ashton Kutcher: Fantasy Football Entrepreneur?

Buried in an L.A. Times account of a day with Ashton Kutcher at TechCrunch50 is a nugget about how his fledgling Web business is planning a foray into fantasy football. If you scroll down to the Q&A portion, you’ll find this A from Kutcher: “We want to take a new slant on that and engage the players of Fantasy Football with a Web series blog information site. We don’t want to compete with function sites. We want to complement them.” Guess we’ll see just what that means.

Fantasy Hockey’s Never Been Stronger

Here’s a response to the column from About.com we linked to the other day on fantasy hockey. This AOL Fanhouse blogger takes the previous writer to task, pointing out why the game is actually easier to play for the non-superfan than it used to be.

Fantasy Sports Officially Going Social

If it seems like there’s been a lot of focus on social networking in recent fantasy-industry developments, you’re not mistaken. The Washington Times takes a look at the trend.

Monday, September 8

The Fantasy Football Librarian

A Colorado TV station profiled Sara Holladay, the Fantasy Football Librarian, whose other identity is an actual librarian at the University of Colorado.

Flipping for Byrd

Viewers of the Packers-Vikings game might have heard the commentators throw out a call to “get Steve Byrd on that.” In case you were wondering what the heck they were talking about, Byrd is an executive vice president with Stats LLC, founding board member of the Fantasy Sports Association and former board member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

Big Money Skewing Soccer

This article from the Yorkshire Evening Post reports that billionaire backers are changing the landscape of the world’s most prominent soccer league, Europe’s Premiership.

Another Site for the Impatient Crowd

DraftMix.com joins the genre of the immediate payout fantasy contest, offering games that are renewable on a daily and weekly basis.

Sunday, September 7

How to Run a Simple Fantasy Hockey League

This writer thinks that fantasy hockey has been overrun by the win-at-all-costs crowd and offers a simple format for fans who just want to have fun. Unfortunately, I’d have to say that I’m in the group mentioned at the end that has no idea who Vernon Fiddler is.

Friday, September 5

Orlando Blogger Likes FSB.com’s Take

Shannon Owens of the Orlando Sentinel posted a link to our story on the racial landscape of fantasy sports, which was spurred by Stephen A. Smith’s mistreatment of the topic. Owens writes the “Sports Celebrity!” blog for the Sentintel.

Fantasy Sports Prophet Pulls 2008 Football Tools

The fantasy draft software company announces on its site that its football product will not be available this season because it is “implementing significant changes to our application.” The parent company, Sports Prophet LLC, was founded in summer 2006.

Women Not Against Fantasy Sports

This Nevada women-only fantasy football league is starting its sixth season. Participants no doubt understand the sport better than the reporter, who hypothetically awarded LaDainian Tomlinson 28 points for a four-touchdown day. (Of course, maybe he knows something I don’t about a plan to let Tomlinson kick extra points this season.)

Fantasy for Those Afraid of Commitment

DailyFantasyAction.com has launched its beta phase, offering fantasy football competition that renews with each week. Users can choose fresh lineups and challenge different people each week, following a salary-cap structure to play for free or money. The difference between this setup and more traditional cap games (such as those at SportsBuff.com) is that point totals don’t carry over throughout the season. The new site also seeks to latch onto the social-media blitz and user-generated content movement by touting connection opportunities among users and posting user-submitted articles.

Thursday, September 4

Kremer Adds Work to Sideline Gig

NBC sideline reporter Andrea Kremer will dictate information during Sunday night broadcasts to a coworker in one of the network trucks for posting in an in-game blog on NBCSports.com and NFL.com this season.

Questioning the Judge

This legal news outlet presents a Q&A with Marc Edelman, a former practicing lawyer and current professor who created SportsJudge.com. The pay site resolves fantasy sports disputes.

Don’t Forget Baseball

With college football season under way and pro football starting up tonight (and basketball and hockey on the horizon, if you’re into those sorts of things), CBS Sports’ Scott White urges you not to lose track of your fantasy baseball team.

‘Chairman of the Board’

The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino profiles the creators of the corrugated fantasy draft board.

Celebrifantasy Targets “FF Widows”

Celebrifantasy.com — which launched its beta version in April, according to the company’s press release — is marketing itself to the wives of those husbands who head into a fantasy bunker come football season. The site offers fantasy leagues that score for celebrity appearances in gossip magazines (just like HollywoodDraft.com).

Palin Furthers Fantasy Hockey Platform

Republican vice presidential hopeful and avowed “hockey mom” Sarah Palin used her Wednesday night speech to try to turn fantasy football devotees to the Northern sport. (I was hopeful

Who Gets Exploitative Rights on College Athletes?

Well what do you know? It turns out an actual journalist reacted the same way I did to the recent L.A. Times op-ed piece by the Knight Commission co-chairs about fantasy college football.

Wednesday, September 3

Should College Athletes Get Paid for Jersey Sales?

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has an interesting point-counterpoint with Chris Olds of the Orlando Sentinel about whether college athletes whose specific jersey numbers are making money for their schools should receive compensation. It may not be directly fantasy-related, but it strikes at the same amateurism issue at the center of the college fantasy sports debate and has been a specific point I’ve raised in writing about said debate.

Sabathia Might Have Pitched a No-Hitter

Apparently the lone hit that Milwaukee pitcher C.C. Sabathia allowed the Pirates on Sunday — an infield bouncer that he couldn’t handle — might still be changed to an error if the Brewers get their way. That would turn the complete game into a no-hitter and potentially make some fantasy baseball points-league players very happy.

Open Sports Gets Behind Elway’s Face

Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway has signed on to be the spokesperson for Open Sports, the new site launched by Sportsline founder Mike Levy. Elway will reportedly participate in several of the site’s contests — including drafting and maintaining a fantasy team (will he pick Brian Griese, Jake Plummer or Jay Cutler?) — and offer predictions throughout the season.

Central Florida Spices Up Its Pressers

A Monday teleconference with Central Florida football coach George O’Leary had to be canceled when it was discovered that the school had mistakenly given reporters the number for a phone-sex line. (See, honey, I told you those charges on the phone bill weren’t my fault.) In related news, UCF postgame media conferences will only be aired after midnight on basic cable going forward.

Tuesday, September 2

They’re Almost Unbearable

I couldn’t help but pass along this link to a Chicago sports blogger who bothered to cobble together a list of the “Top 10 Bears Fantasy Football Contributors.” The Bears will be lucky to collect 10 fantasy points in any given week this year, much less present 10 worthwhile players. I have nine teams heading into the season, and I own exactly one of these guys — Devin Hester.

Weak Beer, Strong NFL Presence

As part of it’s sponsorship deal with the league, Coors Light’s brand will grace a fantasy football widget that will be available this season via NFL.com and the beer’s MySpace page. Unfortunately, there’s been no reported action on the move to change Coors Light’s official designation from “beer” to “carbonated water.”

Bodog Cancels Fantasy Football

The site, which focuses more heavily on sports gaming, says in a message to users that its baseball games will finish out the year but that no football offerings will be available. There’s no specific mention of the future of the games, but it certainly seems like there will be no Bodog fantasy games going forward. The company has been in a bit of trouble lately, particularly over the finances of its founder.

Monday, September 1

Someone Else Finds Stephen A. Smith’s Analysis Lacking

I posted the other day about how the aforementioned posed the question in ESPN the Magazine recently of why more black people don’t play fantasy sports and then failed to answer himself. Uzo Ometu of Sportswatchers, who says he is black and plays fantasy, agrees with my socioeconomic argument.

Sunday, August 31

Alma Mater Football League Keeps You Loyal

If you’re looking for a free fantasy college football game to play this year and are worried that the player pool is far too large to keep track of, you might be looking for AMFL. The game asks you to select a single college team, from which you will choose players to activate each week as you compete against others using the same school.

Fantasy Football Doesn’t Brake for Parties

Unfortunately, this situation is all too common. I think many of us can sympathize. I mean, what is she thinking dragging you to some boring cookout when we’re less than a week from opening day? Trades don’t make themselves.

When Wedded Bliss Spills Over Into Fantasy …

One husband is using his fantasy baseball league’s trade desk to vent his frustration over a tiff with his wife. (Unfortunately, it’s a joke.)

Saturday, August 30

Fantasy Expert by a Different Name

Although he’s described as a fantasy football “consultant,” it doesn’t appear that Nathan Zegura performs duties that are much (if any) different from most others who dole out fantasy advice/analysis for a living. Our own Jeff Thomas gets paraphrased in the article, but — as usual — he must not have said anything worth quoting directly.

Fantasy Football Thrives in MLB Clubhouses

All the losers who play fantasy football are overweight dwellers of their moms’ basements … oh, and well-conditioned professional athletes.

Friday, August 29

Fantasy Baseball’s One-Hit Wonders

Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame takes a look at the most anomalous performances in fantasy history, broken down by category. Surprisingly, Brady Anderson’s famously aided 50-homer season doesn’t top the list in that category by their metric.

Players and Coaches See Benefit to Fantasy Name Game

Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach and some of his players see potential for a positive impact, if anything, from including player names in college fantasy games. Quarterback Graham Harrell — the No. 1 pick in many leagues — goes so far as to say, “I think it’s good for college football as a whole and good for players.”

Thursday, August 28

But Who Are You Really?

The WSJ column below brought to my attention an issue this season in auction drafts on ESPN.com where tricky players were putting Kansas City’s Steven Jackson up for bid and letting lackadaisical leaguemates throw money at him thinking it was the Rams’ beast. (Scroll down to No. 29.) This is the first year in which ESPN’s platform has supported auctions and keepers.

What the Devil is Going on Here?

The Wall Street Journal’s Nando DiFino sat down with the devil this week to discuss his eternal impact on fantasy football. The least surprising revelation: Satan is big on Jeremy Shockey.

NCAA-Fantasy Issue Isn’t Disappearing

This story from the Palm Beach Post updates and delves further into the controversy between the NCAA and CBS Sports over the naming of players in fantasy games. If only this much play were given to issues such as athletes’ academics, improper hirings to lure recruits, the amount of money purged by major college football programs and just which UGa was the best …

Wednesday, August 27

Eight Sports, One League

Ten people will combine eight sports into competition for a single league. The Ultimate League will include football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, NASCAR, college football pick ‘em and a March Madness bracket game. It’s intriguing. Or crazy.

The Gods of Fantasy

That’s not hyperbole to describe a particular expert draft. HolyTaco.com offers advice on how you might go about drafting the various gods fantasy-style. It’s fun.

Obama Evasive on the Draft Issue

As Sen. Barack Obama makes his run for the White House, his fantasy football leaguemates grow weary of his lack of availability for their draft. (Yes, it’s a joke.)

Fantasy Football Brings on the Apocalypse

This ridiculous article from a weekly paper in Michigan does all but say that. It takes such a fatalistic view of our enjoyable pastime that it even quotes one player anonymously, saying that he wanted to protect his identity because of “the severity of his addiction.” Get the hell out of here. Do some people take their fantasy play too far? Sure, but that doesn’t make fantasy football evil. Many people have eating disorders, but I don’t think food is going anywhere. I share this just to expose how extreme anti-fantasy sentiment can be. If it’s supposed to be satirical, it misses its mark.

Philp Jumps to Play Hard

Scott Philp, a former senior vice president with Rotohog, has moved to Play Hard Sports to become its chief marketing officer.

iPhone Fantasy Tools Decent, Not Spectacular

Macworld offers a review of the fantasy football draft tools available for iPhone users. Me, I’ll stick with my list and a pen for now.

More Women Challenging Fantasies of Men

This article from a Colorado paper highlights the increasing number of women playing fantasy sports, including comment from Dr. Kim Beason: “It is definitely a competition format that women stand absolutely equal to men. These women that immerse themselves in it are going to be successful. It is enticing to them.”

Tuesday, August 26

WCOFF Sends Registrants to SportsBuff.com

Anyone who registers to compete in the World Championship of Fantasy Football this season will also receive a free entry to SportsBuff.com’s salary-cap football game. This message-board post from WCOFF co-owner Dustin Ashby outlines the particulars.

Same Old Story Continues to Ring True

It’s the ubiquitous fall story, but it’s why most of us got into the game. Fantasy football brings us together.

How to Lose at Fantasy Football

Here’s an amusing column from ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski about how he has managed to perform terribly in his fantasy leagues. You’ve probably made at least one of his missteps yourself.

Time Warner and Big Ten Network Finally Reach Deal

Time Warner cable customers who have been missing games of their Big Ten alma mater no longer have to worry. The warring factions finally reached a deal to bring the network to Time Warner. Charter Communications — which services much of Wisconsin, including Madison — is also reportedly near agreement with the BTN.

Open Sports Offers Free Commish Promotion

The new sports site that cleverly keeps releasing bits of news to keep its name prominent says its offering free lifetime league-hosting to those who sign up during its current limited-time promotion. Of course, there’s no date listed on the promo for when the deal ends, so it could be like the snack food that never takes “New!” off its package. Nevertheless, it’s another possibility if you’re looking for a league-hosting site.

FantasyCow.com Rings the Bell

It ain’t pretty to look at, but the new site gathers fantasy information from various well-known sources and funnels them through its homepage in a clean, organized fashion, saving users browsing time. Among the other features are forums and a player-ranking system that allows you to drag and drop and save your changes.

Buy and Sell Startups Without the Risk

TradeVibes, a wiki site that focuses on startups, has launched a market-based fantasy game where users get an imaginary $100,000 with which to “purchase” shares of real startup companies.

College Expert Drafts Didn’t Start with CBS Either

FantasyCollegeBlitz.com says this week’s installment — which includes a representative from our own Pro Fantasy Sports — marks the fourth year in a row of its college football expert mock draft. Graham Harrell beat out Tim Tebow for the top spot.

Monday, August 25

Which 10 Wrestlers Could Make You Money?

It turns out the football folks (American and international versions) aren’t the only ones drafting this time of year. PW Torch asks its readers to pick 10 professional wrestlers from any promotion who could put together the biggest money-making tour. I haven’t watched in a while, but when I did, my favorites included Hulk Hogan (before he became “Hollywood”), The Rock, The Undertaker, Goldberg and some of Mikc Foley’s incarnations.

Sports in the Global Times

This report from The Economist is nearly a month old (and somewhat sloppily written at times), but it’s an interesting and comprehensive roundup of the global climate that is increasingly evident in our professional sports. In the fantasy sports industry, we know that the leagues aren’t the only ones trying to reach abroad.

Money and Fame Don’t Make the Web Venture

Valleywag.com presents its list of the four worst athlete-backed internet startups, led by the projected failure of Weplay.com.

The Most Marketable Olympic Faces

CNBC’s Darren Rovell lists the top 25 most marketable athletes from the just-completed Beijing Games. I can’t help but wonder if it’s mere coincidence or good planning that four of the top 10 are swimmers after NBC signed a deal to carry more national and international championships in the sport over the next few years. The focus on swimmers is also worth noting for anyone considering a new fantasy-game target. Jason Lezak — probably the most recognizable swimmer to Americans now other than Michael Phelps and Dara Torres — sits at 25.

10 Most Marketable Sports Names Ever

Rovell also recently shared a reader-enhanced list of the 10 most marketable athlete names ever (note: not necessarily the best names). Those of you seeking celebrity promoters for your fantasy wares without an ESPN-sized budget should note the names of former NFL players Chuck Long and Mack Strong, as well as current Charger Quentin Jammer. They certainly aren’t the biggest names, but recognizable nonetheless.

MLBAM Continues to Advance Its Product

This Wall Street Journal interview with Bob Bowman, president and CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, is nearly two weeks old, but it’s new to me. Although writing about football keeps me on NFL.com for far more time than I spend on MLB.com, I think baseball’s site is inarguably superior. It’s interesting to hear from the head of that arm what MLB will do to stay out in front.

FSB in the mainstream

Tom Borrelli of The Buffalo News saw fit to mention us in his fantasy column for this week.

Thou Shalt Learn These Before Thy Fantasy Draft

In much the same vein as the recently linked 10 unwritten rules of playing in a fantasy league — but featuring some Old Testament language — RealFootball365.com provides the 10 commandments of the live draft. I’ll go ahead and state for the record that I completely disagree with No. 8 “Thou shalt not talk trash about a brethren’s real-life team.” As far as I’m concerned, that’s inbounds whenever you talk to a fan of another team, even if you’re meeting that person for the first time. Of course, it gets a bit annoying when the Falcons fan is just trying to rile everyone up, but … wait, I’ve never met a Falcons fan …

Sunday, August 24

Mortensen Caters to God-Fearing Fantasy Players

ESPN NFL insider Chris Mortensen led a session aimed at fantasy football players in an Arkansas church. According to the article, Mortensen has “a relationship” with some of the staff of the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, Ark.

Women Growing Their Fan Presence

This story from an Arkansas paper focuses on a few female Razorbacks fans at a rally for the football team, but it does so as an entry to the growth of the female fan market in sports. The story also mentions FemmeFan.com, a sports site directed at women that now features a fantasy sports section. Although the fantasy market is still dominated by men, this year’s research showed us that the female presence is growing there as well.

Saturday, August 23

Some Find Fantasy Football a Hindrance

This “guest columnist” used a blog post on Pro Football Weekly to air his gripes with the fantasy game that he says he’s done with. I certainly disagree. Frankly, I loved football before I ever played fantasy, and I wouldn’t imagine the same is true for most of us. Every guy’s entitled to his opinion.

Interview with EA Sports

In this interview with the Xbox folks, EA product manager Gerrold Smith describes the video-game giants recent forays into the world of fantasy.

10 Unwritten Rules of Fantasy

We’ve all heard about the “unwritten rules” of various sports — retaliating for a hit batter in baseball, taking a knee rather than piling on points at the end of a football game, etc. Well, Joe Ribando has written out the unwritten rules for participating in a fantasy league, and although he applies them specifically to baseball, I think they can fit fantasy sports in general.