Fantasy Sports Ventures has bought a piece of Sports Reference LLC, the company that runs Baseball-Reference.com and other popular sports information sites.

According to the Sports Business Journal report, FSV “paid a low seven-figure sum” for the stake, raising to 15 the number of sites in its Fantasy Players Network in which FSV owns a stake. The network — of which Sports Reference was already part — comprises 370 sites in all. The group of 15 reportedly account for about 25 percent of the network’s total traffic.

“This was a very unique asset where we had the desire and saw an opportunity to get involved at a much deeper level,” said FSV chief executive Chris Russo told SBJ. “We think we can help them grow and continue to build scale. We also hope to use this relationship and build some custom market opportunities for advertisers within the Sports Reference group of sites.”

Sports Reference started in April 2000 with the launch of Baseball-Reference.com by then college math professor Sean Forman. Pro-Football-Reference.com came online in December of that year through the work of fellow math professor Doug Drinen. In April 2004, statistics professor Justin Kubatko launched Basketball-Reference.com, and the three combined under the Sports Reference heading in October of that year.

Two years later, Forman quit teaching to go full time with Sports Reference, which also encompasses Hockey-Reference.com and an Olympics site. Forman told SBJ that the FSV investment will allow the company to go even further.

“We have a number of new areas we’re looking to get into,” Forman said. “We’ve basically been in the big four sports and Olympics, so this investment gives the capital to go pursue that.”

Most significantly, Sports Reference plans to enter the realm of college athletics, a potentially daunting task because of the abundance of teams but also a potential traffic bonanza thanks to the rabidity of college fan bases. The emerging market for fantasy college sports certainly won’t hurt things on that front either.

SBJ reports that Sports Reference’s group of sites already garner about a million unique page views a month, about a tenth of the total unique views for the Fantasy Players Network according to comScore’s December stats.

Like its auto racing counterpart, the FSWA award for top fantasy basketball writer will not see a repeat winner. It will definitely, however, go to someone from one of the industry’s most-visited sites.

The honor has been given out for the past two seasons, and neither of the two honorees — Andre’ Snellings of RotoWire and some dude you’ve probably never heard of from ESPN — shows up among this year’s finalists.

Instead, the Best Basketball Writer category comprises Steve Alexander of Rotoworld, Matt Buser of Yahoo! and Sergio Gonzalez of CBS Sports.

The FSWA awards will be announced on the first day of next week’s FSTA winter business conference in Florida.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– 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.

– 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.

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

– For $20, NFL fans can play back any or all games from the 2008 season on their computer with NFL.com’s Game Rewind. Those who want just one game can get it for $5.

– 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.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– A group of U.S. senators (as opposed to the Ottawa Senators) has sent a letter to the NFL to call for NFL Network broadcasts to be opened to a larger audience. The league plans to air a slate of games — beginning Thursday, Nov. 6 — on its own network and broadcast channels in the local markets of the teams involved. The senators want the free offering to be opened up nationally, the way the league did for last season’s Week 17 Patriots-Giants clash.

– The NBA has announced that it will begin selling the online component of its League Pass programming package as a standalone product this year. NBA League Pass offers out-of-market broadcasts to subscribers.

– Toyota and the New York City Marathon have teamed up for a fantasy game to accompany the race. If you’re of the opinion that a sport should not be derived from an activity that coaches in other sports use as punishment, then this is the only way to participate in distance running.

– An Associated Press sports writer gathered with a group of friends/colleagues to conduct a fantasy-style auction draft of the states for Tuesday’s election. To win the electoral votes for a state he or she has drafted, the participant must correctly predict which presidential candidate will carry the state.

– iTeam Sports says it is in negotiations with teams in various professional sports about offering fans the chance to buy shares in team ownership.