With the CBS Interactive lawsuit against the NFLPA on its way to being finalized in favor of the fantasy sports industry, some significant voices are sharing their pleasure over this week’s rulings.

“This victory further cements the autonomy of fantasy sports operators from sports leagues and player unions,” new Fantasy Sports Trade Association president Paul Charchian (more on that to come) said in the FSTA’s release on the suit. “Fantasy sports provide significant advantages to the leagues and players unions, creating a wide variety of tangible and intangible benefits. As has always been the case, the FSTA welcomes the opportunity to work with each of the leagues and their players’ associations.”

Lawyer Glenn Colton, who assisted the FSTA in the CBC lawsuit against Major League Baseball called it “yet another victory for fantasy sports players and businesses, and most importantly for all of our First Amendment freedoms.

“The decision is yet another brick in the wall that will insure that the millions of fantasy sports players continue to be able to enjoy the game and the innovations and improvements that come with freedom to operate and invent without fear of players associations swooping in at the 11th hour and wresting control of the benefits of those inventions and innovations.”

Obviously, CBS is also happy with the judgment handed down this week.

“CBS is pleased that the court confirmed the use of player names, statistics and other materials in CBS’s online fantasy games is protected under the First Amendment,” CBSSports.com senior vice president and general manager Jason Kint told FSB.com in a statement. “CBSSports.com, along with the rest of the fantasy sports industry, looks forward to continuing to provide the fun and excitement of fantasy sports.”

More, no doubt, will come as the news of this ruling spreads around the industry. Stay tuned to FSB.com.

Tuesday’s rulings in the CBS Interactive lawsuit against the NFL Players Association were even better news than we here at FSB.com realized.

After gathering more information on the proceedings and talking to some people smarter than we are, it has become clear that the NFLPA is very near the same result that Major League Baseball and its players association found in challenging fantasy companies previously.

The key part is that in granting CBS’ motion for summary judgment, the U.S. district court judge presiding over the suit in Minnesota ruled in the plaintiff’s favor — including a declaration that use of player statistics, news and headshots for fantasy games is protected by the First Amendment.

The NFLPA has 30 days from the date of the ruling to appeal the case and seems like it probably will. After all, this is pretty much the last chance for the league and players association limit access for fantasy game providers. If the ruling stands, the NFLPA — like MLB before it — won’t be allowed to take any other fantasy entities to court anywhere in the country over the same issues.

Of course, if the appeal is filed, it will head to the same Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled in favor of CBC in the baseball case. It’s tough to imagine the court going against its own previous ruling.

If baseball and football are both blocked in attempts to extract payments for access to player statistics, names and licenses, other sports would seem unlikely to mount similar challenges. They would certainly be allowed to, but the size of the fantasy markets in baseball and football put a lot more money on the line in licensing disputes. Would it be worth the lawyer fees for NASCAR or PGA to take fantasy providers to court? Probably not.

One also has to wonder whether such a challenge would be worth any potential public relations fallout that could accompany. With a smaller fan base than MLB or the NFL enjoy, the NHL — for instance — would feel the effects more of alienating any portion of its followers.

So, fantasy folks, although we’re not officially at an endpoint in the fight between sports leagues and game providers, we certainly appear to be closing in on the unofficial finish line.

Last spring, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Major League Baseball Advanced Media and MLB Players Association, effectively ending baseball’s case against fantasy providers (led by CBC in that lawsuit).

Three months after the High Court’s ruling, CBS Interactive sued the NFL Players Association to halt another attempt to extract money from fantasy sports providers for stats and other player info that resides in the public domain.

Well, the first set of rulings have been handed down in the CBS v. NFLPA case, and the procedure sure seems to be favoring the fantasy community. According to the court dockets, here’s what has come so far …

1. The NFLPA’s motion to dismiss the suit for “lack of personal jurisdiction” was denied.

2. The NFLPA’s motion to dismiss on grounds of “failure to state a claim” was granted, while that on grounds of “failure to join an indispensable party” was denied.

3. The NFLPA’s motions to change the venue (away from the Eighth Circuit) were denied.

4. “Count IV of the First Amended Complaint is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”

5. CBS’ “motion for partial summary judgment” was granted.

6. “Counts II and III of the First Amended Complaint are DISMISSED as moot.”

Now, we’re not lawyers here at FSB.com, but we do know some. We’ll continue to gather information and analysis on the rulings so far and share our results with you.

Company: CBS Sports Fantasy
Site: CBSSports.com

When you’re undefeated in the Fantasy Sports Trade Association awards category of Best Commissioner Product, it’s fair to say you’re probably doing something right.

In 1997, CBS and SportsLine joined forces to offer fantasy games at CBS.Sportsline.com — an address that still takes you to the site today. A year later, the FSTA was formed and since 1999, the latter has awarded the former for those games.

“In the early days, we probably won by default, as our feature set was well above everyone else’s,” says Tony Fernandez, who takes the lead on the building and operation of fantasy games as vice president of sports technology for CBS Interactive. “As the competition catches up, we have realized that we must be better than the rest in performance, reliability, usability, content, support, etc. It’s about the overall experience, not just the product.”

That experience began with the products of SportsLine USA, created by Mike Levy in 1994 and launched on the Web in 1995, before many of us even knew that the Internet was about to change our lives.

In 1996, SportsLine began to offer fantasy games on the Web, and by the following March, the company reached a deal with CBS to deliver the games to a broader audience. Soon after, CBS.Sportsline.com also presented fantasy offerings in basketball, hockey, golf and auto racing, as well as international games for cricket and soccer.

Today, that lineup looks much the same on CBSSports.com, but it isn’t the breadth of sports coverage that those in charge like to focus on or even the number of amenities a particular game might present. Rather, it’s game play that appears to be the focus. That seems to be working, judging by the FSTA awards and reports such as that by The Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino, which found a 100 percent approval rating within online mentions of CBS’ fantasy hockey product.

“I think that as the product matures, users have come to expect flawless performance,” Fernandez says. “In the early days, you would have expected serious issues during the first week or two of each season. Now users are not putting up with that. In fact, game play is fairly standardized right now. Users want things to work rather than more features. They want a better experience and ease of use.

“Fantasy sports appeals to a lot of users who are not very tech savvy and don’t have time or interest to figure things out.”

Fantasy sports also appeal to a very important section of American sports fans.

“Fantasy sports attract the cream of the crop,” says Jason Kint, general manager of CBSSports.com. “It’s the most engaged, the most loyal sports fan there is.”

CBS’ fantasy audience even trends toward the top of that class. In the earliest days, following the deal with SportsLine and then the purchase of commissioner.com, CBS offered its fantasy hosting services on a subscription basis. As online ad sales grew, the company decided to switch to free games in 2001. Within a year, however, the internet bubble was bursting, and the 2002 baseball season saw CBS head back to the world of subscription-only.

Although CBSSports.com does offer some free contests within its fantasy realm and could probably afford to go free with services such as its centerpiece fantasy football commissioner applications (in which a league costs $149 per season), there are no plans to return to that route. A big part of that decision is the caliber of fantasy player CBS draws as a result.

Kint says that the average player in CBS’ games is more involved, spends more time on the site and sticks around throughout the season. Fantasy owners will tend to have a little more incentive to keep up with their teams when money is involved. By the same token, it tends to be the more serious fantasy player — and more involved sports fan and more valuable consumer — who puts up money to play in the first place.

“Our users are more engaged, spend more time on the site per month, spend more on products. A lot of that comes from our pay service,” Kint says. “Advertisers know that is the core consumer.”

Of course, merely charging for your service isn’t necessarily going to keep users engaged. As part of enhancing the experience, CBS Sports has added significantly to its fantasy content this football season. This year kicked off a section of user-generated player updates, which Kint says has drawn a good response.

“It’s been very positive,” he says. “That’s a way to get the user more involved. We do that within the construct of having a more-engaged consumer.”

The site has also reached out to the involved fantasy football owner by adding a live Sunday morning Web show, Fantasy Football Today, which runs from 11 a.m. Eastern right up until the 1 p.m. kickoffs.

The biggest news this year, though, has been generated by CBS Sports’ decision to add player names to its fantasy college football game that is in its fourth season. The move has drawn a backlash from NCAA officials but has helped spur growth in the free CBS game, which Kint sees as an important fantasy player going forward.

“I believe it can compete with baseball one day,” he says of college football. “It has all of the elements to what makes pro fantasy football so engaging and fast-growing — once a week roster moves, almost all games on the same day, smaller roster — and it’s football. Why not give up your Saturday, too?”