Posts Tagged ‘dave gawron’

RotoExperts Acquires RotoCommunity

Monday, November 1st, 2010

RotoExperts announced Monday that it has acquired fantasy content site RotoCommunity.com, bringing RC’s staff of eight under its ever-expanding umbrella.

Like RX, RotoCommunity was founded in 2008 — by Dave Gawron, Seth Trachtman and Rahm Narayan — centered on delivering content for fantasy baseball, football and basketball. In addition to more standard-style blogs, articles, forums, etc., the site touted its “revolutionary community draft kit” format, which allowed users to have a say in valuing players.

Gawron’s experience and expertise with such technical aspects of fantasy content was a key component in the deal, RX managing director Scott Engel said.

“Dave is a seasoned fantasy veteran, and he and his team bring many talents to RotoExperts,” Engel said in a release. “His knowledge of Fantasy Sports and skills in ranking and projecting is unquestioned. He can’t wait to comb through the RotoExperts site and enhance the premium products, player databases and statistical tools, and assist in ramping up the form and function of the website.”

Gawron said that the two sites were similar in focus and function, and that he believes his staff will fit in well with RotoExperts.com and help build out much of what it is already doing.

“My staff will allow RX to expand and enhance their articles, player news, video and audio broadcasts, and premium chat and e-mail advice services,” Gawron told FSB.com. “I already have a big ‘to-do’ list for Web design and development enhancements, and Scott and I are working on integrating my staff into the existing publishing and broadcasting schedules.

Gawron said that one of the first projects will be focusing on developing functionality for the 2011 fantasy baseball draft kit.

“We’ll establish a player database that will let us do all kinds of things with statistics and information flow throughout the site,” he said.

Also on Monday, RotoExperts.com announced the addition of veteran fantasy writer Dan Dobish to the staff.

“There is not a more well-rounded fantasy writer in the game today, and I know for certain there simply is not a better fantasy hockey writer anywhere on this continent,” Engel said of Dobish, who has worked for outlets such as CBSSports.com and OPEN sports.

(RX has offered no word yet on the success of its search for fantasy hockey writers in Africa.)

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Fitzgerald Delivers for Sports Buff’s Mr. Fantasy Football

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

In post-season fantasy football, the ability of a player’s team to stick around is just as important as his individual talent. That’s why Aaron Bruski was able to pick up Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald with the third selection of Round 2.

Four games later, the wideout’s two-touchdown, 127-yard Super Bowl effort grabbed Bruski the title of Mr. Fantasy Football in SportsBuff.com’s premier salary cap contest, with national champions dating back to its inaugural season in 1993.

Bruski finished fifth in the regular season to join the rest of the top eight finishers and Dave Gawron — who runs the Roto Commando blog and beat 75 fantasy experts in the VIP/Reporters league (finishing three disturbing spots ahead of Yours Truly) — in Vegas for the playoff draft.

Bruski’s Fitzgerald- and Willie Parker-led squad trailed Madonna Montz’s team by 11 heading into the big game but wound up with a comfortable 20-point cushion. Steve Homiak, who was in first place following the regular-season component of the contest, rode Kurt Warner to a third-place finish after using his first playoff pick on DeAngelo Williams.

The group traveled to Las Vegas on Jan. 4 for a three-day stay, conducting its purely serious business at Planet Hollywood. The post-season draft and VIP party took place at the nearby Hawaiian Tropic Bar and Restaurant. Sports Buff has been taking its top finishers on vacation since January 1995, when the first crew took a Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. (Then again, maybe “vacation” is too favorable a word when you realize that you have to put up with Jeff Thomas the whole time.)

Bruski formerly ran a fantasy site called DreamWired.com and now writes updates for Rotoworld. Had Montz hung on, she would have been Sports Buff’s first Ms. Fantasy Football.

“Madonna’s regular season performance and post-season draft strategy from the sixth spot were extremely impressive, earning the well-deserved respect of the entire Sports Buff Nation,” said Thomas, founder of SportsBuff.com.

Here are the top eight, in order of their regular season finish, along with their first-round picks in the playoff contest:

1. Steve Homiak (Arvada, Colo.) — DeAngelo Williams
2. Rick Adelstein (Solon, Ohio) — Steve Smith
3. Brian Schmidt (Fort Myers, Fla.) — Brian Westbrook
4. Mark Severson (Sleepy Eye, Minn.) — Brandon Jacobs
5. Aaron Bruski (San Jose, Calif.) — Willie Parker
6. Madonna Montz (Belle Chase, La.) — Hines Ward
7. Kerry Bates (Powhatan, Va.) — Chris Johnson
8. Harley Pierce (Paw Paw, Mich.) — Eli Manning

(Note: SportsBuff.com and FantasySportsBusiness.com are owned and operated by World Fantasy Games.)

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