Football enjoys a much larger share of the fantasy market than any other sport, so it’s no wonder that the live-draft, high-stakes football events continue to grow, increase and draw more coverage.

This American moment (just wanted to pretend we were NPR for a second), however, presents an interesting time in the life of high-stakes fantasy baseball.

Baseball, in general, tends to stand much closer to the center of the fantasy stage right around now than for most of the rest of the year, with pitchers and catchers reporting and everyone but Royals and Pirates fans getting their hopes up for shots at the World Series. The “national pastime” is in particular focus right about now for fantasy industry heavies WCOFS and Fanball.

Gridiron Fantasy Sports (the company that owns the World Championship of Fantasy Football) will put on its first WCOFB (I’ll let you figure out the “B”) in 2010. Just like in the WCOFF, the main event will take place in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, high-stakes veteran the National Fantasy Baseball Championship will not only be calling Vegas home, but also hosting events in four other cities. The big change for the NFBC this year, though, is that it will be the first run since Fanball’s acquisition in August. Of course, leaders Greg Ambrosius and Tom Kessenich also went to the new parent company in the deal, so things should remain familiar to returning players.

Here are the full schedules for each set of events …

National Fantasy Baseball Championship live events
March 19-21, Las Vegas
March 19-21, Atlantic City, N.J.
March 19-21, St. Louis
March 26-28, Las Vegas
March 26-28, Chicago
March 26-28, New York City
Details

World Championship of Fantasy Baseball
March 26-28
Las Vegas
Details

What: National Fantasy Baseball Championship live events
When & Where:
March 19-21, Las Vegas
March 19-21, Atlantic City, N.J.
March 19-21, St. Louis
March 26-28, Las Vegas
March 26-28, Chicago
March 26-28, New York City
Details: NFBC website

Greg Ambrosius of Fanball announced Thursday afternoon that the company has added former Mock Draft Central operations manager Geoff Stein.

While with MDC, Stein developed a working relationship with the National Fantasy Football Championship and National Fantasy Baseball Championship, which were acquired by Fanball in a deal with F+W Media last summer.

“One of my main duties at MDC was dealing with companies that licensed out our draft software, and we had no bigger client than the NFBC/NFFC,” Stein told FSB.com. “Basically, I made sure that everyone was in the software on time, and if there were any problems, I took care of them immediately. When you’re dealing with 14 or 15 people whose computer skills range from ‘expert’ to ‘knows how to turn on,’ anything can and usually does pop up.”

Stein will fill a similar role with the company as a full-time employee and will also contribute fantasy content for Fanball’s various outlets.

“Geoff has been an important part of our success as the NFBC began expanding into online pay games starting in 2006 and we believe that he will be even more important to our success as we grow our NFBC, NFFC and NFBBC satellite leagues and online Double Plays,” Ambrosius wrote in the announcement posted on the NFBC message board.

Mock Draft Central, of course, was just recently purchased by RotoWire. With Stein moving immediately into his Fanball role, MDC founder Jason Pliml remains to help transition the company to its new ownership.

Stein is a five-year veteran of the fantasy sports industry and a member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association board of directors.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– RotoExperts.com announced Tuesday a content deal with NFL.com that will place two articles a week amid the fantasy content on the league’s official website throughout the NFL season.

– RotoWire has launched an iPhone app to meet “growing demand from our users for our information on mobile devices,” company president Peter Schoenke tells FSB.com.

– Fanball’s 2009 fantasy football application for the iPhone is now live.

– The USTA is running a bracket-style contest for the upcoming U.S. Open, a game that will be built and managed by Fanball. The final Grand Slam tennis event of the year is set to being Aug. 31, with the bracket game to become available after the draws are announced on Aug. 27.

– Is Dimdim what you might call the stooge who still drafts like a newbie even though your league has been going for 13 years? Well, maybe, but it’s also a service that provides Web- and phone-conferencing for your fantasy football draft.

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