The Fantasy Sports Writers Association has announced the finalists for its seventh annual writer awards, and, as usual, RotoWire is all over the list.

The fantasy content hub drew 19 total nominations, including one for its baseball print magazine and seven categories in which at least two staffers will be competing against each other. Among those, RotoWire placed at least two entrants into writer of the year categories for baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and college sports.

RotoExperts.com and Yahoo! Sports tied for second most nominations, with each garnering six. Yahoo’s list included one for its baseball magazine.

ESPN nabbed four finalist spots, Sporting News grabbed three and KFFL.com showed up twice. Football Diehards rounded out the multiple-nomination field with two entries in the category for best football magazine.

Individuals up for multiple awards include …

– Yahoo!’s Andy Behrens (best football Web article, football print article and humor article)
– RotoWire’s David Regan (baseball writer of the year, baseball series and baseball Web article)
– ESPN’s Tristan Cockcroft (baseball writer of the year and baseball Web article)
– RotoWire’s Derek VanRiper (baseball writer of the year and baseball Web article)
– RotoExperts’ Chris Ryan (baseball series and humor article)

It’s worth noting that the FSWA changed its judging procedure this time around. For the past couple of years, the board of directors was in charge of whittling the entire class of entries down to finalists in each category, passing those along to a trio of journalism professors to decide on the winners.

In 2010, however, the professors took on the whole judgment process, grading all entries on a 100-point scale. Thus, the finalists in each category represent the top three finishers in the grading.

The full rundown of finalists appears below. Winners will be announced the night of Jan. 25 as part of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association winter conference.

Football Writer of the Year
Ladd Biro, The Sporting News
Dave Richard, CBS Sports
Matt Schauf, RapidDraft.com

Best Football Series
Ryan Bonini, KFFL
Michael Fabiano, NFL.com
Mike Gilbert, RotoExperts

Best Football Article on the Web
Andy Behrens, Yahoo! Sports
Christopher Harris, ESPN
Tim McCullough, RotoExperts

Best Football Article in Print
Andy Behrens, Yahoo! Sports
Cory Bonini, KFFL
Matt Waldman, Football Guys

Best Football Print Publication
Football CheatSheets
Football Diehards
Sports Illustrated

Baseball Writer of the Year
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Baseball Series
Matt Lutovsky, The Sporting News
David Regan, RotoWire
Chris Ryan, RotoExperts

Best Baseball Article on the Web
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Baseball Article in Print
Brent Hershey, Baseball HQ
Chris Liss, RotoWire
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire

Best Baseball Print Publication
RotoWire
The Sporting News
Yahoo! Sports

Basketball Writer of the Year
Carson Cistulli, RotoWire
Shannon McKeown, RotoWire
Brian McKitish, ESPN

Hockey Writer of the Year
Evan Berofsky, RotoWire
Jan Levine, RotoWire
Janet Eagleson, RotoWire

Racing Writer of the Year
Adam Ansell, RotoExperts
C.J. Radune, RotoWire
Mark Taylor, RotoWire

College Sports Writer of the Year
Brad Evans, Yahoo! Sports
Chris Morgan, RotoWire
Jesse Siegel, RotoWire

Golf Writer of the Year
John McNamara, RotoWorld
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo! Sports
Greg Vara, RotoWire

Newcomer of the Year
Jake Ciely, RotoExperts
Mario Puig, RotoWire
Lane Rizzardini, Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

Best Humor Article
Andy Behrens, Yahoo! Sports
John Paulsen, Bulls-Eye
Chris Ryan, RotoExperts

Company: Fantrax
Launch date: October 2008
Became full-time operation: 2006
No. of employees: 8 (Some part-time)

There are many players in the fantasy league management space that the general playing public probably never hears about. That’s due in large part to the big three: Yahoo!, ESPN and CBS Sports. Lee Kleiner and his band of programmers, however, brought to market a slick site that supports a lot of sports and lets you play for free. The president of Fantrax took some time out this week to tell FSB.com about the creation of their system and where the company is headed.

1. Your site talks about starting with “a group of fantasy sports enthusiasts.” How big a group was this to start, how did it come together and what kind of programming experience was brought to the table?

There were five of us at the start, soon after to be seven. As highly skilled software developers, we felt our talent was being “wasted” in the corporate world, which largely lacks innovation and the desire to incur the time and expense to build top-quality software. We felt that if we could find an industry with a high barrier to entry due to software complexity, and where we could build a vastly superior product and have the capability to sell it, we would have a winning combination. Not only did fantasy sports fit the bill, but several of us were already seasoned fantasy sports players. Our team primarily consisted of highly talented and very experienced software architects and developers working in the corporate sector.

2. How long was the “vision” for your platform discussed before you began to develop it? How long was it in development before going live?

We started development on a prototype quite quickly. The product was in development for approximately 5 years before going live.

3. The league-hosting universe is dominated by some of the biggest names and outlets in sports media. What made Fantrax decide to seek a place at the same table? What kind of goals have you set along the way for realistic audience size?

We saw the fantasy sports industry as underserved by the (existing) providers in several ways. Firstly, there was no multi-sport, multi-language leader consolidating the market. Secondly, the technology that the existing providers employed would make it very difficult to extend their products to the kind of customizability we felt was necessary for a true commissioner product with global reach. We also believed that some of the big players were unable or unwilling to offer sports that were not already part of their established business. For example, we didn’t believe CBS would offer Premiership soccer, because they don’t broadcast it.

We set modest growth targets of 50,000 users in our first phase (which we have now surpassed), and significant accelerated growth targets in our next phase.

4. What kind of startup costs went into Fantrax, which features an impressively broad and probably labor intensive platform? How have you gone about marketing the service?

The cost to build such a platform is quite immense, as anyone in the commissioner product business would understand. We have been investing primarily in (research and development) thus far, but are now ready to ramp up our marketing spend. So far, targeted web marketing, cross-promotional activities and, of course, word of mouth have been successful for us.

5. What sports did you offer at the start, and what has been the timeline for adding to that lineup? How do the user bases for your various other sports compare with that for NFL?

Although our platform has always supported all sports, we released NHL hockey and NBA basketball first, since they were a little simpler in their intricacies. We have been able to add new sports in very short order — typically about 3-4 months. That timeline has been even shorter for adding new leagues in sports we already have (e.g. college football and college basketball).

Although NFL is the leader as expected, we are getting solid traction in all our sports (except golf so far, which we released this season in Beta), and our usage in other sports relative to NFL is higher than industry standards.

6. Fantrax prides itself on free offerings, but doesn’t that limit your growth in a marketplace that is so loaded with big-name providers? What kind of revenue is generated by the pay-to-play games?

From the beginning, our strategy has been to balance the user-growth capabilities of offering a free service with the revenue that comes from offering premium products. We will always offer some form of free commissioner product but plan to offer premium products for a fee in the near future.

7. Your site says “free forever,” but is there a level that other revenue generation has to sustain to make that doable?

We have plans to roll out some very exciting “premium” (fee-based) products and contests that a very large number of fantasy sports players are going to use and participate in.

8. The site also touts the speed with which user-requested changes are implemented. How often are such adjustments made, and what have been some of the most significant alterations asked for by users?

New features are added pretty much every week, sometimes several in a week. The product roadmap is a healthy mix of user requests and our own innovations. One recent example is the capability to replicate the player pool across divisions, so each division can draft from their own pool, as opposed to a single pool for the entire league. Requests for this feature came from the football users.

9. How has your rate of audience growth been each year?

About 300 percent.

10. What’s next for Fantrax? Any new sports on the horizon, new wrinkles in the business plan, etc.?

Some of the upcoming sports offered by Fantrax are soccer, Formula 1, and cricket. We are also adding new language translations for our worldwide audience. Plus, we have an exciting lineup of premium products and pay-to-play contests.

Aside from the usual RotoWire haul, Yahoo! was a fairly big winner at Tuesday’s Fantasy Sports Writers Association awards ceremony.

The Web’s most-trafficked fantasy games site saw multi-sport writer Scott Pianowski take the trophy for best golf writer, with Brad Evans claiming the prize for best college sports writer.

Pianowski has previously been nominated as the top writer in baseball and hockey as well, and Evans ranked among this year’s final three in the football writer category.

KFFL’s Ryan Bonini triumphed in that category, with Scott White of CBS Sports claiming the top baseball writer prize.

Meanwhile, Sean Allen of ESPN.com won the top hockey writer award for the second straight year, making him the second two-time winner in the trophy’s four-year existence. Janet Eagleson of RotoWire won the first two times it was given out.

Here’s the full list of nominees (winners in bold) for the remaining categories …

Best Fantasy Football Publication
Fantasy Football Index
Pro Football Weekly/Yahoo!
RotoWire

Best Football Print Article
Michael Blunda, Pro Football Weekly
Ted Carlson, Fanball
Ben Ice, Fantasy Football Pro Forecast

Best Football Series
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
Adam Levitan, RotoWorld
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire

Football Writer of the Year
Ryan Bonini, KFFL
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Baseball Writer of the Year
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire
Scott White, CBS Sports

College Sports Writer of the Year
John Baker, RapidDraft
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Michael Hurcomb, CBS Sports

Golf Writer of the Year
Rob Bolton, RotoWorld
John McNamara, RotoWire
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Hockey Writer of the Year
Sean Allen, ESPN
Rocky Bonanno, NHL.com
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Best Humor Article
Ladd Biro, Sporting News
Paul Bourdett, RotoExperts
Mike Gilbert, RotoExperts

The sixth year of the FSWA awards again drew a record number of submissions.

Fantasy Sports Writers Association president Mike Beacom said that the group’s board of directors had nearly 1,000 articles to pore over in recent weeks to pare down to the list of finalists announced today that were passed along to the two independent judges.

We’ll get into some of the specific points about this year’s group of contenders, but for now, here’s the full list of finalists. Winners will be announced at the Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference Jan. 26-27 in Las Vegas.

Best Fantasy Football Publication
Fantasy Football Index
Pro Football Weekly/Yahoo!
RotoWire

Best Online Football Article
Dalton Del Don, RotoWire
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Football Print Article
Michael Blunda, Pro Football Weekly
Ted Carlson, Fanball
Ben Ice, Fantasy Football Pro Forecast

Best Football Series
Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
Adam Levitan, RotoWorld
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire

Football Writer of the Year
Ryan Bonini, KFFL
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Fantasy Baseball Publication
Fanball
Fantasy Baseball Index
RotoWire

Best Online Baseball Article
John Rakowski, Sports Grumblings
David Regan, RotoWire
Scott White, CBS Sports

Best Baseball Print Article
James Benard, RotoWire
Will Carroll, RotoWire
Brent Hershey, USA Today Sports Weekly

Best Baseball Series
Jason Grey, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Mark Strausberg, RotoExperts

Baseball Writer of the Year
David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire
Scott White, CBS Sports

Basketball Writer of the Year
Cory Elfrink, Fanball
Tom Lorenzo, RotoExperts
Andre Snellings, RotoWire

College Sports Writer of the Year
John Baker, RapidDraft
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Michael Hurcomb, CBS Sports

Golf Writer of the Year
Rob Bolton, RotoWorld
John McNamara, RotoWire
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Hockey Writer of the Year
Sean Allen, ESPN
Rocky Bonanno, NHL.com
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Racing Writer of the Year
Scott Engel, RotoExperts
Brian Polking, Fanball
Mark Taylor, RotoWire

Best Humor Article
Ladd Biro, Sporting News
Paul Bourdett, RotoExperts
Mike Gilbert, RotoExperts