Here are all of the finalists for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s 2008 Industry Recognition Awards. Only FSTA members are eligible to win, and the membership selects the winners (in bold below) from the final candidates.

Commissioner Product
CBSSports.com Commissioner
ESPN Fantasy League Manager
Fanball.com Football Commissioner
Fantrax
MyFantasyLeague.com (FB)
RealTime Fantasy Sports (FB)

Draft-Style Tool
CBSSports.com Live Draft Room
Mock Draft Central

Draft-Style Contest
CBSSports.com Free Fantasy Football
FanaticFantasyFootball.com LLC (FB)
Fanball Draft and Play MLB (NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR
Head2Head The Draft 2008
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Salary Cap Contest
Fanball Challenge Games
Head2Head Salary Cap Football
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Sports Buff Salary Cap Style Football

Live Event or Contest
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Fantasy Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (FB)
FLW Fantasy Fishing

Unique Contest
Alma Mater Football League
ESPN Streak for the Cash
FLW Fantasy Fishing
Head2Head Match Play Madness
PASPN.Net Mock GM Offseason & Real-time Fantasy Basketball
Pay The Fan Fantasy Sports (FB,Racing)

Innovation
CBSSports.com User Generated Player Updates
ESPN Streak for the Cash
Accuscore.com GMC Fantasy Scout
LeagueSafe.com
Rosterdilemma.com

Draft Kit
CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Downloadable Draft Kit
The Huddle Fantasy Football Draft Kit
ESPN Fantasy Football/Baseball Draft Kit
RotoExperts
RotoWire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
KFFL.com’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide

Draft Assistance Tool
CBSSports.com Mock Drafts
Draft Dynamix Draft Analyzer
Mock Draft Central
RotoLab, DraftLab, HoopLab

Print Ad
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
Fantrax
Fanball - Gatefold (4 Page) Ad in Fantasy Football Index & Fanball Cheat Sheets
LeagueSafe.com
MyFantasyLeague.com
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Football print ad
U-Sports (College FB, BB)

Magazine
Athlon/Grogan’s Fantasy Football Analyst
Baseball HQ - Baseball Forecaster
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY
ESPN The Magazine Fantasy Football Draft Guide (FB)
Fanball Fantasy Football Draft Issue
RotoWire 2008 Fantasy Baseball Guide
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (FB, Baseball)

New Website or Site Update
AOL Sports (FB) Fanhouse
CBSSports.com College Fantasy Football
FantasySportsBusiness.com
FantasySportsGirl.com
LeagueSafe.com
One Season Fantasy sports stock market
RotoExperts
Sports Data Hub

Specialty Products or Services
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
FantasyDispute.com
Fantasy Trophies LLC
LeagueSafe.com
Sports Data Hub
Titlecraft Inc.

Online Content Service
BaseballHQ.com
CBSSports.com Fantasy News Site
ESPN Insider Answer Guys
Fanball - Owner’s Edge NFL
The Huddle Fantasy Football Service
KFFL Hot off the Wire
RotoWire.com
Rotoworld/NBC Sports (All Sports)

Blog
AOL Sports (FB)
ESPN Stephania Bell’s Injury Blog (FB)
Fanball - Godfather of Fantasy Sports Blog
The Fantasy Baseball Sherpa’s Blog
Fantasy Football Sherpa’s Blog
RotoWire’s blog area, also called RotoSynthesis
Sporting News Fantasy Source Blitz blog (FB)
William Del Pilar’s Locker Room Buzz

Podcast
BlogTalkRadio: The Fantasy Sports Channel (FB,BB,Baseball,H)
CBSSports.com FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY(FB)
ESPN Fantasy Focus Baseball
ESPN Fantasy Focus Football
FantasySportsGirl.com
RotoExperts.com Start em and Sit em Sunday

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association will dole out its annual industry awards later this month at its winter business conference. Among the categories to be recognized is Best Podcast. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 5, and the finalists are as follows:

• Blog Talk Radio: Fantasy Sports Channel
• CBSSports.com — Fantasy Football Today
• ESPN — Fantasy Focus Baseball
• ESPN — Fantasy Focus Football
• FantasySportsGirl.com
• RotoExperts.com Start em Sit em Sunday

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association will dole out its annual industry awards later this month at its winter business conference. Among the categories to be recognized is Best Fantasy Magazine. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 5, and the finalists are as follows:

• Athlon/Grogan’s Fantasy Football Analyst
• Baseball HQ — Baseball Forecaster
• CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Today
• ESPN The Magazine Fantasy Football Draft Guide
• Fanball Fantasy Football Draft Issue
• Rotowire 2008 Fantasy Baseball Guide
• Rotoworld/NBC Sports

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?”