The Fantasy Sports Writers Association is accepting nominations through the end of the year for its fifth annual writing awards.

The awards encompass football, baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing, golf and now college sports. The FSWA selects a writer of the year in each of those sports and also presents several awards for top articles and running features in the premier fantasy fields of football and baseball.

This is the first year that the FSWA has included college sports in the list. According to FSWA president Mike Beacom, the recent growth of fantasy college sports helped to spur increased interest in the FSWA that was already evident last year at awards time.

“The 2007 FSWA Awards witnessed a record number of nominations and we are confident this year we will top that mark,” Beacom wrote in the association’s November newsletter, which announced the nomination period. “The FSWA welcomed close to 100 new members during the course of the past year.”

Writers must be enrolled in the FSWA to nominate candidates or win an award. Author names and affiliations are removed for the judging process, and winners are ultimately determined by independent college journalism professors, according to the FSWA. Those interesting in submitting nominations can use the online form any time before the end of the year. Anyone submitting for Magazine of the Year in baseball or football should mail three copies of the publication to the following address:

FSWA
c/o Mike Beacom
P,O, Box 296
Amherst, WI 54406

Awards will be presented at the 2009 Fantasy Sports Trade Association winter business conference in Florida on Jan. 27-28. Last year’s winners included Rotoworld’s Gregg Rosenthal for top football writer, Rotowire’s Jeff Erickson for top baseball writer, Rotowire’s Andre’ Snellings for basketball, Rotowire’s Janet Eagleson for hockey, ESPN’s Christopher Harris for auto racing and CBS Sports’ Ross Davenport for golf.

RotoExperts has signed on to sponsor the Fantasy Sports Trade Association winter business conference.

“RotoExperts is excited about our industry’s direction and the strategic partnerships we’ve developed in such a short period of time,” says Ben Ice, founder of RotoExperts. “Our goal in 2009 is to continue to establish relationships within the industry, and this is a great opportunity to get in front of them.”

The conference is set for January 27 and 28 in St. Pete’s Beach, Fla., and will include the presentation of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association annual awards.

Fantasy players tend to spend more money, particularly on the products commonly marketed to sports fans, according to a recent study by Ipsos Public Affairs.

The study, commissioned by the Fantasy Sports Association, determined that 73 percent of fantasy sports participants had bought beer within a month of the survey. Compare that number to 47 percent of the general population and even just 52 percent of all sports fans, and you get a good example of the buying power that the average fantasy consumer brings.

“We need to tell Madison Avenue that we’re not just this small, nichey geek audience,” Greg Ambrosius, FSA president and editor of Fantasy Sports Magazine, told Sports Business Journal. “This gives us the next step into really seeing who the fantasy consumer is. In the ’90s, we were often positioned simply as fantasy geeks. But looking at this, we’re really big-time consumers.”

This study supports previous findings in similar studies, including those conducted by Ipsos for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Especially at a time when consumers are increasingly nervous about their spending habits and companies are more cautious with their ad dollars, it helps to realize the kind of bang that can reside in a fantasy buck.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is taking nominations for its industry awards through Nov. 10. Voting will take place in December, with the winners to be announced at the winter business conference in Florida on January 27-28. Nominees much be FSTA members.

– Forecasts for the online advertising marketplace seem to be bipolar, but eMarketer projects a continuation of double-digit growth through this year and next.

– Bryce McRae has joined the ranks of the managing editors at KFFL.

– The Knight Commission debated the impact of fantasy college football on Monday, particularly in relation to the broader question of whether to pay athletes. It still seems as though everyone involved in this area of the fantasy debate, though, is mistaken about the role and impact of fantasy.

– Real Time Sports is using performance and breadth of participation to rank all of its users in a single, 225-person fantasy football hierarchy. “Troy R.” leads with first-place standing in eight leagues and second in seven others at present.