A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– Fantazzle is offering customizable high-stakes fantasy football leagues as part of the SUPERDRAFT event in Las Vegas. Buy-in levels range from $1,000 to $10,000, with customizable league rules and sizes (anywhere from eight to 14 teams). Each level includes at least an 85 percent payout rate to winners.

– We had former Chiefs and Jets kicker Nick Lowery on the RapidDraft.com Fantasy Lunch, our BlogTalkRadio show on Thursday. Although it was enough for us that Lowery — an obviously bright guy and now professional public speaker — was engaging and entertaining, the part that really made it worth a post here came deep into his interview. That was when the veteran of 18 NFL seasons said, “Fantasy football is the best thing that ever happened to football.”

– The Hazean is keeping polls open through Saturday to determine your favorite fantasy football team name for July. I voted for “Stafford Infection” among the 10 options, though I find the leader quite clever in its use of all four Steelers quarterbacks.

– Just like it did for baseball season, RotoWire is offering its fantasy football draft kit as an iPhone app. Among the features is a function that provides player recommendations when you check off the guys who have already been drafted by others.

– FFChamps.com has reached an agreement with Boston-based WEEI.com to offer the former’s fantasy football draft kit through the website for the popular sports talk station.

– Jene Bramel of Footballguys.com takes a turn in the NYTimes.com Fifth Down blog to tell fantasy football folks why they should be playing with individual defensive players and refutes the common arguments against doing so.

– I recently took part in one of eight “Pros vs. Joes” drafts put on by the folks at the Fantasy Football Players Championship, which pits six fantasy players against six fantasy site representatives in each league. Those who didn’t participate can pick the winners for a shot at free 2011 FFPC entries. (Find my squad here — League 5 — and keep in mind that tight ends get 1.5 points per reception and it’s an optimal-scoring format, where you don’t have to set your lineup.)

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

Maurice Jones-Drew isn’t the only fantasy stud looking to build his presence on the other side of the industry.

Ravens running back Ray Rice has announced a partnership with RosterDoc.com, by which he’ll serve as the advertising face of their games.

In his words from the press release: “I want to thank the good people at Roster Doc for bringing me into the world of fantasy football. It’s a great honor to serve as the 2010 Roster Doc Commish. I will be participating this season on behalf of my charity, the Ray Rice Foundation. Being a positive role model and helping out under privileged kids is very close to my heart.”

It’s unclear at this point exactly what Rice’s involvement will entail, but our guess is the promo position mentioned earlier.

Roster Doc joins Fantazzle as game sites that will get Rice representation in 2010, both deals reached via partnership with CurvSports.

Along with its destination site, CurvSports also “delivers an online monetization and brand management strategy for professional athletes, media personalities and celebrities via a unique platform that connects sponsors and fans with the athlete’s entire digital community.” Basically, it seems to broker deals such as these for athletes and other celebrities.

Rice is a big get in these cases, especially when you consider that similar active-athlete presences out in front of fantasy games have generally been limited to Yahoo!’s annual poster player, Adrian Peterson fronting the 2009 NFL.com commissioner product and LaDainian Tomlinson providing his face to FoxSports.com. Anyone who plays fantasy football knows that Rice’s breakout 2009 campaign turned him into a hot name.

Could this setup open the door to more athletes connecting with smaller brands — basically anyone outside the media big boys of the fantasy industry? We’ll see. At the least, it’s a sign of fantasy awareness on the part of a pro athlete.

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– This lengthy story from the Wisconsin State Journal takes a look at three fantasy sports companies based in the Madison, Wis., area — RotoWire, MyFantasyLeague.com, and FanSoft Media — with an eye toward the still-recent emergence of fantasy sports. (Unfortunately, it’s also yet another example of incorrectly crediting Daniel Okrent with inventing fantasy sports — even with the “modern” qualifier attached.)

– The FF Librarian has continued to crunch her Accuracy Challenge numbers and found Ask the Commish to be the top three-year performer in projecting fantasy tight ends.

– Fantazzle has launched a free-to-play fantasy game for the upcoming 2010 World Series of Poker, with the top prize a seat in the 2011 event.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

A roundup of items recently posted on the FSB News page.

– Nando Di Fino of The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at the allure of World Cup fantasy games for several companies, beginning with the official FIFA game sponsored by McDonald’s. Unfortunately, he also followed the false step of ESPN’s “Silly Little Game” in crediting Daniel Okrent with inventing fantasy sports. If the creator of Rotisserie scoring is bitter about the money being made off “his” game, just imagine how it feels to have been playing fantasy sports in the 1960s and then see various national media giving credit to a bunch of folks young enough to be your children.

– Middle Eastern firm Quirkat is supporting a Facebook app that presents World Cup fantasy “football” in three languages: Arabic, English and French.

– Fantazzle has struck a deal via Curv Sports to add Ravens running back Ray Rice as a sponsor for some of its games.

– Bloomberg Sports recently launched an iPhone app to provide its analytical baseball product to mobile users.

– Plenty of outlets have their fantasy offering for the World Cup, but the site launched by ad agency Host presents something different: A game that awards dirty play. Top scores will be achieved by “moments of utter filth, times of unforeseeable but creative cheating.”

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).