A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– Scott Engel and Paul Bourdett of RotoExperts will join Fantasy Sports Channel managing editor Marc Ronick for nine hours of coverage from the FSTA winter business conference’s first day on Tuesday. The programming will stream live on BlogTalkRadio.

– The sports stock-market site has nailed down $3.5 million in Series A funding. As part of the new deals, OneSeason has also added new members to its board of directors and advisory board, most notably hall of fame safety Ronnie Lott.

– KFFL’s Tim Heaney — a 2008 FSWA finalist for Best Baseball Article in Print — rounds up news on players from the Caribbean leagues who are or will be worth the attention of fantasy owners. KFFL also features similar roundups from the Arizona Fall League (AL and NL) and the Hawaiian Winter Baseball league.

– Professional angler and ESPN Outdoors commentator Kevin Short wonders aloud (in writing) why there’s a bigger purse on the FLW fantasy fishing contest than on the fishing tour itself.

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 Unique Contest. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 5, and the finalists are as follows:

• 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

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– FLW Fantasy Fishing is growing an already-record prize pool for its second year of competition.

– A panel on Wednesday at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum actually discussed the possibility of using fantasy leagues to generate some funding for colleges and universities dealing with the tough economy. The USA Today article only brings it up at the end, and then only mentions the already-public opposition of Knight Commission executive director Amy Perko to all things college fantasy, so it’s evident that little if anything came from it. Nevertheless, such a public discussion is interesting in its mere existence.

Back in August, FLW Outdoors made fantasy history by delivering the first million-dollar grand prize. Even those fantasy providers who can’t afford seven-figure purses, though, should be able to take something away from the contest’s success.

When any new fantasy venture seeks to pay out enormous prizes, the common worry has to be how it will come up with the funding and how long it will take for such a game to turn a profit — helping to ensure its existence. No such worry was necessary in this case, though.

“We don’t expect to make money on the fantasy fishing game,” FLW Outdoors founder Irwin Jacobs tells FSB.com.

Jacobs came up with the concept as a way to generate interest in the Wal-Mart FLW Tour bass-fishing tournaments as well as an entry point to Genmar, reportedly the world’s largest producer of boats for recreational use (such as fishing), which Jacobs also owns. Drawing consumers to the fishing tournaments also leads them to the tour’s many sponsors. Those fans who latch own can show the kind of brand loyalty commonly seen among NASCAR fans.

“More so than NASCAR fans,” Jacobs says. “The power of this group is enormous. If a mother has a husband and children who love fishing, she’s been very supportive of the products.”

And Jacobs says that the fantasy competition succeeding in drawing new fans to the Tour.

“Most of the winners had never had a rod and reel in their hands,” he says.

Good for them, you might be saying to yourself, but I don’t have a million dollars to hand out and fantasy is my business. I’m not looking to sell something else.

Other companies are looking to sell, though, and the fantasy industry can deliver relatively affluent, attentive consumers and a growing market. As we’ve reported here before, the field of fantasy sports players is growing at a rate of about 23 percent per year, and those players spend four to six hours a week tending to their teams online.

The big purse was the main draw to the FLW Fantasy Fishing game, and although most fantasy sites can’t support such large sums, top brands looking for new ways to reach consumers could. Gillette, Coors Light and Coke Zero are among those that have already sought out new paths to fantasy players.