Posts Tagged ‘footballguys’

NFL Ensures Ri-Vick-ulous Fantasy Finish to 2010

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

When the NFL moved the Eagles and Vikings away from Sunday night, there’s no reason to doubt safety as the motive. The unintended consequence: fantasy aggravation.

You can call it ramping up the excitement if you want, but the point is that fantasy players around the country are waiting at least a day longer to find out who wins — a situation only magnified by the inclusion of the Eagles and their multitude of fantasy resources. In many cases, significant money hangs in the balance.

The World Championship of Fantasy Football, for instance, had six teams among the top 10 entering Week 16 that await Eagles-Vikings results. Leader Jeff Schinker may need some help from Philly receiver Jeremy Maclin to hold off a second-place squad relying on Vick and Adrian Peterson. Holding on will mean a difference of $250,000 in prize money.

At RapidDraft.com, Week 16 began with Michael Vick quarterbacking eight of the top 10 teams in the race for $100,000 and a few others such as Eagles kicker David Akers and the Philadelphia defense in position to come into play. With only the Tuesday night game to go, however, it appears that leader Jeff James — with Vick at quarterback — is safe.

The inaugural season of the Footballguys Players Championship also sports a $100K grand prize and plenty of Vick, as seven of the top 10 entering the final week employed the Philly passer. As it stands, Ryan Strickler’s second-place team can claim victory with just 13 points from Vick, well below the quarterback’s per-game average this season.

Similarly, the Fantasy Football Players Championship — the main event put on by the company that partners with Footballguys on their contest — has Tuesday night players breathing down the neck of the current leader. Richard Risinger clings to a mere 7-point lead, with the second-place HOGS sporting Maclin and the Philadelphia defense and the third-place Syracuse Slappers running out Vick and Peterson. The winner there takes $100,000 as well.

The National Fantasy Football Championship has to look a little further down the leaderboard but finds Tuesday-night intrigue nonetheless. As pointed out by founder Greg Ambrosius on the site’s message board (with help from some other members), the sixth-place team could overtake the current leader with a big combined performance from Vick and LeSean McCoy. On top of that, the ninth-place team remains alive despite a 75.38-point deficit because it has Vick, DeSean Jackson and Percy Harvin yet to go.

With another $100,000 targeted for the NFFC winner, that’s a total of $700,000 in fantasy winnings with at least some tie to tonight’s game … and that’s only a snapshot of first-place money for five national contests. Imagine the scenarios when you extend to all paying spots in these competitions and the rest of the leagues and contests out there.

Whether the NFL realized it or not, moving the Eagles-Vikings primetime game two days back promised to make the finish to this fantasy football season more interesting and memorable.

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Mashable Likes These 10 Fantasy Football Sites

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Any time you see a list of the top 10 anything, you know that a fair bit of subjectivity went into the selections and you probably take the list with a grain of salt.

That said, you won’t find many more trusted resources for “all things Web” than Mashable.com, with its 3 million-plus unique visitors a month and more than 2 million Twitter followers. So when that site comes out with its “Top 10 Fantasy Football Sites to Help You Win,” it’s at least worth passing along.

The article doesn’t specifically say that the list represents a ranking, but the whole numbering thing seems to indicate as much. Here are the sites that Mashable’s Miranda Lin likes best, with a snippet of her comments for each …

1. Footballguys.com – “Having up-to-the-minute breaking news is the life-blood of any fantasy footballer, and Football Guys’ network of writers and inside sources is one of the best in the business, producing an “avalanche of news” that will keep you ahead of the game.”

2. RotoWorld.com – “The speed and quality of their newswire is second only to Football Guys and their ‘On Demand Draft Guide’ ($14.99) produces an easily printable document filled with player profiles and stat projections, ADP reports, rookie rankings, depth charts and injury reports that are updated in real-time and tailored to your league settings.”

3. The Huddle — “The Huddle has it all: Cheatsheets, player profiles and rankings, mock drafts, game predictions, free agent reports, start/bench advice and stat trackers. … But what really sets The Huddle apart are its forums.”

4. Fantasy Sharks — “This is the only site on this list that is 100% free — and it doesn’t give up anything in quality.”

5. FFChamps.com — “The site’s crown jewel is the FFC Performance Index, an in-season ranking and projection system that calculates which of your players will have the best outing.”

6. Football Docs — “Apparently the Football Docs’ advanced degrees in engineering have also given them an inside track on fantasy football trends, draft tactics, lineup decision-making, and player rankings and projections.”

7. CBSSports.com — “Although it’s not as organized or as user-friendly as some of the other sites, it’s hard to argue with the quality of CBS Sports’ product.”

8. Pro Football Reference — “Doug Drinen has put together a super-organized, easy-to-navigate collection of football statistics that allows users to search any aspect of a team or player’s performance throughout history.”

9. Draft Sharks — “With a sleek-looking interface that provides custom tailored cheatsheets (called MVP Boards), weekly player rankings, newsy and gossipy articles, personalized trade advice and in-season strength of season updates, Draft Sharks believes it can ‘out-analyze other websites.’”

10. ESPN.com — “In addition to the usual news and analysis from its stable of experts, including five-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) award-winner Matt Berry (aka ‘The Talented Mr. Roto’), ESPN has begun to offer a variety of services across different media platforms.”

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FSB Daily 7/30: Fantazzle, Nick Lowery, Name Game, RotoWire, More

Friday, July 30th, 2010

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).

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FSB Daily 7/21: Yahoo!, Footballguys, FF Calculator, Sporting News

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

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

– Apparently frustrated Android-owning fantasy football players will finally get their wish when Yahoo! introduces a team-management app for the line of smart phones in time for this season.

– Footballguys.com has partnered with FantasyFootballCalculator.com to attach its Rate My Team application to FF Calculator mock drafts.

– SportingNews.com has rolled out a redesigned site for its Fantasy Source subscription area.

– One always has to take message-board threads with at least a dash of salt, but this is an interesting discussion from the Rotoworld boards about player opinions of fantasy basketball “experts.” There are some fantasy analysts in various sports who take their words as gospel, so it’s good to get a dose from time to time of some thoughts within the target audience.

– SportsBusinessSims.com, supports and markets platforms that allow students (think college) to try their hand at making business decisions for sports entities. This promotional video leads off with the proposal of making the XFL work (if “He Hate Me” couldn’t do it, I don’t know …) and the “flagship” product centered on the Oakland Athletics.

– The SUPERDRAFT Vegas fantasy football event has announced that it will include a performance by Snoop Dogg. No word on whether the Pop Warner football coach will also drop some knowledge (or is that knizz-owledge?).

– ESPN the company will reportedly work more closely with ESPN The Magazine going forward, a move that includes moving much of the staff from New York City to Bristol.

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

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