TheBigLead.com has the comScore traffic numbers for sports sites in June and reports that Fox Sports and Fanhouse experienced bigger drops than others among the top 10.

Per TBL, Fox — which did still rank third in June behind Yahoo! and ESPN — dropped to 12.57 million unique visitors from 15.1 million in June 2008 and 13.67 million in May 2009.

Fanhouse dipped from fifth in May to sixth in June, going from 9.7 million uniques down to 8.44 million. TBL points out that the site drew 11.01 million unique visitors last December before announcing the additions of prominent sportswriters including Jay Mariotti and Kevin Blackistone to the blogger staff.

Fanhouse also shed the “AOL Sports” flag back in January and relaunched as the company’s primary sports entity. Judging by 2008 numbers, the recent acquisition of MMAFighting.com and the run-up to football season on AOL’s fantasy games site, FleaFlicker.com, could add a couple hundred thousand uniques a month through late summer and fall.

Fox Sports, as well, is likely looking for its recent deal with OPENSports.com to enhance its fantasy products and boost site traffic.

Here’s the June comScore Top 10 in full (numbers include subsidiary sites):

1. Yahoo! Sports — 24.77 million unique visitors (27.14 million in May)

2. ESPN — 20.98 million (20.51 million)

3. Fox Sports — 12.57 million (14.62 million)

4. MLB.com — 11.54 million (12.42 million)

5. Fantasy Sports Ventures — 8.51 million (8.74 million)

6. Fanhouse — 8.44 million (9.7 million)

7. CBS Sports — 6.64 million (7.17 million)

8. NBA.com — 6.24 million (8.25 million)

9. NFL.com — 6.03 million (6.33 million)

10. Sports Illustrated sites — 4.44 million (4.5 million)

“We may not make it into the top 3 in year 1 of this, but certainly expect to be there in a short period of time.”

That is the stated expectation of Fox Sports Interactive Senior VP of Operations Jeff Husvar in Tuesday’s Sports Business Daily report of the fantasy deal struck between Fox and OPEN Sports.

According to the report, the multiyear partnership will begin with the coming football season, include baseball in 2010 and extend to other unspecified sports beyond that.

The football offerings will include a standard commissioner-style setup, a commissioner game that allows “real-time” substitutions during NFL games and the “shorter-form” Fox Fantasy Quick Challenge that sounds like it will probably fit into the growing stable of weekly fantasy games.

“We’re looking to make a very big statement to the marketplace,” Husvar told SBD. That statement will begin in earnest Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game, when the new fantasy setup is due to get a 20-second spot on-air. Husvar also reportedly said he is talking with fellow Fox executives to figure out how to better integrate fantasy into the network’s studio offerings. (Apparently he’s not satisfied with Brian Baldinger, Troy Aikman and co. picking one “fantasy stud” before each game.)

As for the plan to join the “big three” of mainstream fantasy sites within a year, that seems like a pretty lofty goal. Yahoo, ESPN and CBS Sports all sit way ahead of Fox in that race with gaggles of engaged, returning customers.

The one area that could gain Fox a foothold is if the in-game substitution model works out. Nearly all of us play in formats that require lineups to be set before kickoff, so this newer concept could be intriguing. Of course, we here at FSB.com would like to reserve true judgment on the concept until we learn more about it. SBD’s story says that each football offering will provide free-play options, though it’s not clear if Fox plans to build pay products as well.

No financial terms were announced for the deal, but the partnership is reportedly designed to end up giving Fox part ownership of OPEN Sports. It’s also worth noting that Husvar and OPEN Sports founder Mike Levy were once colleagues at CBSSportsline.com. (Levy, of course, founded Sportsline before CBS acquired it.)

(Click here for the official press release.)

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– CBSSports.com announced the availability of its 2009 suite of fantasy baseball products on Monday. Included in the launch is the addition of auction-draft software.

– AOL’s Fanhouse has signed with NBC Local to syndicate relevant content on NBC Local sites. It’s the first syndication deal for Fanhouse.

– If you’re waiting to get your Australian rugby fantasy team going on Fox Sports for 2009, make sure you do so before the season opens on March 13.

– New job posting: Writers for The Biz of Baseball.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com.

It’s been a tough year in Detroit, but it could yet end with a championship. Of course, the path runs through Cleveland.

Yes, we all know that the Lions are well out of contention for anything but eternal infamy and the No. 1 overall draft pick, and the Browns have been one of the most disappointing teams in the NFL this season. WDFN-AM’s Rob Otto, however, is representing his city in the title match of Sprint’s NFL Mobile Live Fantasy Football League against Branson Wright of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

“We decided to do this last year as a way to allow media members the ability to experience the full capabilities of NFL Mobile Live for themselves,” said Dave Mellin, public relations manager for Sprint Nextel. “The application allows our customers to manage their fantasy team from a phone, get real-time text alerts when any of the players on your fantasy team scored, get breaking news, injury reports and more.”

The league, finishing its second season, brings together some sports personalities from larger media markets around the country — and even a couple of fantasy guys. The owners that were shed by this year’s finalists include Fox Sports TV’s Andrew Siciliano (Los Angeles), former NFL kicker Al Del Greco of WJOX-AM in Tennessee, KRON-TV’s Vern Glen (San Francisco), ESPN Radio’s John Kincade (Atlanta), 790 AM’s Kevin Rogers (Miami), WLS-AM’s Roe Conn (Chicago), KRKO-AM’s Jeff “The Fish” Aaron (Seattle), KCTV’s Leif Lisec (Kansas City), Sports Grumblings’ John Georgopoulos and Jeff Thomas, founder of SportsBuff.com and FSB.com and president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

In addition to promoting the Sprint service and affording the opportunity for some bragging rights, the league awards $5,000 to its champion’s charity of choice. Otto has said that on top of the check, he would require that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame be moved to Motown, although there’s no truth to the rumor that his charity is the Rob Otto Fund. Siciliano took home the 2007 championship.

The group went from 14 last season to a more traditional 12 this year, including the addition of Georgopoulos.

Each team still playing could have some trouble at quarterback this weekend, with Otto choosing between Philip Rivers (at Tampa) and Jake Delhomme (at N.Y. Giants), and Wright down to Matt Ryan (at Minnesota) and Ben Roethlisberger (at Tennessee), at least as of Thursday night. Each did start the weekend well, though, with Team Detroit finding 89 total yards and a touchdown in the form of Indy’s Dominic Rhodes and Team Cleveland getting 108 yards and a score from Reggie Wayne.