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

– STATS has announced an extension of its major college football coverage for this season. Namely: The company will now offer play by play for all FBS games, X-info to reflect details that don’t appear in the typical box score and a mobile Web product, among other features.

– Anyone with an ESPN.com Insider subscription can read the upcoming ESPN the Magazine profile of the World Championship of Fantasy Football. (It’ll be in the July 26 issue.) Apparently competing in the WCOFF “takes a special kind of player.”

– Time.com counts fantasy sports among the nine strangest things that one can insure.

– We assumed that opening the Yahoo! Sports fantasy API meant opening up every sport that the company treats. Apparently it didn’t, though, as this quick blog post relays that basketball and hockey are now available.

– KeeperCommish.com is rolling out a new service to help keeper-league football manage the extended strategy that their format entails.

– This blogger says that his fantasy baseball league with 12 tracking categories fundamentally presents too much for the human brain to effectively process at a time — then tells business folks that they could use the example to improve how they instruct their sales reps.

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Name: Ron Shandler
Nickname: none
Job title(s): Editor and Publisher of BaseballHQ.com, Author of Baseball Forecaster
Full-time in fantasy? Yes, since 1994
Age: 52
Education: BBA Marketing, MBA Management Science, both from Hofstra University
Family status: Married, two daughters (17 and 19)
Favorite fantasy sport to play: Baseball
Favorite sport to watch: Baseball and hockey
Favorite team (any sport): New York Mets
All-time favorite athlete: Tom Seaver
Years playing fantasy: 26

I got my start in the fantasy industry when:
Started publishing the annual Baseball Forecaster in 1986.

Since then, my fantasy résumé includes:
Baseball Forecaster annual book (1986-present)
Baseball Forecaster monthly newsletter (1987-1998)
BaseballHQ.com (1996-present)
First Pitch Forum conference series (1994-present)
RotoHQ.com (established 2001)
Other books published: Forecasting Pitching Careers (1995), Pitchers Almanac (1997), Fantasy Baseball Workbook (1999-2000), Graphical Player (2005-2008), Minor League Baseball Analyst (2006-present), Baseball Injury Annual (2007)

Three questions

1. What was different about the information and methods you brought to light with the 1986 debut of Baseball Forecaster? How did your audience for that title change with the growth of fantasy?

Originally, it wasn’t all that different. My intent for the Forecaster was to provide a centralized source for readers to enjoy the works of many sabermetricians — Bill James, Pete Palmer, etc. — so I presented current data using their formulas and some of my own. Adding projected player rankings in 1988 is what opened up the fantasy market.

2. Many fantasy players and writers dream of working with a professional sports team, an opportunity you got and then walked away from. What about that job didn’t appeal to you? Would you consider another position in MLB going forward?

In 2004, after 11 years out of Corporate America, I was running a successful company. I was quite content with making my own decisions and the independence that goes along with that. Major league teams are run just like any other major corporation — endless bureaucracy, layers of decision-making, stunted communication channels, office politics, etc. I’d consider owning a team, but being an employee again? Not likely.

3. What is it about baseball and its numbers that draws you there rather than to other sports?

Baseball is divided up into easily measurable events, unlike most other sports where the action is more fluid. As such, the sport lends itself to more accessible analysis of individual performance. It also lulls us into believing we can create projections based on this data, which is why it was a natural for fantasy applications.

Bonus: In the Fantasyland film, we saw your disbelief at being met at your door by a trade-talking Jed Latkin. After that encounter, do you just let others in your family answer the door instead?

Ha! At 10:30 in the morning, I am typically the only one home. You can just imagine what it is like when you have a mile-long To-Do list sitting on your desk, and Jed Latkin and a cameraman show up at your door asking for a few hours of your time.

As we’ve reported here, the March acquisition of PA SportsTicker by STATS effectively cuts the field of sports information delivery companies down to two — STATS and The Sports Network.

FSB.com recently shared some answers from STATS executive vice president Steve Byrd on the deal, so now it’s time to hear from the other competitor who remains in the arena.

Mickey Charles, founded The Sports Network and continues to serve as president and CEO. He took some time this week to talk to FSB.com about the effects of the STATS-PA Sport deal.

What was your reaction to the news of STATS’ deal with PA Sport?

Flat line. It’s not something that stirs any of us at TSN one way or the other, frankly, although lessening the players on the field is a welcome result. Truth be known, it’s a situation wrought with obtaining additional clients — whether they will choose to stay with the company that has absorbed Ticker should be up to them, but I doubt that will be the case. Clients who were Ticker clients will have to make that determination for themselves and should be permitted to do so but that is not our choice. I don’t think anything changes in the competitive atmosphere, and I don’t feel that protestations by anyone to the contrary will manifest themselves in reality. It hasn’t affected us adversely. If anything it’s been good for us.

How does it affect the landscape of the sports information delivery field?

It boils the industry down to the two of us. Anyone else is a pretender to whatever throne exists — redistributors. In the world of news, there’s the Associated Press and others who have tread on their territory or established their own … folks like Reuters, AFP, Kyoto. In our world, there’s us and our competition. That should play well for anyone seeking content. It’s easy — if you’re a female, do you go into Victoria’s Secret or Frederick’s of Hollywood. Nobody else really does what they do. Nike or Reebok, Bloomingdale’s or Neiman Marcus, Budweiser or Miller. The client now has to make a determination.

The choice actually has become easier. The client or prospect might not think that. Instead, they’ll think they have the chance of being screwed by both — only way to say it and not so. The client will say, “Well, if I also had doors C, D and E, then I’d have more choices.” That’s true, you have a bigger selection. But, with A and B, if one door is easier to enter than the other … isn’t that easier?

How significant is the race to broaden international sports offerings?

When you get into the international arena, you can possibly encounter other, more localized wire services but, for what we each do, it’s going to be an interesting race. The place where I shall give way a bit is getting more potential clients abroad to be familiar with us. If there’s an area where we need to catch up, it is presence abroad. Maybe that’s what PA Sport brought to their party. If the relationship with PA Sport (and SportsTicker) was so good, however, they wouldn’t have been bleeding money nor found the necessity to divest themselves of a company that was, literally, given to them. Not, as we are all aware, was anyone interested in acquiring PA Sport when it was put on the market.

We cover every match on the planet for soccer and are now adding cricket and rugby in major fashion. Additionally, the manner in which we cover soccer abroad will be replicated in our forthcoming coverage of international basketball and ice hockey. We cover every tennis and golf match, auto race, Olympics with staff in attendance and more.

What would you say to someone who worries that less competition in the field of stat and information delivery will negatively impact cost and service for the customer?

I would counter with a lack of understanding of the question were it directed at us. Our level of service to customers has been, without question or fear of contradiction, exemplary on a 24-7 basis. As for cost of service, it is a discussion point that is, from our perspective, filled with accommodation, understanding of the financial malaise being experienced globally, adapting to budget parameters without lessening product offered and realizing that modifications and adjustments are the order of the day. You do not advantage a situation like this; you work within it.

Last month’s acquisition of PA SportsTicker by STATS altered the landscape of sports information delivery, and not nearly enough time has passed to tell us what it will mean for our industry.

Obvious questions concern the effects on cost, innovation, customer service and employment, but the race to expand international coverage is also becoming central more important all the time.

To get the discussion started, FSB.com asked a few questions of STATS executive vice president Steve Byrd.

First of all, what does this deal change for customers who already subscribed to feeds from either STATS or SportsTicker? Will those existing customers notice anything different?

STATS clients will not notice any difference in their service. PA SportsTicker clients will receive both more accurate and timely information than they have received before.

Why did STATS decide to acquire SportsTicker?

STATS has evolved into a global company in recent years. The acquisition of SportsTicker was just a part of several overseas initiatives STATS is doing with UK based PA Sport.

What would you say to someone who worries that less competition in the field of stat and information delivery will negatively impact cost and service for the customer?

They should not worry. STATS will be honoring the existing contracts of all SportsTicker clients. They are, however, receiving better and more accurate services from STATS. They will also have the option to receive deeper and richer data offerings that PA SportsTicker did not provide - including award winning Associated Press editorial and photos.

Beyond the existing STATS/SportsTicker customer base, what would you say to the average leader of a small or mid-sized business in the sports industry who is worried that decreased competition in the delivery of sports information will negatively affect cost and service?

We don’t understand that worry. Numerous sports information options remain. At STATS, we offer the most in-depth information and the highest performance standards at a consistent value.

What does the deal mean for the fantasy arm of STATS? Are there any changes or new offerings planned that relate to this?

STATS’ fantasy sports division will see little change. PA SportsTicker was not in the business of building and hosting fantasy games. They did have a small number of clients in the fantasy space who received data feeds — those clients will now receive their feeds from STATS and will enjoy more accurate and timely delivery of those feeds.