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

– Now this is interesting: Athlon Sports just launched this week a premium league-hosting option that allows users to combine college and NFL players in the same pool. FSB.com will have the scoop as soon as we get a chance to talk to the folks involved.

– The Wall Street Journal recently presented a fairly extensive writeup on the fantasy implications of the just-started World Cup, as well as the pitfalls of fitting soccer into a successful fantasy format.

– Yahoo! gets into detail about its new fantasy sports API and YQL tables via its Developer Network Blog. I’d try to sum it up or pick out highlights here if I were a bit smarter.

– MyFantasyLeague.com has partnered with FanDraft, allowing those who purchase the latter’s draft software to easily import results into MFL and save $20 off the MFL league-creation fee.

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A little more than 2 years after introducing its open-source platform — Yahoo! Open Strategy (or Y!OS) — Yahoo! has finally rolled out a fantasy sports open API.

Many (perhaps most) of our readers already know what an application programming interface is. For the less tech-savvy folks like me, it gives outsiders access to coding and other “rich data” within the Yahoo! system that allows you to build your own tools for helping within Yahoo! fantasy games.

“You’ll be able to use this data to build non-commercial tools and applications that help analyze draft results, review free agents, optimize current rosters, and more,” Yahoo! says on the profile page for this new API.

Yahoo! has been opening APIs for other portions of its online universe since April 2008 and was receiving requests for such a fantasy offering at least as far back as 2004.

MyFantasyLeague.com has long offered a similar interface for its fantasy-football functionality, a practice that has led to the development of applications such as the Lineup Coach and Draft Coach that produced a business partnership with Tony Holm and FantasySharks.com.

Yahoo!’s fantasy portal is the most-trafficked on the Web, and developers have taken recent cracks at building iPhone apps to streamline mobile access to these games. It’ll be interesting to see how much builds from this open API and how quickly tools might find their way into mass consumption.

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

– Picklive has announced a free public launch of its immediate, short-term fantasy model to run alongside the World Cup. For those who like the increasing prevalence of daily and weekly fantasy games but can’t stand that unbearable wait for the day to actually end will be able to play “7.5-minute” fantasy matchups during soccer matches and change their lineups as play goes on.

– After selling FFChamps.com in 2006, cousins Ian and Jon Millman recently teamed up with Andrew Miller to buy the content-and-services provider back.

– Yahoo! is rolling out a global sports campaign to accompany the World Cup, including a pick-em style game called World Soccer 2010.

– ESPN.com’s regional sites have garnered plenty of play — particularly during ESPN broadcasts — and drawn many noteworthy writers from newspapers and websites in the areas they serve. The company has now rolled out locally focused iPhone apps to extend the targeted style of coverage.

– This London-based outfit is looking for a similarly British developer for a “fantasy football” site. We can only guess by the location that by “football” they mean “soccer.”

– The guys in charge of Fantasy Knuckleheads have put together a widget that pulls content from a number of fantasy sites. We don’t know exactly which sites are included, but it seems a fair assumption that the Knuckleheads would draw from their own list of recommended outlets.

– The “OCD Chick” is the latest addition to Fantasy Sports Ventures’ Fantasy Players Network.

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.

– The designer of the new FantasyMonster iPhone app says his product enhances the experience for Yahoo! fantasy players managing their teams on the move. Of course, this concept was tried once before, predating Yahoo!’s own iPhone app. The fact that it no longer appears to be live has to make you wonder about the viability of this newest entry, which costs $3.99 to download.

– Wall Street Journal’s Nando Di Fino addresses the Stephen Strasburg hype and hope train in fantasy baseball, adding perspective to the Nationals prospect’s situation by looking back at some previous players whose reputations arrived before they did.

– Fantasy Postseason and Fantasy Judgment have reached an agreement whereby the latter will provide dispute-resolution services for the former’s games through the 2010 MLB playoffs.

– More fantasy outlets are rolling out iPhone apps all the time. This one, Fantasy Football Manager, can help you manage your Premier League fantasy soccer teams.

– Recent FSB profile subject Draft Sharks has launched its redesigned website with content geared toward the 2010 fantasy season.

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