Posted Jan. 28, 2012 @ 1:44 p.m. ET

By William Del Pilar

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) winter conference took place Jan. 16-17 and featured Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew, who took part in the “Power Tweeters” panel. There was an experts baseball draft, awards and honors were given out and a good time was had by everyone involved.

The trade conference has been going on for years, and its origins go back to the Fantasy Insights ‘98 Fantasy Football Convention. Geared toward fans, that convention, we were told, could draw tens of thousands of attendees. Then, that number became thousands, and finally the day before it began, we were told how strongly they were advertising and expecting an influx off the street. To say early ticket sales were down would be a gross understatement. Looking back, I would guess 20-50 individuals came through the two-day event. No one was upset. There was too much excitement generated just by meeting one another in a new industry and understanding we were trailblazers. It was an exciting time.

Now that I’m older, I have an appreciation for those days and what we were doing. We could sense a great future, though we knew there would be battles in the beginning to convince the government that fantasy sports was not gambling.

Some of the exhibitors began to talk about forming an association, and that was the logical move. Especially since the NFL was sending out cease-and-desist letters to both content and commissioner sites. The league claimed it owned the rights to statistics but didn’t exclude content companies from its attacks. Eventually, the NFL came around, and it was MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) that was taken to court.

CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc., the parent company of CDM Sports, was denied a license to use player statistics, forcing the company to sue. This brought the elephant in the room to the forefront in a decision that would make or break the industry. Realize this: We were a young industry, and many could have lost years of work and jobs. Once we had built an industry, the professional leagues were now ready to take control of it.

The issue was license fees for statistics. At the time possibly a dozen companies were paying fees, but that number always changed. The ESPNs and Yahoo!s of the world and the venture-backed companies usually had licenses. Those who could afford it. The leagues were generating a fraction of the dollars they felt they should, but they were generating some fees. Now, everything was on the line. This helped unite the industry, and the courts eventually ruled against the pro leagues. It was a great day, and I remember the association at a conference giving Charlie Wiegert, the face of CDM, a thunderous round of applause. Who says the little guy can’t win?

The FSTA has gone through many changes in leadership and members, but the core group of individuals are still there. Now many are being honored yearly with induction into the FSTA and Fantasy Sports Writers Association’s halls of fame. It’s always special and exciting to see friends, including employees of my now-former company, to talk shop and look toward the future while enjoying the present. It’s hard to believe it’s going on 14 years since the first time this industry informally met, and it’s still growing in stature and respectability.

FSTA winter conference highlights

SiriusXM Radio broadcast the FSTA experts league baseball draft live, and it was the second time it did this. There’s no better way to maximize a draft than having a radio show dedicated to it. It’s a big step forward as experts leagues are all about their drafts and analyzing them. Once a team drafts, everyone’s mental frame moves into in-season mode, and those outside the players don’t care who wins. Maximizing the day of the draft is where the focus should be.

While the draft is a big event, if you’re not involved in it, you usually have no interest. Bottom line: Do you want to stand in a room and listen to a person pick a team that you have nothing invested in? Not really, and that’s just human nature, so the radio format makes sense.

The Power Tweeters panel was when Maurice Jones-Drew made his appearance with Steve Gardner of USA Today and Matthew Berry of ESPN. It was a lively debate, and they gave tips on how they feel Twitter should be used, how they view themselves within Twitter and the pros and cons they’ve experienced.

MJD was asked about his Twitter comments regarding Bears QB Jay Cutler and his injury in the 2010 NFC championship game, and Berry talked about having to write a retraction after passing information along without first verifying it. The point to remember is that you can’t take back what you post on Twitter. For those who know me and my love of politics, that point is well taken by yours truly.

MJD is not tall but stocky, yet you would never think he’s a professional football player. There’s no denying his passion and heart to play his profession and how much he’s had to overcome. He’s someone for all of us to look up to. He enjoys the game of fantasy football, and there was a good back-and-forth on where Berry had him ranked. MJD was stating his case to be the No. 1 running back heading into 2012.

Remember, he led the league in rushing in 2011. For me, seeing MJD is one of the perks of the association as it has brought in personalities from MJD to Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon to the former head of the MLB Players Association, Donald Fehr. Being in the industry, I hear the stories the public often doesn’t. Nothing major, just more detailed insight from those who know a person or have worked with him before. It’s just a part of the job that makes it more enjoyable.

Although not of much interest to most attendees, being Latino, I found the Latino market pitch interesting. The Elevator pitch is when new companies highlight who they are and what they do. Fut11.com is providing fantasy soccer in Mexico. Latinos have a passion for soccer, boxing, basketball and baseball, and not in that order, depending on what country you’re in. The numbers are nowhere near where they need to be, but it’s a different market, and one that will require patience and financial support before a profit that would interest investors is possible. They’re slowly growing and are looking for ways to expand. Eventually a company like that will catch the eye of venture capital or as a possible acquisition by a larger organization. Fantasy sports continues to grow around the world.

Tableau Software is a technology I found interesting, and it’s been used in other industries. When the company opened it up to other users, it found a big response from the fantasy sports community, the stats guys, but this industry is merely a drop of their real revenue. I’m glad someone over there at least introduced it to the fantasy community. It allows the user to create maps, bars and line charts among its many features. This tool has the potential for bloggers to relay visually what they’re trying to say with normal charts and columns created quickly and in various formats. It’s a software that I am looking forward to trying as I always use statistical numbers to back up my points. You can see some of the visual samples Tableau can do here.

There was so much more information and companies to network with. If you’re a company in the industry and you’re not attending the conferences, it’s a shame, as you’re missing out on a lot of information and networking opportunities.

In fact, when the conferences first began, most of the companies would gather at the hotel lounge, as Las Vegas was where most of the events were held early on. It was a great time, but that stopped for many years as most would go off on their own and enjoy an evening with work friends or business partners.

However, this year was like old times as many ended up in the same lounge at the Mirage in Las Vegas instead of going out. It was nice because most of those individuals were the ones who founded this industry. It was great to see RotoWire, Yahoo! Sports, KFFL, ESPN and Fantasy Diehard’s Emil Kadlec, who co-founded the high-stakes industry and is the publisher of the longest-running fantasy magazine still around. While different, it was reminiscent of old times for this industry veteran.

As we were chatting, I looked over and mentioned this to Kadlec and jokingly wondered if age had anything to do with the familiar faces around. Once young and single, many of us are now married, and some have kids. With receding hair lines and expanded waistlines and after a hearty dinner and awards banquet, going out all night on the town in Vegas and making new memories took a backseat. Most ended up relaxing, talking shop with old friends and enjoying the past and present, as well as eying the future with a positive outlook.

Since its formation in 1999, the FSTA remains the same at its core, with many of the industry’s founders still actively involved. It’s easy to stay part of an industry when most of us feel we have the best jobs in the world. I can’t end this without a hearty thank-you to Paul Charchian and Megan Van Patten for putting on an outstanding event.

USA TODAY fantasy family gets a major addition

By Steve Gardner, USA TODAY

USA TODAY’s Sports Media Group announced Tuesday the acquisition of Fantasy Sports Ventures and Big Lead Sports in a deal that will bring a significant collection of fantasy resources under one umbrella. USA TODAY’s parent company, Gannett Inc., already owned a 30% stake in Big Lead Sports and this deal just completed the purchase.

Fantasy sports players will recognize many of the sites that are part of Big Lead, including BaseballHQ.com, KFFL.com and Baseball-Reference.com to name just a few.

While we don’t know just yet how our sites will all fit together, we do know that we’ve already established great working relationships with many of those sites. The deal seems to indicate there are bigger and better things on the horizon.

• MORE: Big Lead Sports FAQ

“(T)his gets us into the fantasy business in a meaningful way,” USA TODAY Sports Media Group President Tom Beusse told Sports Business Daily. “Quite frankly, there’s an awful lot we can do with this.”

For those who visit Fantasy Windup and USATODAY.com for their fantasy sports news, the news can’t be anything but positive. As BaseballHQ.com founder Ron Shandler told his subscribers today:

“Since we have already forged strong bonds within the USAT organization — through our regular in-season contributions to the daily newspaper and Sports Weekly — we have set a foundation to give BaseballHQ.com more visibility and growth potential,” Shandler wrote.

“While that might not be good news to those who consider us their ’secret information source,’ much of our work went mainstream a long time ago. This new relationship will give us the opportunity to break more new ground and continue to pioneer new and better ways to play and win at fantasy baseball.”

I’ll echo what Ron says (and why wouldn’t I — he was just inducted into the Fantasy Sports Writers Hall of Fame). This is great news for everyone who plays fantasy sports. We look forward to the opportunity to put even more fantasy resources at your fingertips.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF FANTASY SPORTS:             THE OPEN FANTASY PLATFORM AT CBSSPORTS.COM

CBSSports.com’s award-winning fantasy sports                                                  service opens to third party developers

Six companies, including MLB.com & Bloomberg Sports, sign on                            to develop apps for launch of the first open platform in fantasy sports

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL. JAN. 17, 2012: CBSSports.com today announced its award-winning fantasy sports service is opening its doors to third party developers and companies to create apps for their products and services. CBSSports.com’s innovative open Fantasy Platform will represent the first of its kind in the fantasy sports industry.

Six companies, including MLB.com and Bloomberg Sports, have signed on as initial Fantasy Platform partners and will have free and/or premium apps available when CBSSports.com’s Fantasy Baseball product, featuring the new “CBSSports.com App Central,” launches on Jan. 31.

The CBSSports.com Fantasy Platform Development Center is now live for developers and companies to visit and see how their products and services can be shared with millions of highly engaged fantasy sports players. The Fantasy Platform offers developers a comprehensive set of APIs providing access to nearly all the data within CBSSports.com Fantasy Games and everything needed in order to build a customized fantasy app. The Fantasy Platform Development Center is located at: developer.cbssports.com

The Fantasy Platform announcement was made by Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBSSports.com, at the 2012 Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) Winter Business Conference in Las Vegas.

“The way people play fantasy sports has dramatically changed over the last ten years with players using a ton more tools and products produced by a growing number of businesses,” said Kint. “Providing outside developers access to our proprietary service will benefit the entire fantasy industry ecosystem, creating additional value for companies, developers and advertisers while consolidating and enhancing the experience for fantasy players.”

With the Fantasy Platform, the millions of dedicated fantasy sports players at CBSSports.com can integrate products and services from across the industry directly into their fantasy game experience. By using these free and premium apps to access the Fantasy Platform, players will not only have all their tools and resources in one central location, they’ll have these products and services built directly into CBSSports.com’s fantasy sports games–leading to more efficient decision making and enhanced enjoyment.

Details about the initial Fantasy Platform launch partners and the apps they plan to offer are as follows:

Advanced Sports Media: Producer of the award-winning Draft Analyzer software, Advanced Sports Media (ASM) is focused on developing innovative software applications that help customers compete more effectively in their Fantasy Sports leagues. For the Fantasy Platform, ASM will be producing two applications: The Draft Analyzer App provides users with personalized and completely customizable draft pick advice while the Auction Analyzer App provides users with personalized bidding advice for auction leagues and is again, completely customizable with all league settings.

Bloomberg Sports: Established in 2010, Bloomberg Sports has quickly become a worldwide leader in the development of state of the art data analytic tools for both professional sports organizations and fantasy sports enthusiasts.  For the Fantasy Platform, Bloomberg Sports will be developing apps around their consumer products, “Front Office” (baseball) and “Decision Maker” (football), designed for fans interested in improving their fantasy play or for following their favorite players more closely throughout the course of the season.

MLB.com: MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, powers MLB.TV, the Internet’s most prolific live video subscription product. For the Fantasy Platform, MLB.com will be building an app that allows MLB.TV subscribers to watch their fantasy baseball teams live through a customizable experience whereby users automatically will see the live game with the most relevant action to their fantasy teams. Launching in time for the 2012 season, the app will also allow a fantasy user that chooses to watch any live MLB game to be presented with statistical data as to how on-the-field play will impact the user’s fantasy baseball team as it happens.

RotoWire: RotoWire.com is a leading content and technology provider to fantasy sports consumers and major media companies. For the Fantasy Platform, RotoWire will develop a content application around its real-time player news and in-depth player profiles to help fantasy players make the most timely and informed roster decisions possible.

StatSheet: A subsidiary of Automated Insights, Inc., StatSheet automatically transforms sports statistics into compelling narrative content, visual displays and interactive applications. For the Fantasy Platform, StatSheet will be developing “StatSmack”, the ultimate fantasy trash talking application which leverages StatSheet’s next-generation technology to arm managers with fully personalized, statistical data and trash talk that will empirically show why their team is better and why they are the better manager.

Ziguana: Ziguana brings powerful algorithms to the average fantasy manager through a simple user-friendly interface. For the Fantasy Platform, Ziguana will be releasing the “Forecaster” app which calculates a team’s probability of winning weekly matchups and makes day-to-day recommendations customized to specific league settings. For those tired of the tedium of setting their lineup, Ziguana’s “Lineup Auto-Pilot” app automatically optimizes and sets a team’s lineup each day. Ziguana will also be offering a 2012 MLB Projections app.

“CBSSports.com’s Fantasy Platform will allow us to build customizable, live experiences as we continue to develop fun ways for our fans to play fantasy baseball and follow the on-the-field action,” said Kenny Gersh, SVP, Business Development, MLB.com. “These new integrations into MLB.TV will deliver an original and exciting approach for our subscribers to watch their fantasy baseball teams live throughout 2012.”

“We are very pleased to be able to partner with CBSSports.com on this new platform, and bring what we know is the best tool for the casual or die-hard fantasy sports player, ‘Bloomberg Front Office,’ to a much wider audience,” said Bill Squadron, head of Bloomberg Sports.

SportsLine.com, now CBSSports.com, was one of the earliest companies in the fantasy industry, offering innovative fantasy products and services beginning in 1996. Using the Commissioner.com fantasy platform (acquired in 1999), CBSSports.com’s fantasy sports products and games have been some of the most popular in the industry and have won eight of the past ten FSTA awards for best Fantasy Commissioner Product. In 2011, CBSSports.com offered fantasy sports products for pro football, baseball, basketball, college football, hockey, and golf.

With a majority of its fantasy users playing paid fantasy sports, CBSSports.com has one of the most engaged and loyal fantasy sports audiences in the business. Fantasy Football players on CBSSports.com register the highest level of engagement of any major site, with players spending an average of 1 hour, 41 minutes per session and returning 4 times each week to research and optimize their rosters. (Nielsen NetRatings, September 2010)

Additionally, CBSSports.com reaches the most affluent and educated Fantasy Football audience among all major competitors: six in 10 have a household income of $75K+ and two-thirds are college-educated. (Nielsen NetRatings, September 2010)

Statistics from the millions of loyal CBSSports.com fantasy sports players:

• Pay to play on CBSSports.com: 60%
• Play fantasy football: 87%
• Average age: 34
• Average income: $82,600
• Played six or more seasons with CBSSports.com: 83%

According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), there are currently 29.6 million fantasy sports players in the United States. Here’s the FSTA breakdown by sport:

• Football (72%) = 21,213,333
• Baseball (37%) = 11,050,666
• Auto Racing (24%) = 7,202,666
• Basketball (20%) = 5,821,333
• Golf (13%) = 3,749,333
• College football (13%) = 3,848,000
• Hockey (12%) = 3,552,000
• Soccer (7%) = 2,072,000

To view a promotional video for the CBSSports.com Fantasy Platform, click here:                               Fantasy Evolved: The CBSSports.com Open Fantasy Platform

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About CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports

CBSSports.com is a division of CBS Interactive, the premier online content network for information and entertainment.  At the forefront of the fantasy sports business, CBSSports.com offers services and expert advice in fantasy sports ranging from professional and collegiate football to baseball, basketball, hockey, and golf. With a Fantasy product for virtually every sports fan, the CBSSports.com Commissioner Fantasy Sports League Management product has won eight of the past ten Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) awards for best Fantasy Commissioner Product. CBSSports.com has a tradition of innovation in the fantasy sports industry as evidenced by its robust patent portfolio. For more information about the CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports, visit cbsports.com/fantasy.

Follow CBS Sports on Twitter: twitter.com/cbssports and on Facebook: facebook.com/cbssports

More information about CBS and its businesses is available at cbscorporation.com.

Press Contacts:

Alex Riethmiller – CBSSports.com 954.599.4154     ariethmiller@cbs.com

ReedPOP to Add “Fantasy Football Fest” to its Roster

New Event Serves a Devoted Fan Base in a Thriving Industry

(NORWALK, Conn Jan. 13) – - ReedPOP, the boutique pop culture focused division of Reed Exhibitions, is launching Fantasy Football Fest, August 18-19, 2012 at the Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantic City, NJ. Taking the virtual Fantasy Football fan experience to the gridiron, the Fantasy Football Fest will provide a unique in-person experience by catering to the passion and devotion of millions of fantasy football and general football fans. In 2010 alone, fantasy players spent in excess of $1B pursuing their passion for the game through millions of leagues all over the world.

“Every event that ReedPOP produces offers a world-class celebration of pop culture by providing unique access, up close and personal experiences and interactive events that focus on exactly what the fans want most,” said Greg Topalian, Sr. Vice President, ReedPOP. “The Fantasy Football Fest is an exciting addition to our portfolio in that it harnesses the passion of the virtual Fantasy Football world to an in-person, live event. Fantasy Football is a shining example of Pop Culture fandom taken from the very real world of football. Both men and women love it and we are eager to make this event the Super Bowl of Fantasy Football.”

Strong industry support has been secured early for the Fantasy Football Fest with additional big brands, representing video gaming, memorabilia and home electronics, to be announced in the near future. The following founding sponsors have committed prior to the launch of the event and include: Fantasy Sports Trade Association, RotoExperts, Fathead, Sirius/XM and Tailgater Monthly.

“We are very pleased and excited to be joining forces with ReedPop for this groundbreaking, one-of-a-kind event that will certainly set new standards in the Fantasy industry. The Fantasy Football Fest is definitely a major happening for every Fantasy player and their families to mark on their calendars. The time has come for the large masses of Fantasy Football participants to have their own unique event where they can not only enjoy the ultimate draft bash and Fantasy festivities, but also to revel in some incredible related experiences that will make the Fantasy Football Fest the can’t-miss weekend of the year. RotoExperts.com is thrilled to deliver this new and instantly memorable event to the Fantasy participants we are so dedicated to. This is going to be the closest match a Fantasy Football player has to a true holiday”, said Louis M Maione, CEO of RotoExperts.com.

“Fathead is exited to partner with ReedPOP on the inaugural Fantasy Football Fest. F3 is poised to become the ultimate Fantasy Football event for all ages and we’re thrilled to share our passion for Football with these enthusiastic fans,” said Joanna Cline, CMO of Fathead. “Our Real. Big. NFL wall graphics and Fantasy draft boards will add larger-than-life energy to this groundbreaking event.”

The Fantasy Football Fest expects to bring over 25,000 rabid fans in approximately 300,000 square feet of total experience space. Activities and special events include a Draft Day Party, Athlete and Celebrity appearances, Sports Video Game tournaments and free-play, interactive athletic competitions, Sports Memorabilia, a Tailgate Party and Beer Tasting.  While the Fantasy Football Fest focuses on fantasy football including space for leagues to conduct drafts and fantasy experts providing tips and insights to help players’ teams perform at their best, the festival is much more than just fantasy.  F3 promises to be about every aspect of professional football except strapping on the pads in getting hit.  The show features will offer something for every member of the family in addition to an amazing weekend for the hardcore fantasy player.

For more information: http://www.fantasyfootballfest.com.

AboutReedPOP:

ReedPOP is a boutique group within Reed Exhibitions which is exclusively devoted to organizing events, launching and acquiring new shows, and partnering with premium brands in the pop culture arena. ReedPOP is dedicated to producing celebrations of popular culture throughout the world that transcend ordinary events by providing unique access and dynamic personal experiences for consumers and fans.

The ReedPOP portfolio includes: New York Comic Con (NYCC), Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) East & West, Star Wars Celebration and UFC Fan Expo. The staff at ReedPOP is a fan based group of professionals producing shows for other fans, thus making them uniquely qualified to service those with whom they share a common passion. ReedPOP is focused on bringing its expertise and knowledge to world communities in North America, South America, Asia and Europe.

PowerHouse Sports Launches highly realistic iGM Game

Biggest innovation in fantasy football in a generation allows serious NFL fans to see how they would do as the General Manager of a real NFL team

White Plains, NY.  December 1^st, 2011 – Fantasy football, played by 24 million people in North America in 2010, is a billion dollar business.  It’s a game where participants manage virtual teams made up of real-world players, and compete with their friends’ teams based on the statistical performance of the players in real life.

But, fantasy football is in no way a simulation of running a real pro football team, long the dream of many of the most passionate NFL fans.  PowerHouse is changing that, by evolving fantasy football into a highly realistic simulation of being the General Manager of a real NFL team, 52 weeks a year.

People running virtual teams in iGM sign free agents in March, participate with the real-world NFL Draft in April, make roster cuts in September, and try to fill in for injured players during the season.  iGM players compete with real NFL teams using PowerHouse’s unique scoring system that measures the entire 53-player roster, not just a handful of stats-producing stars, as in traditional fantasy football.

The key differences between traditional fantasy football and iGM:

• iGM players manage a complete virtual team, following the same rules that real NFL General Managers follow.  Traditional fantasy football has a fictitious set of rules that have nothing to do with running a real team.
• iGM plays out in real time, keeping fans engaged 52 weeks a year.  Traditional fantasy football is a seasonal game that starts over every year and has no activity during the NFL off-season.
• iGM includes all football positions, even offensive linemen.  Traditional fantasy football only involves “skill position” players who produce statistics.
• iGM ties in to real world events to govern player movement and results in the game.  Traditional fantasy football only ties in to the real world for statistical results.
• iGM offers the most enthusiastic and opinionated NFL fans the opportunity to demonstrate how they would do if they could be the General Manager of a real team.  Traditional fantasy football is a fictional game that is heavily dependent on luck.

PowerHouse President and CEO Chris Barry originally invented the rules for iGM in 1995.  He has been running a virtual team on an Excel spreadsheet, for no other reason than his own enjoyment, for 15 years, and says, “I finally felt that, after all this time enjoying this game myself, that the time was right to share it.  The evolution of web technology, the explosive growth in interest in the NFL’s off-season, and the ability that small companies now have to stand up and get noticed from a marketing standpoint is a perfect storm for us.”

Contact information:

Website:  www.PowerHouseGM.com

Anyone can sign up to run a team for free at:

http://content.powerhousegm.com/PowerHouse-iGM-game-1-of-4/

PowerHouse’s Press Room:  http://content.powerhousegm.com/powerhouse-press-room/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/PowerHouseSports

Chris Barry’s LinkedIn profile:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/barrycm

Chris Barry’s email:  barrycm@PowerHouseGM.com Chris is available for interviews almost any time.  Seriously, he’s obsessed.

A heads up that the deadline to submit nominations for the 2011 Fantasy Sports Trade Association Industry awards is this Friday, Dec. 16.

Read all about the rules and submit your nominations in our easy-to-use form by going to http://fsta.org/nomination.

This year, we’ve reorganized the awards into the following categories:

* Best League Commissioner Product

* Most Innovative Fantasy Contest

* Most Innovative Fantasy Product or Service

* Most Outstanding Fantasy Contest

* Most Outstanding Mobile Application

* Most Unique and Outstanding Live Event or Contest

* Most Valuable Fantasy Content

* Most Valuable Fantasy Tool

* Rookie of the Year

Only FSTA member organizations are eligible to win.

Winners will be announced at the FSTA Winter Conference sponsored by CBSSports.com on Jan. 16-17, 2012 in Las Vegas.

Join your colleagues at The Mirage Resort & Casino for this great networking opportunity and the chance to participate in discussions around the hottest issues facing the fantasy sports industry.

Check out more details and register for the conference  here. And reserve your room at The Mirage by clicking here.

Questions about the FSTA Industry Awards or the FSTA Winter Conference sponsored by CBSSports.com? Contact us at  news@fsta.org.

StatSheet Launches STAT.US Twitter Sports Network

(DURHAM, N.C., November 30, 2011) – Just in time for the fantasy football playoffs and the start of the college basketball season, StatSheet (http://statsheet.com) today announced the launch of STAT.US (http://stat.us), the world’s largest sports-focused Twitter network. STAT.USutilizes StatSheet’s unique artificial intelligence technology and proprietary database of over 2 billion statistics to bring live, in-game updates to fans on their favorite players and teams. STAT.US has both team and player-specific Twitter accounts covering the NFL, MLB, NBA and NCAA college football and basketball. STAT.US Twitter accounts already have over 250,000 followers who are updated with live game scores and important plays as well as pre- and post-game analysis.

As part of STAT.US, StatSheet has also launched the first ever Twitter “Fantasy Tracker” where fantasy football managers can quickly follow the individual players on their team and keep tabs on their fantasy roster’s performance on game day via Twitter. STAT.US users receive live play-by-play, scores and statistical updates for the individual players and teams that they track within their existing Twitter feed.

“At StatSheet we are all about using technology to create the best possible experience for fans,” says Robbie Allen, StatSheet’s CEO and Founder. “STAT.US fits in perfectly with our existing network of over 400 team web sites and Android and iPhone applications and helps us take the next step in improving the in-game experience for our users.”

Key Features of the STAT.US Network:

• Team Accounts: followers of team accounts will get updates on scores, turnovers, key plays and win probability, as well links to StatSheet’s ongoing analysis and interesting statistical insights on their team both past and present. STAT.US has active accounts for every NFL, NBA, MLB, and DI NCAA Football and Basketball team.  Some examples: @cheeseheadhaven (Green Bay Packers), @Celts_Pride (Boston Celtics), @Cards_Update (St. Louis Cardinals), @CarolinaUpdBB (UNC Basketball), and @Fightin_TigerFB (LSU Football).
• Individual Player Accounts: followers of individual player accounts will find a smorgasbord of information at their fingertips.  For NFL players, they will get updates on every rush, every pass completion and every score, as well as end of quarter summary stat line updates for anxious fantasy owners. STAT.US currently has NFL player accounts for every significant offensive player and will be adding more player accounts for additional sports soon. Example accounts include @ARodgersStats (Aaron Rodgers) and @CJohnsonStats (Calvin Johnson).
• #Hashtag Lists: users can also follow specific hashtags such as #TDTracker for the NFL to monitor touchdowns, #HRTracker for MLB to monitor home runs, and #UpsetTracker and #OTTracker for all sports to keep tabs on potential upsets and over-time games.
• Fantasy Tracker: STAT.US gives users a quick interface to create and follow a Twitter list of individual player accounts so they can quickly track every play, score and update on their fantasy rosters.

The statistics for STAT.US are provided by StatSheet’s official stats provider, The Sports Network (TSN). TSN’s robust and flexible sports wire service enables StatSheet and its technology platform to quickly develop and deploy innovative, world-class products to sports fans.

About StatSheet

StatSheet is a subsidiary of Automated Insights, Inc. and represents the next revolution in content creation.  StatSheet’s technology automatically transforms raw data into compelling narrative content (articles, summaries, headlines), visual displays (charts, tables, graphs) and interactive applications (mobile and Twitter/Facebook–based social applications).  In essence, the company uses technology to humanize big data, and automate knowledge and insight at scale.  StatSheet converts a rapidly growing data set of over 2 billion statistics into comprehensive and compelling coverage of NCAA college basketball, Major League Baseball and the National Football League. The company currently publishes over 15,000 articles per month through its network of more than 400 team-centric websites, Android, iPhone and iPad mobile applications and Twitter and Facebook accounts.  Later this year Automated Insights will launch its NCAA college football coverage.  To learn more, visit www.automatedinsights.com and www.statsheet.com.

Matchup Huddle™ Turns Fantasy Football Advice into a Social Game

Launches application on Facebook encouraging users to “Be the Expert!™”

STATE COLLEGE, PA (Sept. 21, 2011) – Two of America’s most popular pastimes – social networking and fantasy football – have been combined with the introduction of Matchup Huddle, a new sports-based social game.

“Matchup Huddle is a game that combines the best parts of several billion dollar industries,” said Daniel Behringer, co-founder and CEO, Matchup Huddle LLC. “Our new game provides a platform to individuals who believe they have the ability to predict football player performance, but never had a place to prove it.”

Matchup Huddle engages users in the truly social aspect of fantasy football. Available for free on Facebook, Matchup Huddle was created to help users decide which fantasy football players to “start” and “sit” each week. Through three different types of competitions, players of Matchup Huddle can simultaneously give and receive quantifiable fantasy football advice, as well as compete for weekly prizes.

Tracking how good each user’s advice is throughout the season, Matchup Huddle places him or her in the appropriate guru category. “The game learns which user’s advice is trustworthy and then makes its own recommendations for each matchup based on what the best users think,” Behringer continued. “Matchup Huddle was designed to answer the questions that traditional fantasy football games don’t. Users of this new technology will finally be able to find out whose fantasy football advice they can trust, and ‘Be the Expert’, all at the same time.”

To play Matchup Huddle, visit: http://apps.facebook.com/matchuphuddle/

For more information about the game, visit www.matchuphuddle.com

For the latest news about Matchup Huddle, follow us at facebook.com/matchuphuddle/ or @MatchupHuddle on Twitter.

About Matchup Huddle

Matchup Huddle, LLC is a small, privately-owned social game developer located in State College, Pennsylvania. The company produces a new breed of sports-based social games that provide not just entertainment value, but also powerful analytics for use outside of the games themselves. Matchup Huddle leverages the rich academic environment in State College, Pennsylvania to apply cutting edge concepts in new ways to the growing social gaming industry.

Fantasy sports enter political arena

By Fredreka Schouten

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Fantasy sports have joined the real world of politics. In a bid to protect its financial

interests and expand into states that ban betting even on make-believe teams, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association

has hired its first federal lobbyist and launched a political action committee to make campaign contributions to lawmakers. Fantasy sports leagues, which allow fans to create mock teams of real-life players that compete for statistical advantage over other fake franchises, “are a major part of the American sports scene,” says

Travis McCoy, who registered to lobby on the association’s behalf in May. “We are trying to

allow people to play their games and have a good time.”McCoy, a former aide to House Speaker John

Boehner, is also treasurer of the association’s newly formed PAC and an avid fantasy football, baseball,

basketball and hockey player.

Fantasy sports are big business. It generated$1.9 billion in revenue in 2008, according to the

most recent financial data compiled by the association. Last year, nearly one in five males 12 and

older in the USA played fantasy sports, says Peter Schoenke, the association’s chairman and presisdent of RotoWire.com, a sports information site.USA TODAY is among the companies represented

on the association’s board. U.S. sports fantasy sites drew 312 million visits last month with the start of the National Football League’s regular season, a 12% increase over September 2010, according to Matt Tatham of Experian

Hitwise, which measures online activity.A 2006 federal law that banned U.S. financial institutions from processing online gambling transactions specifically exempted fantasy sports leagues. Schoenke says most fantasy players don’t

bet, but the federal law helped cement the industry’s legitimacy and spur growth.The association now wants to guard against any other changes to federal law that could hurt present business and grow more activein states. Nearly a dozen states have laws that either ban their residents from collecting winnings from online fantasy games or raise questions about the legality of the games, McCoy says. In Louisiana, for instance,

state Rep. Thomas Carmody last year pushed a measure that would have exempted fantasy games from a state

anti-gambling provision. The Shreveport Republican says he decided to act after a childhood friend was barred

from collecting his prize of a T-shirt from an online baseball fantasy game. The measure, however,

died 73-16 in the state’s House of Representatives after Louisiana Family Forum objected. Gene Mills, the

Family Forum’s president, tells USA TODAY the bill amounted to “an expansion of gambling,” which

he describes as “nothing but fool’s tax.”  Carmody says he has no plans to reintroduce

his measure this year. “When something gets crushed like that legislation did, you don’t typically

bring it up again,” he says. McCoy says the group still is deciding which states it will target first. So far, the association’s federal political activity also is off to a very modest start. It has reported spending only $6,000 this year

on federal lobbying—a minuscule sum compared with the nearly $1 million the NFL and players’ union combined spent to lobby Congress and federal agencies during

Are you the subject of ridicule for your fantasy football addiction? Well, throw off the shackles of that guilt! Fantasy football doesn’t waste your time at work, according to research from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

An estimated 27.1 million Americans take part in fantasy sports, with 75 percent, or more than 20 million, playing fantasy football. Challenger analyzed the financial impact of Fantasy Football on employers during the 2010 season and found little or no effect on productivity.

Ranking the level of distraction on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being no problem, nearly 70 percent of employers said 4 or lower (perhaps because bosses themselves have teams). Less than 8 percent of respondents said the level of distraction rated a 7 or 8 and none of the respondents felt fantasy football at work deserved a 9 or 10.

Even better news for fantasy geeks: 46.2 percent of employers don’t care if employees spend some of the workday on fantasy football. Less than a quarter of bosses ask employees to limit fantasy football to lunch and other break times.

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“A ban on all fantasy football or sports websites could backfire in the form of reduced morale and loyalty,” Challenger concluded. “The result could be far worse than the loss of productivity caused by 10 to 20 minutes of team management each day.”

But wait, there’s more! Businesses that actually encourage playing fantasy football by organizing a company league are likely to see significant benefits in morale as well as productivity, according to the study.

Despite the positive results of the survey, less than 8 percent of responding companies actually “embrace” fantasy football participation as morale boosting.

But hey, give it time.

Tim Tebow appeared in a Super Bowl commercial before he even played a snap in the NFL. And, in a manner fitting of Tebow, the spot—in which Tebow’s pro-life mother tells the story of how Tebow was her “miracle baby” and directed viewers to a Christian group’s website—sparked a controversy, with women’s groups asking CBS not to air the ad. CBS aired it, the spot turned out to be innocuous and a little corny, and the controversy soon passed.

On Monday, Kyle Orton was officially named the starter for the Denver Broncos, beating out both Tebow and Brady Quinn for the role. Adding fuel to the fire was coach John Fox’s decision to not name Tebow or Quinn as his No. 2. It began another Tebow-centric controversy that had passions running high on both sides—one camp made the argument that both Orton and Brady Quinn had been the far superior quarterbacks so far this preseason and deserve to be ahead of Tebow on the depth charts. The other camp pointed to Tebow’s continued success—he led Florida to two BCS titles and won the Heisman Trophy—and his performances in the last three games of 2010, when Denver handed him the starting role and Tebow responded with seven total touchdowns (against three interceptions), averaging 283 yards of total offense per game. The latter camp, obviously, believes Tebow is capable of much greater things if he is just given a chance. The former camp pretty much hates him. “NFL quarterback controversies usually produce passion, but Tebow is a surprisingly polarizing figure for a guy who’s done very little to make anyone dislike him,” the Denver Post’s Dave Krieger writes. “The most popular player on the roster, the guy dominating the commercial breaks, has been the third-best quarterback in Broncos camp. It’s awkward. It’s divisive. And there’s no getting around it: For the Broncos it’s a problem.”

Speculation ran rampant on Monday that the Broncos could either trade or release Tebow instead of keeping him as their No. 3, assuming Quinn beats him out. “Some people love him. Some hate him,” Kevin Nogle of The PhinSider writes, while advocating for a Tebow trade to Miami. “It doesn’t seem like there are a whole lot of people in the middle.” One person firmly on the side of “hate him” is Merril Hoge, a former NFL fullback who now works as an analyst for ESPN. When the Tebow-Orton competition for starter was still going strong a few weeks ago, Hoge tore into Tebow (the player, not the person, he pointed out) on Twitter for not having the tools to make it as a professional quarterback. “College credentials do not transfer to NFL,” Hoge tweeted, in one of several anti-Tebow missives that are much funnier to read if you imagine the Hulk wrote them. “Raw raw [sic] speeches do not work! You must poses [sic] a skill set to play! Tebow struggle [sic] with accuracy!” Tebow actually sent Hoge a reply that just read “Hey Merril…..‘ppreciate that,” but a massive amount of supporters already had his back, including LeBron James, who took an indirect swipe at Hoge for his playing career and suggested he encourage Tebow and wish him well “instead of hating!!” Undaunted, Hoge went back on ESPN Monday after the Orton announcement to re-iterate his belief that Tebow is not a good quarterback and has poor mechanics, advocating his release. This caused a sea of newly minted Hoge bashers, including one Twitter follower of his who said that all the vinegar spit in Tebow’s direction was destroying the goodwill he accrued with his Tecmo Bowl performances.

At the end of the day, whether Tebow is Denver’s No. 3 or Buffalo’s No. 2, there will still be crowds lined up firmly on either side of him, bashing his motion or praising his work ethic. And it’s all surrounding a game. The Miami Herald’s Dan LeBetard puts it all in perspective and explains, indirectly, why it’s so good to have football back from the lockout. “A backup quarterback on a 3-13 team who has started three games is one of the most polarizing figures in America’s most popular sport?” LeBetard asks. “Hey, why not?”

* * *

Tebow wasn’t the only star college quarterback with questionable throwing mechanics making news on Monday. Former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was taken in the NFL’s supplemental draft by the Oakland Raiders, a move that will cost the team a third-round pick in next year’s draft. He was the only player selected. Pryor is currently facing a five-game suspension to begin his career, a penalty levied by Roger Goodell for undermining the “integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL draft.”

Still, the suspension will likely have little effect on Pryor, who wasn’t expected to make an immediate impact for the Raiders as they figure out what to do with him. Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks writes, however, that Pryor is the perfect fit for the Raiders if they can fix his mechanics. The team hasn’t had a franchise quarterback since Rich Gannon. “It almost had to happen. He’s a big, fast and supremely gifted athlete, and he went to the one franchise that above all others prioritizes size, speed and athleticism,” Banks writes. “In retrospect, Pryor was destined to be a Raider. We just don’t know yet whether his destiny includes being an NFL success story.”

* * *

For the next three weeks, football fans may be hearing a lot of things like “sleepers” and “ADPs” paired with the Tebow and Pryor talk. It’s because fantasy football season is upon us, and sleepers (late draft picks who may excel this season) and ADPs (“average draft position,” or where players are being picked on average in thousands of drafts already completed) are two of the most important tools of the trade. As fantasy players scramble to pick up the best tips and advice, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association on Friday announced the start of the 2011 Accuracy Challenge, hosted jointly by The Most Credible and The Fantasy Football Librarian. The contest is self-explanatory—fantasy experts make a series of predictions, and the most accurate at the end of the year win an award. Last year’s winners included Bruno Boys in the “Ranking” competition and Draft Sharks on the “Projections” side.

Fantasy football players looking for some more insight into their own drafts can follow the MLB Players Fantasy Football League run by CBSSports.com, comprised of players like Mark Buehrle, Cole Hamels, and Eric Hinske (last year’s champ). Fans can follow updates on the league at the CBSSportsPR Twitter handle all the way through the draft, which will take place on Sept. 6. Hamels won the No. 1 pick earlier this month, but has so far been mum on his possible picks.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email Nando at nandodifino@yahoo.com.

Fantasy Football Site Locks in 2011 Radio, TV Deals

Fantasy Football Starters announces today that it has been invited back by Phoenix media to begin broadcasting fantasy football TV and radio programs beginning Aug. 23. CEO Jeff Coruccini and NFL Analyst Russ Bliss will provide fantasy draft, trade and lineup help every week during the NFL 2011 season.

Phoenix, Arizona — Aug. 19, 2011 — Fantasy Football Starters announced today that its NFL analyst, Russ Bliss, will be returning for a 15^th consecutive year of broadcasting “The Red Zone” on Phoenix radio. One of the longest-running fantasy football shows in the world, “The Red Zone” will be broadcast on “The Fan” AM 1060 starting 6 p.m. (MST) on Tuesday, August 23. In conjunction with sponsorship by Fantasy Football Starters, the show will be streamed live over the Internet at www.fantasyfootballstarters.com.

In addition to the radio show, Bliss will be joined by FFS CEO Jeff Coruccini for a fourth season on Phoenix TV station KTVK News Channel 3’s “Good Morning Arizona” program every Sunday morning during  the NFL regular season. The pair will provide last-minute advice before the NFL Sunday games begin.

“We are incredibly excited to be returning to Phoenix radio and television for the 2011 NFL season,” says Coruccini. “Our Power Analyzer products are back and better than ever, which will help us provide the best possible fantasy football predictions using the world’s most accurate fantasy football algorithm.”

The Fantasy Football Starters Power Analyzer uses NFL player and team performance – including historical and forward-looking statistics such as run-to-pass ratios – along with other data from actual NFL games to calculate projections for each and every player. Then, individual player values can be used to create customized fantasy football cheat sheets for each position.

“I love doing these shows and being able to provide insight from our Draft Analyzer, Lineup Analyzer and Trade Analyzers,” says Bliss. “It’s fun to make predictions every week, but it’s even more fun to match wits with the Power Analyzer, to test my NFL experience and IQ with the premiere fantasy football software in the business,” says Bliss.

The Power Analyzer products also include Smart Alerts, personalized email/SMS alerts on sleepers to draft and players to pick-up (or avoid) starting in-season, due to last-minute game time decisions.

“I love my job,” says Bliss. “I’m so thankful to our fans and to NFL fans everywhere who have truly made this sport such a great, entertaining institution.”

The company’s Power Analyzer products, include:

• Personalized Weekly Fantasy Football Projections: personalized for each fantasy football roster, including NFL player stat predictions, updated 24/7.

• Mobile Line-up Analyzer: On-demand predictions from customers’ mobile phones on any of fantasy football roster, anytime/anywhere.

• NFL Game Predictions: Weekly game predictions on each and every NFL game throughout the entire NFL season.

About Fantasy Football Starters

Fantasy Football Starters is a premium online fantasy football site owned and operated by Ready-Set-Go Fantasy Sports (RSGFS), a new media digital sports content provider based in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 2004, RSGFS has also delivered premium fantasy content via licensing agreements with business partners including NFL PLAYERS INC., Sprint, AOL Sports, and others.

scoutPRO™ to be an official sponsor of the  National Fantasy Football Championship  

(http://nffc.stats.com/football/home/nffc/index.asp)

ATLANTA, GA (August 16, 2011) – scoutPRO and the National Fantasy Football Championship (owned by STATS LLC)  announced that scoutPRO, a CSA (Competitive Sports Analysis) product – is an official sponsor during the 2011 football season.   scoutPRO will promote their  technology which provides highly accurate player ratings to NFFC participants and host a reception at the NFFC Classic Main event September 3rd, 2011 in New York City at the NY Sheraton Hotel.   

CSA’s scoutPRO technology helps the Fantasy Football General Manager (GM) optimize their roster and win their league.  The scoutPRO site provides one stop for the Fantasy Football GM to get complete information on the draft and to make the weekly decision of “who to start?”.  The scoutPRO site incorporates innovative technology for the most accurate roster recommendations and the latest information on NFL players.

The NFFC  hosts two Main Events with separate $100,000 grand prizes. The NFFC Classic Main Event returns for an eighth straight season as the industry’s only 14-team live event, with drafts in Las Vegas, New York, Chicago and online. the industry’s only 14-team live event, with drafts in Las Vegas, New York,

“NFFC provides an exciting contest for our target market, the high stakes fantasy football player,” Diane Bloodworth, CEO of CSA said.  “These events are very competitive in terms of football intelligence, skill, and of course the opportunity to win over $100,000 in prizes.  We are confident that the accuracy of the scoutPRO ratings will provide a competitive edge for the participants and all fantasy football GMs”. 

“NFFC owners are among the most dedicated players in the fantasy sports industry and they are always looking for that extra edge to win a league title and possibly an overall title,” said Greg Ambrosius, founder of the NFFC. “With $100,000 on the line, NFFC owners will do anything possible to gain that edge and it’s very possible that for some of them the in-season content and data that scoutPRO provides will be that winning edge. I think when they see this product and give it a test drive they will use it each and every day during the NFFC season.”

About Competitive Sports Analysis

CSA’s first online product offering, scoutPRO uses a unique predictive analysis software application that combines historical tendencies and subjective ratings to identify the strengths and weaknesses of players in specific situations.  For more information, visit scoutPRO at www.scoutpro.com.

About the National Fantasy Football Championship     

The National Fantasy Football Championship was the industry’s first multi-city, high-stakes event and it remains the only live event hosted in multiple cities. Over the last 8 years, the NFFC and the National Fantasy Baseball Championship have awarded more than $7 million in prizes. This year’s events will be held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the Sheraton Hotel & Towers in New York City, the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago and Online Sept. 3rd, and again at the Bellagio and Online Sept. 9-10. The NFFC offers two great formats, each with guaranteed $100,000 grand prizes: the 14-team Classic League and the 12-team Primetime League. For more information about the NFFC, go to nffc.stats.com or contact Greg Ambrosius at gambrosius@stats.com.

August 16^th – Fantasy football, which was enjoyed by 32 million people last year, is only getting more popular.  Because of this, All-Pro Leagues, the hottest new fantasy football craze, has just launched their website at allproleagues.com.

All-Pro Leagues combines traditional fantasy football roster and scoring settings with the addition of money on the line.  Participants can wager anywhere between 100 and 2,000 dollars (one time fee at the beginning of the season) and then continue to get paid out based on their performance throughout the season.  Prizes are awarded per “Win” in head-to-head competition, as well as each divisional winner, first and second place, and depending on league size even teams that miss the playoffs. The payout structure is clearly noted on the site under what they call “The GRID”.

“No entry fee” leagues are also available to join for those of us who may be fantasy football beginners.  You will also have the option to play in a league compiled entirely of your own friends or join a league where you don’t know anyone (may be the best option for beginners who want to avoid embarrassment).

Allproleagues.com is home to the most challenging Fantasy Expert league ever.  It’s a 32-team All-Pro league consisting of players from all around the nation.  In this league, each NFL player is only allowed on one team.  In other terms, that’s extremely difficult.  The champion of this event can literally say they are one of the best fantasy football players in the world.

This new fantasy football site has been in the works for more than 10 years.  Robert January, founder of All-Pro Leagues and fantasy football guru since 1995, came up with this idea when he was writing for fantasyinsights.com in the late 90’s.  He knows better than anyone that people are looking forward to playing fantasy football and have a strong competitive nature, thus giving birth to All-Pro Leagues.

Sure, you may be thinking that you’d rather stick with your classic fantasy football league because it’s what you’re used to, but All-Pro Leagues has the highest payout ratio in existence and as stated earlier, they don’t reward just one single winner.

If you and your friends were planning on wagering on the season anyway, this is a perfect option for you since you don’t need to worry about collecting money from everyone (you have to pay upon entry).  Also, you don’t have to worry about getting paid out (All-Pro Leagues handles that). 

Although this concept may seem illegal to you (gambling on sports), this is a game of skill and you are not betting on a winner of a particular game, thus making this league perfectly legal in most states.  Winning cash prizes by paying to enter is legal nearly everywhere, (refer to the website for full prize eligibility).

Fantasy Football 2011 Projection Accuracy Challenge
Chicago, IL, August  18th, 2011 – The Fantasy Sports Trade Association announces requests for submissions from all interested in participating in the 2011 Fantasy Football Projection Accuracy Challenge.  The FSTA (www.FSTA.org), in conjunction with the Fantasy Football Librarian (www.fflibrarian.com), Donnie Campbell (www.themostcredible.com) and Bill Green, (www.fantasydispute.com) will be analyzing fantasy football projections and position rankings from participants.  The projections and position rankings will be compared with actual player statistics at the end of the 2011 season, and awards will be presented based on the accuracy of those predictions.

Download the entry template here: 2011 FSTA Accuracy Contest – Entry Template

Rules:

Submissions will be accepted immediately; however the rankings and projections (in any verifiable format) must be received prior to the first game of the season, September 8th, 2011 8:30 PM EST.  Each entrant has two weeks after the Sep 8^th Deadline (Sept 22^th) to submit the projections in the FSTA Format (see FSTA Template).  Please note that the projections in the Template much match the projections that were submitted prior to the initial deadline.  Additionally late entrants will be considered if it is verifiable that their rankings or projections were published and publicly available prior to the deadline.

Player rankings and statistics will be judged for the following positions: Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, and Tight End.  Team Defenses, Kickers, and Individual Defensive Players will not be used due to non-standard scoring.

The FSTA will present two Awards (Player Rankings and Player Projections) for the Fantasy Football 2011 Projection Accuracy Challenge.  All entrants are welcome to participate in either challenge or both.

1.  Projected Player Rankings Award

Accuracy of projected player rankings by position compared with year-end rankings (in order of projected vs. actual fantasy points).  Each entrant  should submit their projected top 25 quarterbacks, 50 running backs, 50 wide receivers, and 20 tight ends.

Scoring/Ranking will be based on the following system:

Passing Yards (1 point per 25 yards)
Passing Touchdowns (4 points)
Rushing Yards (1 point per 10 yards)
Reception Yards (1 point per 10 yards)
Rushing & Receiving Touchdowns (6 points)

Interceptions (-2)

Fumbles (-2)

It is encouraged that rankings be submitted based on this scoring system.

2.  Projected Player Statistics Award

A spreadsheet template consisting of 120 Fantasy relevant Players has been provided to collect the following statistical categories.

Submitters must fill in projected statistics for all players on this spreadsheet.

An award will be given for accuracy of projected player statistics compared with actual year-end player statistics.  Accuracy will be judged based on a combination of relative scoring (entrant closest to actual statistic vs. other entrants) and range based scoring (variance between actual statistics vs. projections for each stat category) using the tables below.

Passing Scoring

Rushing Scoring

Receptions

Submissions should be sent simultaneously to FSTA.Accuracy.Contest@gmail.com, Donnie Campbell at dc@themostcredible.com, Bill Green at greenbill@fantasydispute.com, and Sara Holladay at fflibrarian@gmail.com.
Awards will be presented at the Winter 2012 FSTA Conference.  In order to encourage participation (without fear of embarrassment), final results will NOT be published, except for the names of all entrants and the names of the highest ranking entrants (approximately the top third).

Judges:

Donnie Campbell, www.themostcredible.com

Bill Green, www.fantasydispute.com

Sara Holladay, www.fflibrarian.com

Your organization must be an FSTA member to be eligible to win the FSTA award, but anyone can participate.  FSTA membership is available through the FSTA (www.FSTA.org).

FAGAMES LAUNCHES THE FIRST SOCCER PREDICTION GAME FOR FACEBOOK

Futbolo reaches the Social Gaming market, a business which will collect revenues

of $ 1 billion worldwide during 2011

Buenos Aires. August 9, 2011. FaGames announced the release of Futbolo, the first social game that allows users to predict football soccer results on Facebook, combining social games mechanics and worldwide most popular sport.

The game, available in more than 10 languages, allows Facebook users to compete with their friends and workmates predicting the results of more than 15 world leagues, such as The Spanish League, The Italian Serie A, and The British Premier League.   

 “This is FaGames first own project as Publishers, our first release for Facebook.  We specialize in the development and provision of Social Real Games, combining virtual and real-world items. This is the time for soccer scores; but we will be launching new games for the North American Market such as NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB in the next months”, explains Gonzalo Rodríguez, FaGames Commercial Director.

More than half of Facebook users just play, and only 6 % of US social gamers spend money on virtual items. Branded virtual goods are the largest segment of the social gaming economy, one that will produce revenues of $ 1 billion worldwide alone this year, according to a well known US research and analysis on digital marketing and media forecasts.

Fagames, located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is partner of several Media and information Websites over seven Latin American countries, where has become Fantasy Games developer number one.

CSA launches scoutPRO for Fantasy Football ATLANTA, GA (July 12, 2011) – Competitive Sports Analysis (http://competitivesportsanalysis.com), a software company that provides highly accurate predictive data analysis for sports, today announced the launch of the scoutPRO™ site (scoutpro.com) for the 2011 football season. In addition to helping the Fantasy Football General Manager (GM) optimize their roster each week, the site provides fantasy draft rankings, player injury reports, and Ask the Expert. “Our Goal is to be the trusted analyst for the Fantasy Football GM,” Diane Bloodworth, CEO of CSA said. “The scoutPRO site incorporates innovative technology for the most accurate roster recommendations and the latest information on NFL players”. The scoutPRO site provides one stop for the busy Fantasy Football GM to get complete information on the draft and to make the weekly decision of “who to start?”. Regular visits of the GM to the scoutPRO site also make it attractive to partners and advertisers. “The launch of scoutPRO gives top marketers an opportunity to reach an upscale, passionate, dedicated user base,” said David Cooper of CSA. “When I worked at ESPN and sold sponsorship packages for ESPN.com’s Fantasy Football, we built very successful programs for some of the largest brand advertisers. With the quality of scoutPRO ’s content and the fact that our passionate audience will be visiting the site many, many times over the course of the NFL season, a brand has the ability to build a deep connection with their desired targeted demographic.” The Fantasy Football GM will return to the scoutPRO site to get update

San Francisco, CA – Fantasy sports participation has grown over 60 percent the past four years as over 32 million people now actively playing in the U.S. and Canada, new research conducted by Ipsos for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) shows. This finding shows the highest participation numbers in the history of fantasy sports. One in five males played fantasy sports in the last year.

Complete results of the survey will be unveiled Tuesday, June 14 at the FSTA Business & Technology Summit in San Francisco, which features panelists from technology leaders such as Facebook, Gigya, Gameslam and Mashery along with fantasy industry stalwarts such as Yahoo! Sports, Gannett and MyFantasyLeague.

Based on the proportion of survey respondents who report having played fantasy sports in the past 12 months in the U.S. (12%) and in Canada (13%), the total projected number of fantasy sports players aged 12 and older is approximately 32 million. The number of fantasy players has increased over 60 percent from a 2007 Ipsos study that showed 19.4 million fantasy sports players. A 2010 study from Ipsos showed approximately 30.6 million people played in the U.S. and Canada.

“The fantasy sport industry continues to grow at a strong rate even through tough economic times,” said FSTA President Paul Charchian. “The combination of great passion for the hobby and inexpensive participation has made fantasy sports very recession resilient. We’re delighted to see participation numbers continue to grow.”

In addition to the demographic data, the FSTA conference will also feature panels on social media, mobile apps, Open APIs and raising investment capital. The FSTA expects record attendance for this conference, which features two days of guest speakers and seminars. A complete schedule of events is available at http://www.fsta.org/.

Charchian added, “The fantasy industry is at the forefront of technology and the impressive list of companies attending our San Francisco conference will showcase the innovation that should continue to fuel this trend.”

Overall, the survey shows that United States’ participation in fantasy sports has increased from those that played in 2010 (11%) while Canada’s participation is down slightly from 2010 (14%). As is usually the case, in the United States and Canada more males (19% and 20%, respectively) than females (8% and 5%, respectively) have participated in fantasy sports in the past year.

It is also interesting to note that college educated, full-time employees are more likely to take part in fantasy sports than their less educated and lesser employed counterparts in both the United States and Canada. Nearly two in ten (18%) college educated Americans have recently played fantasy sports vs. one in ten (10%) of the non college educated population. Similarly, in the United States, 19% of those who have full time employment have played in the past year vs only 11% of the unemployed. In Canada, the story is nearly identical with college educated people twice as likely to play fantasy sports as those without a university degree (22% vs. 11%) and 18% of those full time employed participating vs 11% of the unemployed.

##
About the FSTA

The FSTA is the largest and oldest trade group representing the fantasy sports industry with over 120 members ranging from small startups to large media corporations. As the voice of the industry since 1998, the FSTA has been the leader in providing demographic data, annual conferences and collective action to ensure unfettered growth. Visit http://www.fsta.org/ for more information.

About Ipsos

Ipsos Public Affairs is a non-partisan, objective, survey-based research practice made up of seasoned professionals. We conduct strategic research initiatives for a diverse number of American and international organizations, based not only on public opinion research, but elite stakeholder, corporate, and media opinion research.

Ipsos has media partnerships with the most prestigious news organizations around the world. Ipsos Public Affairs is the polling agency of record for The McClatchy Company, the third-largest newspaper company in the United States and the international polling agency of record for Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.

Ipsos Public Affairs is a member of the Ipsos Group, a leading global survey-based market research company. We provide boutique-style customer service and work closely with our clients, while also undertaking global research. To learn more, visit: http://www.ipsos-pa.com.

For copies of other news releases, please visit: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/.

Methodology

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted May 4 – May 9, 2011. For this survey, a national general population sample of 1,226 Canadians aged 12 and older and 1,215 Americans aged 12 and older. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics and ensure that the general population sample’s composition reflects that of the U.S. and Canadian 12+ populations according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. An unweighted probability sample of 1,226 and 1215 respondents and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points 19 times out of 20 of what the results would have been had the entire 12+ population of the United States and Canada had been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Paul Charchian or Ipsos, please call (262) 308-5544 or e-mail at paulc@leaguesafe.com.

During the afternoon of January 26th at the 2010 FSTA Winter Conference sponsored by Yesteryear Fantasy Sports 9 fantasy sports providers took the stage for five minutes to promote their brand and pitch the room.  At the end of the event attendees selected their favorite and that individual was celebrated on Wednesday morning as the “Best Pitch.”

The winner selected was Alain de Raynal from Pickemfirst.com.  Pickemfirst is a browser application that allows fantasy players to tie their teams and accounts to the web pages they visit allowing players easy access to the news that matters most to them and helps them make changes on the fly.

Check out more details at http://app.pickemfirst.com/.  If you would like to know more about the product contact Alain de Raynal at info@pickemfirst.com.

Congratulations to the Pickemfirst team!  FSTA Conferences are a great place to announce a new product and grow connections to take your products to the next level.  Check back at fsta.org for the latest on our next show!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 FSTA Awards.  Marking the best in the industry, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association released the names of the winners of its annual awards on January 26 & 27 at the Palms hotel in Las Vegas during the 2010 FSTA Winter Conference, Sponsored by Yesteryear Fantasy Sports.  Award nominations are self-submitted and the finalists are determined by blind voting process by the FSTA Board of Directors.  The winners are selected by members of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

So, with no further ado, the winners of the 2009 FSTA Awards:

Again congratulations to the winners!

Another year, another record number of entries for the Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association’s annual writing awards. This year the not-for-profit organization collected close to 1,000 articles from more than 150 participating writers. The annual writing contest has grown in each of its six years.

“This contest demands hundreds of volunteer hours from our executive staff and judges,” said Mike Beacom, FSWA president and chairman, “but the increased interest in the awards suggests all of that hard work is well worth it.”

The FSWA Executive Committee collects all of the entries and guides the two-step process, which includes a round of judging by the FSWA Board of Directors and then by an independent panel of journalism academics. FSWA Executive Committee members are ineligible to compete.

Judging for this year’s awards has now been completed and the winners will be announced at the Winter FSTA Winter Conference, Sponsored by Yesteryear Fantasy Sports, in Las Vegas on January 26, 2010.

Here is a list of the 2009 FSWA Writing Awards finalists for each category, listed in alphabetical order:

Fantasy Humor Article of the Year

Ladd Biro, The Sporting News
Paul Bourdett, RotoExperts
Mike Gilbert, RotoExperts

Fantasy College Sports Writer of the Year

John Baker, RapidDraft
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Michael Hurcomb, CSBSports.com

Fantasy Racing Writer of the Year

Scott Engel, RotoExperts
Brian Polking, Fanball
Mark Taylor, RotoWireFantasy

Golf Writer of the Year

Rob Bolton, RotoWorld
John McNamara, RotoWire
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Fantasy Hockey Writer of the Year

Sean Allen, ESPN
Rocky Bonanno, NHL.com
Scott Pianowski, Yahoo!

Fantasy Basketball Writer of the Year

Cory Elfrink, Fanball
Tom Lorenzo, RotoExperts
Andre Snellings, RotoWire

Best Fantasy Baseball Publication

Fanball
Fantasy Baseball Index
RotoWire

Best Fantasy Baseball Online Article

John Rakowski, Sports Grumblings
David Regan, RotoWire
Scott White, CBSSports.com

Best Fantasy Baseball Print Article

James Benkhard, RotoWire
Will Carroll, RotoWire
Brent Herschey, USA Today Sports Weekly

Best Fantasy Baseball On-Going Series

Jason Grey, ESPN
David Regan, RotoWire
Mark Strausberg, Roto Experts

Fantasy Baseball Writer of the Year

David Regan, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire
Scott White, CBSSports.com

Best Fantasy Football Publication

Fantasy Football Index
Pro Football Weekly / Yahoo!
RotoWire

Best Fantasy Football Online Article

Dalton Del Don, RotoWire
Jeff Sotts, RotoWire
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

Best Fantasy Football Print Article

Michael Blunda, Pro Football Weekly
Ted Carlson, Fanball
Ben Ice, Fantasy Football Pro Forecast

Best Fantasy Football On-Going Series

Tristan Cockcroft, ESPN
Adam Levitan, RotoWorld
Jeff Stotts, RotoWire

Fantasy Football Writer of the Year

Ryan Bonini, KFFL
Brad Evans, Yahoo!
Derek VanRiper, RotoWire

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is proud to welcome Yesteryear Fantasy Sports as the Title Sponsor of the 2010 FSTA Winter Conference.  Lead by Jim Pennington, Yesteryear is a new concept in fantasy sports—basing your fantasy team on seasons past!  Learn more about Yesteryear Fantasy Sports at their website, http://yesteryearfantasy.com/.

Jim and his crew are just the latest of a long list of fantastic fantasy sports providers attending the 2010 FSTA Winter Conference, sponsored by Yesteryear Fantasy Sports.  Other attendees are coming from:

Don’t be left out—register today for the 2010 FSTA Winter Conference, Sponsored by Yesteryear Fantasy Sports!

Submit all awards votes to Megan Van Patten (megan@fsta.org) by January 8, 2010.  Download the official ballot here: http://www.fsta.org/awards/ads/2009_FSTA_Awards_Ballot.doc

Congratulations to all the nominees! Winners will be announced at the 2010 FSTA Winter Conference in Las Vegas. Check out details at http://www.fsta.org/conference

Fantasy Commissioner/League Manager Product

This award recognizes the company with the best and most innovative commissioner application in the industry. The tool must allow league commissioners to define custom league and scoring settings for head-to-head and/or rotisserie fantasy leagues.

AOL Fanhouse (FleaFlicker.com)

http://www.fleaflicker.com/nfl

Provide a description of your product or service (If your product is selected as a finalist this will be the text published on fsta.org): Fleaflicker is 100% free fantasy football made easy. Beginners appreciate Fleaflicker’s super-fast setup. Seasoned veterans take advantage of Fleaflicker’s extensive customizability, including advanced scoring options. Quite simply, you’d be hard-pressed to find a fantasy football platform that operates this quickly.

Athlon Sports College Fantasy Football

http://usports.Athlonsports.com

2009 was our 14^th season of providing full-featured college fantasy football.  Athlon Sports, the premier destination for college fantasy sports, offers live stats, live drafts, hundreds of customization options, and have been using individual player names from the beginning.  Our team of writers, who have been covering college football since 1967 provide in-depth college fantasy analysis and advice throughout the season.

CBS Sports.com

http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy

The 2009 CBSSports.com Commissioner is the most customizable Commissioner League management product on the market and one able to handle leagues with up to 30 teams. Every owner using a CBSSports.com Commissioner product receives a content-rich, statistics-supported and personalized website with premium features such as live scoring and customizable reports for no additional cost. Sponsored by Ford, Sprint, and Edge, the 2009 CBSSports.com Commissioner is available for Fantasy Football, Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Basketball & Fantasy Hockey. New for 2009, the CBSSports.com Commissioner product offers the ability to run a live online auction as an alternative way of drafting your league. Whether your league uses a salary cap, keepers, or any other type of scoring customization, the CBSSports.com Commissioner product has an auction draft room that will fulfill all of your league’s needs.

ESPN

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage

Full suite of “league manager style” (draft-and-trade, unique player ownership) fantasy games for the major North American sports. Users can join leagues if invited or create their own with a wide range of non-standard, customizable league settings (ie “Head Coach” and “Team QB” roster slots available in FFL). League types range from Roto to Points-Based to three types of Head-to-Head play. Draft options include live Snake and Auction drafts, as well as Autopick/List drafts and the ability for a League Manager to manually enter their offline draft results. In-season, each sport has real-time box scores/standings, integrated Fantasy Experts content (season projections/weekly ranks) and what we believe is the industry-best roster management UI. League Managers can fully manage other teams in their league and edit most setting at any point during the season as deemed necessary. Custom league history saved year-over-year with optional Keeper settings. All sports are completely free to play have been extended to mobile platforms. Product is built to scale – Fantasy Football able to service over 3M UUs on any given NFL Sunday.

MyFantasyLeague.com

MyFantasyLeague.com has been serving the fantasy football leagues for 15 years.  We offer the most feature rich and customizable league management system available.  Our fantasy football leagues are accessible 365 days per year, so we can handle the needs of even the most hard core dynasty leagues.  Our combination of price and unique features is what attracts new leagues, and our focus on innovation and great customer service throughout the season is what keeps our customers coming back to us year after year. MyFantasyLeague.com is used to host dozens of expert and showcase leagues for various sites in the industry, including the FSTA’s own football leagues.  You can set up a fully functional free trial league at anytime to try out all of the features as commissioner, or view any of our existing leagues such as these FSTA leagues:

http://www19.myfantasyleague.com/2009/home/10838

http://www19.myfantasyleague.com/2009/home/33778

http://www19.myfantasyleague.com/2009/home/46286

We have unique reports such as our Fantasy Recap of all games each week, like this example:

http://football19.myfantasyleague.com/2009/options?L=46286&O=177&W=9

In addition, we have a unique Developer’s API here that allows dozens of third party programs to work with and integrate our league data:

http://football.myfantasyleague.com/2009/export

RealTime Fantasy Sports

http://www.rtsports.com

RealTime Fantasy Sports remains an industry leader for fantasy football leagues. Our commissioner service caters to both the average user and hardcore fantasy football player. We offer completely customizable rules, including double or triple headers each week; the ability to play against the league average; conferences and/or divisions; traditional leagues, draft masters, best ball or one and done styles; option for same NFL player to be on more than one team and much, much more. RealTime Fantasy Sports also prides itself in customer service, which we believe is the best in the business. We also offer unique content to our users, including notes, unique content and video updates. This year (2009) is our 15th season providing the best, most comprehensive fantasy football commissioner service on the planet.

Draft Style Contest

This award recognizes the company with the best draft style league contest in which consumers then compete against each other in a league format. Consumers join these leagues and the host company acts as the “league manager or commissioner”. The tool or contest uses a static set of rules and may or may not award prizes.

Athlon Sports College Football

http://usports.Athlonsports.com

2009 was our 14^th season of providing full-featured college fantasy football.  Athlon Sports, the premier destination for college fantasy sports, offers live stats, live drafts, hundreds of customization options, and have been using individual player names from the beginning.  Our team of writers, who have been covering college football since 1967 provide in-depth college fantasy analysis and advice throughout the season.

CBSSports.com

http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy

One of the most popular Fantasy Football games on the planet is 100% FREE – including LIVE SCORING.  Sponsored by Arby’s and Playstation, CBSSports.com’s Free Fantasy Football delivers all the great features that you expect from CBSSports.com Fantasy Sports – live scoring and stats, cutting edge team management tools, player news and expert analysis (including user generated player updates) – with absolutely no upgrade fees or hidden costs. Users can choose from public leagues – including leagues only containing winners of past CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Leagues – or create a private league.  At the end of the season, one lucky winner of a CBSSports.com Free Fantasy Football League will be selected to win the grand prize of $10,000 dollars. It’s a great way for fantasy players new to CBSSports.com to start to get to know the #1 product on the market for free.

ESPN

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/livedraftlobby
http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/mockdraftlobby

ESPN’s FFL Mock Draft lobby allows users to drop in at almost any time to run through a draft, try out a new strategy or just see how others are drafting players. Features include the ability to select which draft slot you want before the draft begins and the draft results emailed to you. There is no maximum to the number of mock drafts a user can do.  ESPN’s FFL Live Draft lobby allows users to select a draft type and its league settings and draft a public team(s) 7-days/week, 20 hours/day throughout the pre-season. Draft types include both the traditional Snake method and the new Auction format where owners manage a budget of $200 for 16 players. Both the Mock and Live Draft Lobbies are free and built to scale. At max point during the FFL pre-season this year, the system successfully drafted over 8,400 leagues concurrently.

GridIron Fantasy Sports (World Championship of Fantasy Football)

www.wcoff.com

The World Championship of Online Fantasy Football provides online fantasy players the opportunity to compete in the same format as the World Championship of Fantasy Football Main Event. Featuring an Overall Award of $10,000 on top of league awards in excess of $2,000, for an entry fee of $300 fantasy football players can take their shot at Glory and win a World Championship of Fantasy Football Title. Additional online formats are offered by the World Championship of Fantasy Football including the ever popular Super Satellite where 16 League Champions and Wildcards compete in a tournament style bracket to win the $10,000 overall award. The World Championship of Fantasy Football has experienced considerable growth in its online fantasy football segment ultimately providing more opportunities for fantasy football players to take their shot at the live Main Event and $300,000.

RealTime Fantasy Sports

http://register.rtsports.com/php/compare-money-leagues.php

Do you dominate your fantasy football league? Turn that domination into cash. You focus on winning, we will run the league. League highlights:

Online draft, You choose your draft time, RealTime Scoring, of course, NO transaction fees, 3 division winners plus wildcard make playoffs, and more!  Play head to head in a 12-team league all season long. Enjoy a full season of exciting competition, and then take home the prize! Our payouts are the highest around. Compare and see! Really, compare our payouts. Why play where you can win less? Play where you can win more! Go with someone you can trust, RealTime Fantasy Sports has been doing fantasy football on the Internet for 14 seasons.  We offer three different levels of play for our fantasy owners – All-American for $29.95 per team, All-Pro for $99.95 per team and High Stakes for $495.95 a team.  Is there any other information you would like us to consider: This year (2009) is our 15th season providing the best, most comprehensive fantasy football service on the planet.

Salary Cap Contest

This award recognizes the company with the best salary cap style fantasy contest. Salary Cap Style is defined as using an artificial “cap” or maximum team value to challenge consumers to select a fantasy football team without going over the maximum value. The winning contest will have creative and innovative features and design

Head2Head

head2head.com

H2H Salary Cap College Football takes advantage of the rising interest and passion surrounding College Football. The H2H College Game is a $100 million salary cap format game where the participant chooses ten players for a full roster (1QB, 3 RB, 3WR, 1 Flex, 1K and 1D). We use the BCS Schools (Six Conferences plus Notre Dame) and this makes it manageable for our players to enjoy college football without feeling overwhelmed with too many players to choose from. All players are placed in a 30 team leagues with six divisions and are allowed to have buddy leagues within the overall league structure.  Players compete for 14 weeks to qualify for the H2H playoffs as well as for weekly cash prizes. There are league and overall prizes for playoff winners.

Sports Buff Fantasy Football

SportsBuff.com

The first versions of Sports Buff Salary Cap Style Fantasy Football arrived on the scene in 1995 and have offered consumers hours of enjoyment since then.  From Coach Buffmeister entertaining and competing against contestants, to unique player upgrade formats, to the tradition of Sports Buff post-season trips to Las Vegas… Sports Buff has survived and prospered over the years.

High Stakes Contest

This award recognizes the company with the best high stakes fantasy contest. High Stakes contest is defined as any fantasy contest in which the total value of the cash and merchandise prizes awarded is at least $100k (excludes prize values for site or contest credits, points or memberships).

ESPN Streak for the Ca$h

http://streak.espn.go.com

The objective of ESPN’s Streak for the Cash game is to accumulate the longest winning streak by selecting the winning team (or player) from an ongoing variety of sports matchups. All entries start with a streak of zero and as they win matchups their streak grows. Lose a matchup and the entry moves back to a streak of zero. There are no rules as to how often entries must make a pick, and if a matchup ends in a tie it is pushed (not reset to zero). Most matchups are “straight up” between two teams, but each day “props” are added to mix it up. Prop matchups can be between teams, players or a combination or both (ie “Philadelphia 76ers points scored vs. Cole Hamels pitch count”). Version 1 and 2 of the game had a fixed number to be reached as the threshold to win the grand prize – $1,000,000 dollars cash. In Version 1 “bigsam” from Miami, FL won the $1M prize, extending his win streak to 25 with the Steelers come-from-behind 20-13 win over the Cowboys on Dec 7, 2008. No user reached the required 27-win threshold during Version 2. For Version 3 we changed the rules so the top 7 entries compete in a head-to-head “Pick-Off” for the $1,000,000 cash prize (to take place in Bristol, CT Dec 11-14, 2009). The six entries who do not win the $1M are awarded $10k cash. Also included in the game are Most Monthly Wins and “Stunt” contests each which have cash prizes. After V3 is finished, we will have awarded over $2.2M in cash prizes, which makes it the highest stakes game ESPN has ever created (passing the our “3Play” game from the early 2000s, which awarded over $1.8M in cash prizes). The plan is currently to extend the game into 2010, with Version 4 starting on Jan 1, 2010.

GridIron Fantasy Sports (World Championship of Fantasy Football)

http://www.wcoff.com

The World Championship of Fantasy Football awarded over $2M to winners in the longest tenured high stakes fantasy football contest in the industry. The 2009 Main Event Champion received $300,000 and the title of World Champion. Among the many high stakes contests operated by the World Championship of Fantasy Football is the $25K Platinum League where team owners pay $25,000 to play and take home $150,000 for 1st place in this 12- team league.  The World Championship of Fantasy Football continues to innovate and expand the high stakes fantasy football offering. Contests such as the $25K Platinum League, $1K Auction Championship, World Championship of Online Fantasy Football and Super Satellite event combined with the legendary Main Event create an unparalleled high stakes fantasy football experience for the best of the best in fantasy sports.

Live Fantasy Event or Contest

This award will recognize the company managing the most compelling on-premise, live fantasy event or contest.

BaseballHQ.com (First Pitch Arizona)

http://www.baseballhq.com/seminars/arizona.shtml

First Pitch Arizona is a 3-day conference held during the Arizona Fall League where fantasy leaguers gather for seminars, scouting and socializing. Each morning consists of seminar sessions that include panel discussions, debates and special guest speakers from Major and Minor League Baseball. Afternoons and evenings are primarily fantasy-style competitions and AFL ballgames. This conference has been going on for 15 years and has developed into a prime networking opportunity for fantasy baseball writers and companies.

FantasyFactor.com

http://www.fantasyfactor.com/

The Fantasy Factor is the first company to build a cross platform, desktop, fantasy sports application that offers daily and weekly fantasy sports contests for cash and prizes. Team managers compete for cash prizes against one another, creating fantasy sports teams in baseball, football, basketball, and hockey and entering them in fixed sized leagues or in unlimited sized tournaments. The application is inherently faster and more secure than browser based contests, and we’re the only daily contest company that is both PCI Compliant and VeriSign Secured.  Fantasy Factor offers daily and weekly contests at various price points, with prizes paid accordingly. Game play is based on Fantasy Factor’s innovated Factor Style weighting system, where Team Managers assign a set number of multipliers to individual players. Fantasy Factor’s patent-pending Team ShuffleTM algorithm guarantees that players will get in fixed sized leagues while randomizing teams to prevent player collusion and fraud. Fantasy Factor is also the only contest site that keeps player prize funds in an independently audited escrow account, so that players can rest assured that their funds on account are safe, and that prizes will be paid.

Unique Contest

This award will recognize the company with the most unique and innovative contest. The contest should be non-traditional contests and not qualify for other designated categories. Examples include pick the winner games, survival games, pick a loser each week, simulation games, etc.

CBSSports.com Edge Challenge

CBSSports.com’s Edge Challenge allows users to compete against other participants to see who can correctly predict which NFL player will perform better than another NFL player in a particular match-up. Participants will be presented with two NFL players of the same primary position (i.e. QB, WR, RB, TE) and will be prompted to pick the one that he/she feels will have a better performance during that week’s NFL game.  Upon selection of the first pick, participants will be provided with another pairing from the same position, repeating the process again and again until a rank list has been formulated. When the rank list for a position is complete, the participant is given the opportunity to enter his/her rank list for the weekly contest. Participants will then go through the same process for the remaining three positions.  Housed in a new, innovative ad unit, CBSSports.com’s Edge Challenge is completely free to play and offer weekly and season ending cash prizes. Official rules and game play can be found at:

http://football.cbssports.com/splash/football/spln/quickpicks/rules

ESPN (Streak for the Ca$h)

http://streak.espn.go.com/en/

The objective of ESPN’s Streak for the Cash game is to accumulate the longest winning streak by selecting the winning team (or player) from an ongoing variety of sports matchups. All entries start with a streak of zero and as they win matchups their streak grows. Lose a matchup and the entry moves back to a streak of zero. There are no rules as to how often entries must make a pick, and if a matchup ends in a tie it is scored as a “push” (not reset to zero). Most matchups are “straight up” between two teams, but what makes the game unique is that each day “props” are added to mix it up. Prop matchups can be between teams, players or a combination or both (ie “Philadelphia 76ers points scored vs. Cole Hamels pitch count”). Version 1 and 2 of the game had a fixed number to be reached as the threshold to win the grand prize – $1,000,000 dollars cash. In Version 1 “bigsam” from Miami, FL won the $1M prize, extending his win streak to 25 with the Steelers come-from-behind 20-13 win over the Cowboys on Dec 7, 2008. No user reached the required 27-win threshold during Version 2. For Version 3 we changed the rules so the top 7 entries compete in a head-to-head “Pick-Off” for the $1,000,000 cash prize (to take place in Bristol, CT Dec 11-14, 2009). The six entries who do not win the $1M are awarded $10k cash. Also included in the game are Most Monthly Wins and “Stunt” contests each which have cash prizes. After V3 is finished, we will have awarded over $2.2M in cash prizes, which makes it the highest stakes game ESPN has ever created (passing the our “3Play” game from the early 2000s, which awarded over $1.8M in cash prizes). The plan is currently to extend the game into 2010, with Version 4 starting on Jan 1, 2010.  The game is completely free to play. The $1,000,000 prize was not insured and is paid in one lump sum. The game has been active every day since August 28, 2008. In that time over 200,000,000 picks have been made by over 2.5M unique entries.

NBC/Rotoworld (Snap Draft)

http://snapdraft.rotoworld.com/

SNAPDRAFT is a daily fantasy sports game where you select your roster from a pool of players playing that day. There is no season long commitment. Multiple individual sports and combined sports are available as well as varying league sizes, price points, and styles of play. For some sports, the daily contest may include games on multiple days (i.e., for SNAPDRAFT NFL, in addition to Sunday games, the Thursday night and/or Monday night games may be included) or the daily contest may include games on multiple weekends (i.e., for SNAPDRAFT NFL Playoffs, all games from the start of the contest through the Super Bowl may be included). Contests that use combined sports are called “hybrid” contests.

RapidDraft.com (World Fantasy Games)

http://www.rapiddraft.com/

RapidDraft™ Fantasy Football launched in 2009 with an innovative and entertaining live draft room featuring:

1. The RD Sports Bar as the backdrop for every live online draft.
2. The Rapid Remote, designed for the arm chair quarterback and/or couch potato (also known as the remote control and fantasy football loving population).  The Rapid Remote gives each RapidDrafter the ability to easily control their online draft with logically designed features like the player queue, the available player buttons by position, the individual team screens, the team/player grid, the RD Draft Board, and the Select Player button which lights up when it’s the consumer’s pick.
3. One consumer avatar wearing a RapidDraft jersey with draft position as the jersey number.  During setup, the consumer selects between five avatar bodies, four jersey colors, and 12 draft positions.
4. 11 competitor avatars representing 11 well-known industry fantasy football experts randomly placed in the RD Sports Bar when the live draft begins.
5. A draft clock with a tasteful bell ring reminder when consumer is “On the Clock” and a clock that turns red and gently ticks once there’s 10 seconds left for the consumer to make their pick.

Let Caitlin tell you more about the RapidDraft Live Draft Room – Click Here

Yahoo (Mayoral Face-Off)

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f2/mayoral-faceoff

Yahoo! Sports kicked off the fantasy football season by drafting 11 mayors from cities across the nation to compete in the inaugural Yahoo! Sports Mayoral Face-off. The competition matched mayors head-to-head each week of the fantasy football season. In addition to the fantasy football competition, fans were encouraged to support their mayor by voting for their city at Yahoo! Sports. The total prize package was a total of $30,000, one prize for winning the league and the other for fan support. The winning mayor will be awarded $15,000 for a local non-profit sports program of his or her choice. In October Mayor Schmitt accepted the $15,000 donation because the citizens of Green Bay had the most votes on the site.  The campaign was well received by fans and well covered by the media, more than 10,000 fans voted for their favorite football city. In addition, the campaign received extensive coverage, 82 television stories, more than 60 stories, and tweets from mayors, media and fans.

Innovation

This award will be presented to the company with the most innovative new product design or technology innovation. The category is very broad, by design, and includes any new product, contest, service, feature, content type, content delivery service, design twist, or technical innovation.

Advanced Sports Media

http://advancedsportsmedia.com/

The Draft Analyzer Pro – Mock Draft Simulator for fantasy football 2009 is a brand new native iPhone application that allows you to cruise through a full mock draft in a matter of minutes. You select the league size, your draft position and competition level then try to draft the best possible team against the computers player recommendation engine. The Draft Analyzer Pro – Mock Draft Simulator is the only mobile application that allows users to mock draft on the go from anywhere at anytime.

Key Features:

* Simulate and save an unlimited number of Mock Drafts
* Make picks for your team and for other teams, or let the Player Recommendation Engine do the dirty work
* Select your league size, draft position and roster requirements
* Player Rankings updated several times a week throughout pre-season
* Select from three competition levels including Expert, Casual and Drunk!
* Utilize player rankings based on standard scoring rules or download personalized player rankings from your Draft Analyzer Web account
* Includes ADP values, Bye-weeks and projected fantasy points for 2009 for all players

Fantasy Sports Channel

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/channels/fantasysports

The first radio channel devoted entirely to fantasy sports. The FSC provides fantasy sports advice, news and commentary 24 hours a day with at least 12 hours a day of live interactive programming.  We currently stream over 50 shows in our 2^nd year with industry leaders such as fantasyguru.com, footballguys.com, fantasyfootball.com, thefantasyfootballguys.com, fantasypros911.com, rotoexperts.com, fantasysportsgroup.com, fantasysharks.com and more.  Listeners can participate in chat rooms during the shows or elect to call in to the show and participate with the hosts.  There isn’t another single web site on the internet that provides more FREE fantasy sports advice and content from more proven experts.  Major industry experts along with up and comers have all joined forces to create a one stop shop at no charge to the fantasy sports channel audience.  Truly one of the most valuable fantasy sports tools on the web or any other media outlet.  The Fantasy Sports Channel is made available via the internet in several different ways.  It streams on our channel home page (www.fsc.fm), via iTunes Radio.  The channel is also available “on the go” thru our mobile website (www.fsc.fm) and on the Apple iPhone via 3^rd party applications such as iterum2 (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iterum2/id327496090?mt=8) and FlyCast (http://www.flytunes.fm/FlyTunesIPHONE.aspx).

Fantasy Sports Insurance

http://www.fantasysportsinsurance.com/

FSI is a new and innovative Disability Insurance policy that protects a fantasy team owners’ investment in their team should a key player(s) suffer a “season changing” injury. The FSI product is developed by Intermarket Insurance Agency Inc. (www.intermarketins.com), a nationwide insurance brokerage founded in 1934. As avid fantasy sports players, we felt the impact of this past season’s major injuries and wanted to do something about it. Calling on our insurance expertise and passion for fantasy sports we developed a true insurance product that offers fantasy team owners the ability to do what real NFL, NHL, NBA and other team owners do…and that is to protect their investment in their team against the loss of a key player due to a serious injury. Intermarket Insurance offers innovative insurance products designed to protect their client’s investment in their personal or business ventures.

Football Guys

http://www.footballguys.com/

In approximately 30 seconds, you can enter your team and league data and with one click receive a comprehensive analysis of exactly how we think you did. And more importantly, what you need to do in order to finish on top. It’s powered by some of the features we do at Footballguys.com and it’ll break your team down to show you exactly where you’re strong…And where you need some help. From suggested free agents, to sleepers to watch for to schedule strength and much more, it’s everything you need to take your team to the next level.  Utilizing a myriad of databases from Footballguys content and about 9,000 lines of PHP code, we have created the end all answer to “How did I do at my Draft?”  This program was released in late May, but starting getting a lot of buzz in August as people were completing drafts.  We asked people for their emails as part of this and grew our mailing list from 75,000 names in June to over 140,000 names in August.  At the peak in August, we were adding over 4,000 names a day of new people to the Footballguys.com mailing list (This is discounting the tens of thousands daily users already on our list that were using this product for all of their leagues).  This application provided the user with an overall team strength, playoff chances, schedule analysis, potential free agents, projections and player summaries, current news and more.  It dynamically changed with Footballguys projections (updated daily in the preseason).  It allowed 4 different expert views from the staff at Footballguys.  It was completed integrated into MyFantasyLeague and our own Draft Dominator software so reports could be generated with one click.  This software was FREE to everyone.  View a sample report here:

http://subscribers.footballguys.com/rate-my-team/team.php?team=999999999999

Hotbox Sports

http://www.hotboxsports.com/

Hotbox Sports offers a variation on head to head fantasy games designed to bring the excitement of fantasy football to other sports. Hotbox Sports fantasy basketball launched in late 2008.  Owners play two head-to-head contests per week; game periods are Mon-Wed and Fri-Sun. If a player has 2 games in a given game period, owners must choose which game will count towards their score. The result is a game where fans can feel the impact of their starter’s performance while watching the game. This leads to more “down to the wire” moments and yes, more screaming at the television. Preliminary data shows very high page-views, eluding to the fact that this might be the missing link for lackluster profits and shrinking popularity of fantasy basketball.  Hotbox Sports included an innovation to their site this year that could be a new standard in all fantasy sports. We would like the board to consider this development separately from our scheduling innovation. One frustrating element of fantasy sports is misinformation regarding players’ injury status as well as their coach’s intentions regarding their playing time for a given game. The goal here is to combat the negative feelings an owner feels when they make a wrong call, whether it be to start a player who sits the bench or to sit one who plays despite injury-hype. For this, Hotbox Sports includes injury reserve slots as part of the starting rosters of each team. Every team chooses a reserve for the Center, Forward, and Guard positions. If a starter does not play, the reserve player’s score is automatically substituted for the player who sat out. The benefits here are twofold: 1) owners do not have to be concerned about bogus information handed out by the likes of a Bill Belichek or Mike Shanahan because they have a backup plan in place 2) owners do not have to be inconvenienced by being forced to be available minutes before gametime for a last-minute roster decision.

PickEmFirst

www.pickemfirst.com

Pickemfirst is a free online tool that recognizes all MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL players in ANY text on ANY web page. We save you time by highlighting players who are free agents in your fantasy leagues regardless of which fantasy commissioner product you use. We also aggregate player data coming from Twitter, RotoWire and FantasySharks.com to make your add and drop decisions even easier.  Watch the video at www.pickemfirst.com

Draft Kit

This award will recognize the company with the best and most comprehensive fantasy draft kit.

CFFInsider.com (College Fantasy Football Draft Kit)

http://www.collegefantasyfootballinsider.com/draft-kit/rankings

We provide the most comprehensive draft kit for any fantasy sport, with actual player stat projections for EVERY player for all 120 Div-1 college football teams.  Our easy-to-use filters allow users to sort by conference, team, class, etc., and our My Insider feature also allows owners to select individual players and teams they want to see, track and follow.  You can even input your own scoring system to adjust player projections and fantasy point totals.  All total we offer player breakdowns for over 1000 players and team defenses.   The kit includes items such as:  player ranking, stat projections, breakdowns, previous year’s stats, player news, ease of schedule rankings, returning starters, sleepers, keepers, incoming freshman, home games, bye weeks and more.  When you consider the volume of players in college football (120 teams), the coverage in our draft kit is second to none.

ESPN Fantasy Football Draft Kit

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/ffldraftkit

Provide a description of your product or service (If your product is selected as a finalist this will be the text published on fsta.org):  The ESPN.com Fantasy Football Draft Kit provided fans with all of the tools and analysis needed for a successful fantasy draft. Along with universal staples as mock drafts, cheat sheets, sleepers&busts, this draft kit offered analysis on topics such as:

-The “Curse of 370”
-Offensive line rankings from Scouts Inc
-Which draft slots were most advantageous historically
-Position-by-position consistency rankings

… and much more. Hardcore players were served by such features as IDP rankings and cheat sheets for 2-QB and PPR leagues. Casual fans had all of the features they’d expect plus video analysis from NFL analysts such as Mark Schlereth, Merril Hoge and Cris Carter.  Is there any other information you would like us to consider: We’re particularly proud of the clean layout, engaging art, and the “carousel” option of sorting through the top features. Note that because of our video expiration procedures, most of the top video features we had in August and September are no longer available.

The Huddle

www.thehuddle.com/fantasy_football_draft_kit.php

Web Site Access:  Username = fstacomp  /  Password = fstapass

The Huddle’s Draft Kit provides everything the fantasy hobbyist needs to have a successful draft.  Player rankings, cheat sheets customized to the users scoring systems, projected stats, player analysis on 525 players, draft strategy articles, mock drafts, in-depth injury reports, sleepers and more.  All league types are covered – performance, td-only, auction, dynasty, IDP, etc. via our myHuddle application and various other features.  Our draft kit is updated at a minimum daily during the NFL training camps and pre-season.  The cost of a full Huddle site 12-month subscription (which would of course include the Draft Kit) is $27.95.

Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit

http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/draftprep.htm Use the following to login and view all the areas/features:

UserName: Fsta
Password: fsta

RotoWire’s fantasy baseball draft kit includes over 1,700 comprehensive player profiles (including over 500 minor leaguers), projected stats for over 900 players, real-time customized projected stats based on league parameters, 24/7 updated depth charts and cheatsheets, full team previews and over 60 feature stories. We would argue RotoWire’s baseball draft kit is the most extensive draft kit of any sport in fantasy sports in terms of number of players projected, number of players profiled and total quantity (as well as quality) of content.

Rotoworld/NBC Sports

http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/draftguide/football/main_page.aspx
http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/draftguide/baseball/main_page.aspx
http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/draftguide/basketball/main_page.aspx
http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/draftguide/hockey/main_page.aspx

The most comprehensive and timely draft guide features more than 600 player’s profiles in football, 1000 in baseball, 350 in basketball, and 300 in hockey.  Included in the draft guide is Stat Projections, Player profiles, Sleepers, Busts, Rookies, Custom Fantasy Point Scoring, Custom Roto-style scoring, Print-on-Demand PDF draft guide, ADP report, Tiering system, Depth Charts, Running back report, Closer report, Mock Draft Recaps, Contract Year analysis, Schedule analysis,  Dynasty/Keeper Rankings, Auction Values, Custom Dollar value generator, over 30 strategy articles.  Everything is kept up to date as we report our player news.

Best Online Draft Room

This award recognizes the company with the best and most innovative live, online draft application for a fantasy league. The online draft application can be for an actual fantasy league or can be only for mock-drafting purposes.

CBSSports.com

http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy

CBSSports.com Fantasy Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey and College Football use the award-winning CBSSports.com Live Draft Room which is also available prior to drafts as a mock draft tool.  The CBSSports.com Live Draft Room is the most customizable and easy to use live draft product on the market and one able to handle leagues with up to 20 teams. The CBSSports.com Live Draft Room allows users to choose draft position and time and even allows users to use mock draft results as a rank list in their real drafts.  New this year, the CBSSports.com Draft Room offers the ability to run a live online auction as an alternative way of drafting your league. Whether your league uses a salary cap, keepers, or any other type of scoring customization, CBSSports.com has built an auction draft room that will fulfill all of your league’s needs. Additional features in 2009 include audio from CBS Sports announcer Gus Johnson.

ESPN

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage

ESPN’s FFL Mock Draft lobby allows users to drop in at almost any time to run through a draft, try out a new strategy or just see how others are drafting players. Features include the ability to select which draft slot you want before the draft begins and the draft results emailed to you. There is no maximum to the number of mock drafts a user can do. ESPN’s FFL Live Draft lobby allows users to select a draft type and its league settings and draft a public team(s) 7-days/week, 20 hours/day throughout the pre-season. Draft types include both the traditional Snake method and the new Auction format where owners manage a budget of $200 for 16 players.  Both the Mock and Live Draft Lobbies are free and built to scale. At max point during the FFL pre-season this year, the system successfully drafted over 8,400 leagues concurrently.

Fantrax

Fantrax.com is an all-encompassing fantasy sports website, with the most powerful and customizable Commissioner/League Manager product in the industry for 7 sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball, NASCAR) and several more to come (PGA, European Soccer, Cricket, Rugby).

- We are built from the ground up to be fully translatable, and Fantrax will soon be offered in French, Spanish and other languages.
- We implement new features at an unheard of pace (often a few per week), largely based on user demand (sometimes within a day or 2!).
- Unlike certain niche sites that have a relatively high degree of customizability for a single sport, we offer our complete suite of features for every sport

RapidDraft.com (World Fantasy Games)

RapidDraft.com

RapidDraft™ Fantasy Football launched in 2009 with an innovative and entertaining live draft room featuring:

1. The RD Sports Bar as the backdrop for every live online draft.
2. The Rapid Remote, designed for the arm chair quarterback and/or couch potato (also known as the remote control and fantasy football loving population).  The Rapid Remote gives each RapidDrafter the ability to easily control their online draft with logically designed features like the player queue, the available player buttons by position, the individual team screens, the team/player grid, the RD Draft Board, and the Select Player button which lights up when it’s the consumer’s pick.
3. One consumer avatar wearing a RapidDraft jersey with draft position as the jersey number.  During setup, the consumer selects between five avatar bodies, four jersey colors, and 12 draft positions.
4. 11 competitor avatars representing 11 well-known industry fantasy football experts randomly placed in the RD Sports Bar when the live draft begins.
5. A draft clock with a tasteful bell ring reminder when consumer is “On the Clock” and a clock that turns red and gently ticks once there’s 10 seconds left for the consumer to make their pick.
6. Multiple integrated marketing locations for advertisers and sponsors – TV screens, wall locations, wall hangings – a total of 10 display areas.  See draft room screenshot.
7. Rapid Speed (30 seconds per Expert pick) and Warp Speed (5 seconds per Expert pick) options.
8. Multiple sorts on every draft screen to search and rank players.
9. Expansion screens (+) for in-depth research on each player or defense.
10. Interactive pre-rank capabilities to prepare consumer rank before the live online draft begins.
11. A truly unique and entertaining live draft experience!

Let Caitlin tell you more about the RapidDraft Live Draft Room – Click Here

Waiverwire.com

Full Season Pass – Intelligent Draft Software using Artificial Intelligence

http://www.WaiverWire.com

Our draft tool applies gaming principals to “think ahead” by running 50,000 probability scenarios each time an NFL player is selected from the pool of available players.The advantage of using a system based in game theory is that it takes into account the likely behavior of other team owners in the draft…rather than simply using the expected point values of the players. Our software will process thousands of computations to provide you with the best possible selection for your fantasy team based upon who you and your opponents have already selected…and anticipated future selections based on the skill level of your opponents.  http://www.waiverwire.com/site/Full- Season-Pass.aspx – Read about how the software works to understand how it can guarantee a player to start his or her season in first place (according to our projections).

Fantasy Draft and Game Assistance Tool

This award will recognize the company with the best draft assistance software, designed to help consumers draft the best possible fantasy team. This can be an online tool, downloadable software, purchased software or other tool.  Also included are week-to-week management applications that project the best starting lineup or other in-season data.  This award category excludes draft rooms or draft management—those are draft tools.

Advanced Sports Media (Draft Analyzer)

http://www.draftanalyzer.com

The Draft Analyzer provides highly accurate and personalized player recommendations throughout your fantasy football draft.  You can automatically import your scoring rules, roster settings, owner names, draft order and Keepers from almost any major fantasy football commissioner website or manually create numerous leagues and drafts.  The Draft Analyzer, now available on the web, desktop and iPhone, is the #1 selling draft assistance program and is the only draft software good enough to be integrated into and sold by ESPN, CBSSports.com, Fanball and RTSports.  The Draft Analyzer is the only draft assistance tool that:

1)     Is available on the desktop, web and iphone.
2)     Is integrated into and sold by ESPN, CBSSports.com, Fanball and RTSports
3)     Allows users to choose player projections, news and notes from numerous leading expert sources such as ESPN, CBSSports.com, Fanball, Accuscore, Fantasy Sports Magazine, RotoWire and others.
4)     Has a Player Recommendation engine that provides the most accurate draft advice possible based on the principles of Value Based Drafting and ADP results from completed drafts and other key fantasy draft metrics such as overlapping bye-weeks, strength of schedule analytics, and player durability/consistency ratings.

New features for 2009 included a web-based version and native iPhone application enabling a user to import or create a league in the Draft Analyzer Web and download it to their desktop for off-line drafts or even access it on their iPhone.  Users can also complete unlimited mock drafts directly in the Draft Analyzer Web to help them perfect their draft strategy.

Fantasy Baseball Sherpa

http://fantasybaseballsherpa.com/

Provides player rankings and remainder-of-season forecasts.  The rankings and forecasts are customized for eligible players (i.e. – MLB, NL-only, AL-only), # teams in league, roster requirements by position, and scoring categories.  Customized season-to-date player rankings and stats can also be generated.  Cost of a season subscription is $24.95.  The remainder-of-season forecasts are updated daily throughout the baseball season to reflect the following developments:

• Injuries
• Trades
• Suspensions
• Minor league call-ups
• Changes in playing time (e.g. – platoon player becomes an everyday player)
• Changes in role (e.g. – middle reliever becomes a closer)
• Changes in batting order position.

Fantasy Football Crystal Ball

See a demo here: http://www.fantasyfootballcrystalball.com/DraftGameAssistance.aspx

Fantasy Football Crystal Ball is both a draft and game assistance tool via consolidation of rankings and scoring of experts. For the draft, consolidating draft rankings allows for a side-by- side comparison of expert projections, allowing the fantasy owner to conclude which picks are consensus and which are risky “reach” picks. During the regular season, consolidating predictions, tailoring those predictions to an owner’s roster, and scoring those predictions greatly streamlines the weekly process.

There are two technological breakthroughs that make Fantasy Football Crystal Ball unique. First, we developed a software toolkit that fully automates collection of experts’ predictions. This toolkit is configurable and scalable across expert sources and sports. Second, we developed a mathematical model for scoring the experts that is both meaningful and fair. It allows an owner to discriminate among and between the experts at a glance for his/her roster’s weekly start-sit decisions. It rewards good predictions while penalizing bad predictions appropriately for both start advice and sit advice.

Login: fsta Password: #2009fsta

Myfantasyleague.com/Fantasy Sharks Draft Coach

www.fantasysharks.com

Available as a free add-on to MyFantasyLeague.com customers, the Draft and Lineup Coach make suggestions  on who to draft or start based on proprietary FantasySharks.com algorithms.

Draft Coach

The Draft Coach has been available at MyFantasyLeague.com for those leagues since 2005.  Mid-draft, a MyFantasyLeague.com customer can elect to look at the FantasySharks.com Draft Coach and the Draft Coach will read the scoring system, roster requirements and players drafted for the owners league, then after applying our proprietary algorithm which utilizes position scarcity, value and player tier’ing to make a suggestion, will cross reference the season projections at FantasySharks.com and make suggestions as to who is the next best selection for that particular owner.

Click here for a Draft Coach in progress when viewed from a MyFantasyLeague.com league. The Draft Coach helped 35,000 players draft a team this preseason.

Lineup Coach

The Lineup Coach has also been available at MyFantasyLeague.com for those leagues since 2005.  The Lineup Coach will read the players league scoring and roster requirements then make suggestions on who to start based on FantasySharks.com weekly projections, bye weeks and our own ’stud’ rating for players.

Click here for a Lineup Coach when viewed from a MyFantasyLeague.com league

The Lineup Coach continues to be a successful tool and is projected to make around 200,000 starting lineup projections for the 2009 NFL season.

Rotowire.com

http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/draftsoftware.htm
http://www.rotowire.com/football/draftsoftware.htm
http://www.rotowire.com/basketball/draftsoftware.htm
http://www.rotowire.com/hockey/draftsoftware.htm
http://www.rotowire.com/golf/draftsoftware.htm

Use the following to download the software/access fully the pages above:

UserName: Fsta

Password: fsta

RotoWire’s draft software for five different sports allows fantasy players to keep track of an entire draft or auction in real time and provides player projections, player rankings, dollar values, player news and more. Fantasy players can research all of the players, sort by categories and statistics, view projected league standings and much more. RotoWire was the first web site to create draft software for hockey, golf and basketball and the first to offer it for five different sports.

Print or Magazine Ad

This award will recognize the most creative ad of 2009. Ads for any fantasy product are eligible and will be submitted directly to the committee for review.

Dobber Hockey

ESPN

The Huddle

MyFantasyLeague.com

Rotowire.com

Rotoworld/NBC Sports

Best Fantasy Magazine

This award will recognize the 2009 fantasy magazine with the best combination of information, presentation, and innovation.

Athlon

Athlon Sports provides the premier source of fantasy football draft preparation in its Fantasy Football Analyst, a 160-page, full-color newsstand publication. Athlon’s Dan and Kelly Grogan analyze more than 370 players (up from just over 200 last year) and rank more than 500 in an expanded CheatSheets section that includes Estimated Fantasy Points, dollar values, stat projections and brief comments. The staff mock draft is bigger and better than ever, and there is loads of strategic advice from the Grogans. Team beat writers answer key fantasy questions as the focal point of refurbished team pages. And magazine buyers get free online access to updated CheatSheets that are updated daily throughout the preseason. The Fantasy Football Analyst is packed with everything fantasy players need to prepare for draft day and start their journey to a fantasy championship.

http://corpftp.athlonsports.com/

Then access the file using the following:

User ID: getfile
Password: Production2k
Directory: outgoing/fantasy magazine

Fantasy Sports Services Inc (XML Team)

Hockey Yearbook Magazine (Print)

http://magazine.forecaster.ca/hk09/TSFHockey0910.pdf

http://magazine.forecaster.ca/hk09/TSFHockey0910-Top500.pdf

(Note: the second URL – Top500 — is included as a tear-out within the magazine.)

Reader-friendly, THE SPORTS FORECASTER bursts at the bindings with facts, figures and an unsurpassed forecasts section, where the top 500 players are laid out in a handy, tear-out format. It’s a one-stop shop for sports fans, filled with player and team profiles. All the tools you need for total fantasy sports dominance!

Footballguys.com

Footballguys.com 2009 Strategy Guide (http://footballguys.com/cdcheck/fullmag.pdf).  You can also easily view the magazine at this URL: http://www.footballguys.com/free.php.  Our entire CD’s contents can be viewed here: http://www.footballguys.com/cdcheck/cd.htm.

The Footballguys.com Magazine was available free on the Footballguys.com website for the first time in 2009. The full-color, 250-page guide was also distributed as a PDF file on 150,000 CDs.

Coverage includes the following sections:

• Multiple strategy articles (including an updated look at the ground-breaking Value Based Drafting strategy and a mock draft that delves into the drafting strategies of 12 staff members)
• Cheatsheets, rankings, and projections (including rankings from multiple staff members)
• News (including an injury recap, coaching and player movement, and a rundown of pressing preseason issues)

Fanball/Hotbox Sports

Fanball/Hotbox Sports Fantasy Basketball Magazine

Web Site Name and URL: www.fanball.com; www.hotboxsports.com

NFL.com

NFL.com Fantasy football 2009 preview.

Rotoworld

Rotoworld.com & Beckett Media Fantasy Football, Baseball, and Basketball Draft Guide

The most comprehensive draft guide features more than 500 player’s profiles in football, 1000 in baseball, and 350 in basketball.  Included in the draft guide is Stat Projections, Player profiles, Sleepers, Busts, Rookies, Fantasy Point Scoring, Roto-style scoring, ADP report, Tiering system, Depth Charts, Running back report, Closer report, Mock Draft Recaps, Contract Year analysis, Schedule analysis, Dynasty/Keeper Rankings, Auction Values, over 30 strategy articles.

Rotowire

http://www.rotowire.com/magazine/index_MLB2009.htm

RotoWire’s fantasy baseball magazine includes more than 1,500 player profiles, dollar values, projected stats, cheatsheets, articles by Will Carroll, John Sickels, Jeff Erickson and more!  We would argue RotoWire’s fantasy baseball magazine includes more player profiles than any other print magazine in any sport, and each player profile offers considerable depth. They offer a big advantage when a fantasy baseball player scrambles for research on an unknown player during a draft or auction.

Best New Web Site or Site Update

This award will be presented to companies that are new to the fantasy market since January 1, 2009 or have done a considerable upgrade to their site. The site will be judged based upon the professional quality, overall offer value presented and innovative use of technology.

Fantasy Sports Channel/Blog Talk Radio

The original version of the FSC was essentially a standard BlogTalkRadio template which is used for any of their established channels.  Although the page provided streaming audio, programming listings, and host profiles, many people found it too busy and hard to navigate.

In September of 2009, the FSC’s creator and managing editor, Marc Ronick worked with a web developer to create a much more user friendly web site that includes all of the features from the old page with a plethora of new features such as: player news updates, player rankings, fantasy sports articles & blogs, more organized host/directory, topical poll questions, and more.

For a comparison of our old layout vs our new layout, please follow the links below:

Old site: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/channels/fantasysports

New site: http://www.fsc.fm

2009’s new look site also brought bigger and better industry names such as John Hansen and Adam Caplan of fantasyguru.com, Jay Clemons (SI.com & 2008 FSWA Football Writer of the Year), and Mike Harmon of FOX Sports Radio to name a few.

Dream11.com

Dream11.com is the flagship brand of Dream11 Gaming Pvt. Ltd. It is a unique and innovative Fantasy Cricket portal that offers users ’The World’s 1st Graphical Fantasy Cricket Game’. The portal also allows users to compete and connect with millions of cricket fanatics and develop ‘cricket communities’ that further adds to the fun quotient. Features like Live Scores, News, Player Profiles, Schedules, Standings, Statistics, Games and Gallery, along with Community tools, ensure a complete Fantasy Cricket experience for users.  Dream11.com was launched on 25^th May, 2009 just before the ICC World Twenty20, 2009.

• To access our draft room:
  • Please visit www.dream11.com
  • Login on the top with:
    • Username: jcleveland@fsta.org
    • Password: jcleveland
    • Once you are logged-in please click on Fantasy Cricket in the top navigation

Now click on the “Play Now” button that you will see close to the center of the screen.

Cheatsheet Creator (FanSoft Media)

CheatSheet Creator was created as an alternative to the archaic methods of draft preparation. After years of inefficiently creating draft preparation notes on legal pads and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, we decided that there had to be a better way.

CheatSheet Creator is a free web based service that works as a virtual notebook that is user friendly and fun to use. Users can write player notes, drag/drop and add/remove players in a sleek AJAX technology driven environment. When the time comes for the draft, users can  go to the “Create a Report” area, and have their customized cheat sheet available at the click of a button. Signup is completely free, and can be done so directly below:

http://www.cheatsheetcreator.com/site/index.php/register

The site was up as a closed BETA in late summer of ‘08, but official launched (after a full re-development) to the public in the summer of 2009.

Fantrax

Fantrax.com is an all-encompassing fantasy sports website, with the most powerful and customizable Commissioner/League Manager product in the industry for 7 sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball, NASCAR) and several more to come (PGA, European Soccer, Cricket, Rugby).

Is there any other information you would like us to consider:

- We are built from the ground up to be fully translatable, and Fantrax will soon be offered in French, Spanish and other languages.

- We implement new features at an unheard of pace (often a few per week), largely based on user demand (sometimes within a day or 2!).

- Unlike certain niche sites that have a relatively high degree

Hotbox Sports

Hotbox Sports offers a variation on head to head fantasy games designed to bring the excitement of fantasy football to other sports. Hotbox Sports fantasy basketball launched in late 2008.

Owners play two head-to-head contests per week; game periods are Mon-Wed and Fri-Sun. If a player has 2 games in a given game period, owners must choose which game will count towards their score. The result is a game where fans can feel the impact of their starter’s performance while watching the game. This leads to more “down to the wire” moments and yes, more screaming at the television. Preliminary data shows very high page-views, eluding to the fact that this might be the missing link for lackluster profits and shrinking popularity of fantasy basketball.

Hotbox Sports included an innovation to their site this year that could be a new standard in all fantasy sports. We would like the board to consider this development separately from our scheduling innovation. One frustrating element of fantasy sports is misinformation regarding players’ injury status as well as their coach’s intentions regarding their playing time for a given game. The goal here is to combat the negative feelings an owner feels when they make a wrong call, whether it be to start a player who sits the bench or to sit one who plays despite injury-hype. For this, Hotbox Sports includes injury reserve slots as part of the starting rosters of each team. Every team chooses a reserve for the Center, Forward, and Guard positions. If a starter does not play, the reserve player’s score is automatically substituted for the player who sat out. The benefits here are twofold: 1) owners do not have to be concerned about bogus information handed out by the likes of a Bill Belichek or Mike Shanahan because they have a backup plan in place 2) owners do not have to be inconvenienced by being forced to be available minutes before gametime for a last-minute roster decision.

Specialty Products or Services

This is a company award and will recognize the member company with the best combination of service, high quality products, and innovation. The products should be designed to enhance a fantasy sport experience and may include companies supplying trophies, rings, draft boards, promotional items, etc.

AccuScore

Fantasy Scout™ is the most advanced tool kit for Fantasy Sports ever integrated into a league manager; available for MLB Fantasy players on ESPN and for NFL Fantasy players on both ESPN and CBS.  Leveraging AccuScore’s patented simulation engine, Fantasy Scout saves you time by finding free agents and waiver wire pick up for you; helps you optimize your roster and evaluate trades; all using your league’s custom scoring options.

Fantasy Scout is used by both ESPN and CBS to help drive revenue and subscription numbers. Tied directly into the user’s custom scoring options for their leagues, Fantasy Scout gives the user tools to help win their fantasy league and make them more competitive.  For example. Fantasy Scout trade analyzer gives the user complete information. If someone wanted to trade you Peyton Manning for Maurice Jones-Drew, maybe that seems like an even trade but without knowing who you have on your bench and what your league’s scoring customizations are, any recommendation on that trade is useless. But with Fantasy Scout, you will see how the trade performs with your bench players filling the vacant spots.

Spend hours trolling the free agent pool for that hidden gem? Fantasy Scout does the work for you, finding a player or players that are worth picking up and which players on your team you should drop to get them.  If you play in multiple leagues, the time savings of this tool alone makes Fantasy Scout worth the price.

Can’t decide who to start? Two running backs and two wide receivers or one running back and three wide receivers? Fantasy Scout will tell you who to start and who to bench including how you should handle your flex positions.

Example/Demonstration:

http://espn.accuscore.com/fantasyscout-nfl/espn/scout.php?tool=tra1&leagueId=485&teamId=1&seasonId=2009

Advanced Sports Media (iPhone Ap)

http://www.draftanalyzer.com

The Draft Analyzer Pro – Mock Draft Simulator for fantasy football 2009 is a brand new native iPhone application that allows you to cruise through a full mock draft in a matter of minutes. You select the league size, your draft position and competition level then try to draft the best possible team against the computers player recommendation engine. The Draft Analyzer Pro – Mock Draft Simulator is the only mobile application that allows users to mock draft on the go from anywhere at anytime.

Key Features:

* Simulate and save an unlimited number of Mock Drafts
* Make picks for your team and for other teams, or let the Player Recommendation Engine do the dirty work
* Select your league size, draft position and roster requirements
* Player Rankings updated several times a week throughout pre-season
* Select from three competition levels including Expert, Casual and Drunk!
* Utilize player rankings based on standard scoring rules or download personalized player rankings from your Draft Analyzer Web account
* Includes ADP values, Bye-weeks and projected fantasy points for 2009 for all players

Rotoworld/NBC Sports Season Pass

- $14.99 a season pass

http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/seasonpass/football/main_page.aspx
http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/seasonpass/basketball/main_page.aspx
http://www.rotoworld.com/premium/seasonpass/baseball/main_page.aspx

The Season Pass acts like a co-pilot for a fantasy manager. It provides projections and rankings that are continually updated as the season progresses. Included in the Season Pass is Customizable Scoring, Positional Stat Projections, Weekly/Daily Player Projections, Premium Playing Time Report, Premium Chat rooms, Weekly Tiers, Pick Up of the day, Strength of Schedule, Weekly Schedule Breakdown, Injury Report, Playoff Rankings, Mid-Season Report, Fantasy Points Allowed, Play-by-Play Report, and tons of articles. The Season Pass also has RotoDirect…sends breaking player news in your inbox. PlayerTracker…allows you to track your players through the Season Pass. Rotoworld Oracle…tells you who to start each week.

Leaguesafe.com

LeagueSafe is an online escrow service that secures and manages fantasy leagues’ finances. In a nutshell, it’s like PayPal, with added features designed specifically to facilitate payment of fantasy entry fees and provide a safe environment for funds throughout the season. In the preseason, league fees are deposited via credit card or E-check. In-season, funds are locked down in a FDIC-insured bank account, and 100% of the funds are paid back to league members at the end of the season.

Fantasy Football Crystal Ball

http://fantasyfootballcrystalball.com/

In consolidating predictions of multiple experts in a single place, tailoring those predictions to an owner’s roster each week, and scoring those predictions, Fantasy Football Crystal Ball provides a unique combination of features that makes the process fast, easy and precise.

“How do you make the best start-sit decisions?” Most fantasy owners make these decisions by combining information from a variety of expert sources. However, with the multitude of sites offering weekly rankings, this task becomes onerous, mentally-taxing, and very time-consuming.

“Is it worth the time spent?” The answer is a resounding “YES!” Fantasy Football Crystal Ball grew out of an analysis of our own historical data, taken from actual league results over the last five years which shows that making the right start-sit decisions is the difference between winning and losing. Our data show that in almost all cases, the league leaders were invariably those with the highest coaching percentage.

“How do you make this easier, faster, and more precise?” Fantasy Football Crystal Ball collects and aggregates weekly start sit rankings from numerous sources. Furthermore, we developed a user interface that would show expert predictions for the PARTICULAR ROSTER of a fantasy coach. The last piece to the puzzle was to develop a retrospective ranking algorithm that shows a fantasy coach how accurate the experts were for his/her OWN ROSTER. We launched the site this season, and we are well on our way to building the best decision-support site in all of fantasy sports.

See a demo here: http://www.fantasyfootballcrystalball.com/SpecialtyProducts.aspx

Login: fsta Password: #2009fsta

Mission Competition

http://www.missioncompetition.com/

Have you ever participated in a fantasy league when someone quit? No fun, right? Mission Competition can replace “dead” teams with active ones within 48 hours of notice. Our goal is to keep your fantasy league competitive and fair.

If we win your league we will NOT collect any league prizes.

Best Online Content Service

This award will be presented to the company with the best online information service to enhance a fantasy participant’s experience. The online service should demonstrate expert fantasy knowledge and a unique and creative ability to support and engage the user.

BaseballHQ.com

http://www.BaseballHQ.com

Baseball HQ has been providing advanced analytical information to the fantasy baseball-only marketplace since 1996. It is one of the deepest content sites in the industry, producing more than 1000 articles each season. It is the home of exclusive strategies such as the LIMA Plan, Portfolio3 and Ron Shandler’s daily updated player projections. HQ covers the widest scope of game formats including Rotisserie, simulations, head-to-head, salary cap contests and other alternative games. HQ writers and readers have won 23 national championships since 1997. HQ’s information is used by many Major League GMs, and several HQ analysts have been advisors to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Summary of content:

• Daily, in-depth news analysis with complete statistical support data
• Columns written by national industry experts
• Medically-trained injury analyst on staff
• Player projections updated daily
• Exclusive statistical concepts and databases
• Pitching logs, with evaluation gauges
• Bullpen charts, with leading indicators
• Batter and pitcher consistency charts (for H2H gamers)
• Writer-supported, interactive reader forums
• Daily player target lists
• Searchable player database with news log
• Complete library of research results
• Data files with 12 years of history
• Minor league prospect reports
• Minor league organization reports
• Major league equivalent statistics files
• Customized team profiler and stat-tracker
• Customized fantasy draft guides
• Strategic draft prep tools, like Rotisserie grids
• Customized Rotisserie values
• Daily fantasy strategy columns
• Support for sim, salary cap, online gaming, H2H, points and more
• Groundbreaking strategies like the LIMA Plan and Portfolio3 Plan
• Personalized advisor service

We were one of the first subscription-based sites (launched in September 1996) and entered the industry as the most expensive ($99/year). From there, we’ve carved out the high-end market, maintaining an exclusively pay-for-access model, and continue to grow by annual double-digit rates. Editor and publisher Ron Shandler writes a weekly column for USA Today and blogs for the Huffington Post.

To access the site:
USER NAME                        trial
PASSWORD                        carpenter

CBSSports.com

http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy

Regardless of what fantasy service players use, all fanatics will want to bookmark CBSSports.com Fantasy News. Launched in the summer of 2008, CBSSports.com Fantasy News has quickly become the leading destination for fantasy sports news and information, regardless of what fantasy sports provider player’s use.

The concept with CBSSports.com Fantasy News was to give fantasy players around the world open AND FREE access to the most coveted analysis and data in the business. CBSSports.com Fantasy News represents the first time a major developer of fantasy sports products has built a site designed solely for news and information and made it available to the public, regardless of what fantasy sports provider they use.

CBSSports.com Fantasy News allows fantasy players from across the industry to consume information and analysis from the entire team of award-winning CBSSports.com fantasy sports writers as well as from CBSSports.com national columnists and senior writers, all free of charge. CBSSports.com Fantasy News is a stand-alone destination that is heavily linked across CBSSports.com and other CBS Interactive sites where applicable.

CBSSports.com Fantasy News covers eight different sports (see full list below), giving users around the world free access to exclusive player updates, columns, breaking news and blogs. CBSSports.com Fantasy News also allows users to tap into an enormous amount of data-mining information from the CBSSports.com base of users, the most engaged and passionate fantasy players in the industry. From the most added/most dropped players to draft averages to the most traded players, visitors to CBSSports.com Fantasy News have access to hundreds of statistical breakdowns.

CBSSports.com Fantasy News will cover pro football, college football, pro basketball, college basketball, baseball, hockey, golf & auto racing.

ESPN

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage

ESPN.com’s Fantasy section features the most robust collection of analysts in the industry. Between Matthew Berry, Eric Karabell, Jason Grey, Christopher Harris, Tristan H. Cockcroft and Stephania Bell, ESPN has a voice for every fan.  Whether it’s nuts-and-bolts features like Out of the Box or Stephania Bell’s injury blog or transcendent content like Matthew Berry’s Love/Hate column or the Fantasy Focus podcast, ESPN prides itself in serving both casual and hardcore fans.

Is there any other information you would like us to consider:  ESPN.com Fantasy provides content not just on ESPN.com, but on TV (Fantasy Football Now), Radio (ESPN Fantasy Kickoff Specials), Podcasts (Fantasy Focus) and Mobile (iphone Draft Kit). ESPN Fantasy analysts chat twice per day, Monday through Friday (with a three-hour block on NFL Sundays), a service unmatched in the industry.

Some particular features worth highlighting:

Live inactives updates
http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?id=4608157

Eric Karabell’s blog
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/karabell/index

Out of the Box
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/baseball/flb/outOfTheBox?page=ootb090608

Christopher Harris’ The Breakdown
http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/breakdown?matchup=12

Footballguys.com

http://www.Footballguys.com

Whether it’s free or premium content you are after, Footballguys.com prides itself in providing a one-stop-shop source for all things football.  With a staff of over 30 people, Footballguys.com will produce over 50,000 pages of online content this season.

Footballguys.com is the KING of FREE Content.  We spend approximately 4 hours a day crafting a daily email that we send EVERY DAY from the day after the NFL Draft until the start of the season (143 issues in total):  http://footballguys.com/updates.php Our free message board: http://forums.footballguys.com/forum/# is the busiest football board by a mile.  In fact, it is a top 75 message board on the entire internet (as rated by big-boards.com).  All content released before July 15^th is completely free.  This includes hundreds of strategy articles, player and team evaluations, spotlights, projections, rankings, etc.  This year we released our 250 page all-color magazine for free.  We also released free versions of our popular drafting programs (these versions were fully functioning, but were not updated with new projections – user would have to do that manually).  We released 300+ podcasts, our first training camp update, a popular Rate My Team application and all of our news for free.  Just judged on Footballguys.com free content, we probably had the best football website in 2009.  But we certainly did not stop there.

Each week, we release over 100 features to our subscribers.  We cover projections, rankings, sleepers, IDP, Dynasty, and everything in-between.  We are fanatical about football and do a lot of heavy lifting each week so that fantasy players have a decided edge in their leagues.  Our leave-no-stone unturned approach to football yielded us with over 37,000 subscribers in 2009.

http://subscribers.footballguys.com/2009/09week10.php

user: fsta2009
pass: fsta2009

Rotoworld/NBC Sports

http://www.rotoworld.com/

Free, comprehensive, timely, insightful player news and columns.  Over 175k player blurbs written since Oct 1, 2008.  Rotoworld.com’s 24/7 operations aggregates news from a variety of sources and analyzes and opines on what that news means for fantasy players.

- Rotoworld.com ranked as the most trafficked pure-play Fantasy Sports site by Comscore, Nielsen Net Ratings.

- Over 500million pageviews and 15million plus uniques since October 2008.

- Rotoworld.com News Widget is in on over 15,000 locations on the Internet.

Best Broadcast

This award will recognize the website with the best combination of information and presentation on television.

CBSSports.com

http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootballtoday

Back for its second season, CBSSports.com’s groundbreaking original live video production, FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY, helps fantasy football players prepare for battle each and every week from 11 am ET to 1 pm ET, taking viewers right up to kickoff.

In its debut for the 2008 season, FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY recorded tremendous traffic, averaging approximately 500,000 weekly viewers, making it easily the largest and most watched live program of its kind on the Internet.

Hosted by Jason Horowitz, the face of much of the original video on CBSSports.com, FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY features guests and experts, including segments with the cast of THE NFL TODAY on CBS Sports as well as reports from NFL ON CBS analysts in stadiums across the league, giving fantasy players around the world access the latest breaking NFL news and information.

In 2009, a new face joined the FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY set as CBS College Sports Network Studio Analyst and NFL veteran Brian Jones joined Horowitz and Fantasy Football experts from CBSSports.com. Together, the FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY crew interacts with viewers, providing expert advice to guide their fantasy football team, regardless of what fantasy sports provider they use.  Available free of charge by presenting sponsors Ford, Sprint & Edge Shaving Gel the 2009 FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY video player has  a wider screen (640 X 360 pixels) and an improved video stream (approx. 800 kb/s), utilizing Flash technology to deliver an optimal viewing experience. Additionally, during FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY viewers have access to on-demand highlights from previous segments of the show so fans can get a quick recap of any important information they might have missed.

A link to the home of FANTASY FOOTBALL TODAY is distributed on demand via the CBS Audience Network and its over 300 partners, which include TV.com, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Fancast, Joost, Bebo, Sling Media, IMDb.com, TVGuide.com, and Slide, as well as Web sites from CBS’s 29 owned television, 144 radio, and up to 183 affiliated stations.

ESPN

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/surround/surroundIndex

Fantasy Football Now airs every Sunday during the NFL season from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. ET. The show can be seen on ESPN.com, the iPhone and ESPN2 and ESPN2HD. Host Erik Kuselias and analysts Matthew Berry, Tim Hasselbeck and Stephania Bell guide fantasy players through all of the day’s decisions. Molly Qerim provides breaking news updates on inactives, and the show whips around to NFL game sites to get on-the-field, fantasy-specific updates from NFL reporters such as Michael Smith, Rachel Nichols and Sal Palantonio.

Fantasy Football Now’s innovative video player features embedded weekly position-by-position rankings, inactive updates,Twitter tweets and DVR capability.

NFL.com

Fantasy chat — television – airs on NFL Network every Tuesday (5-6pm EST), discusses top fantasy stories of the week: (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-fantasy/09000d5d81448a11/WK-11-fantasy-advice)

Fantasy starts, sits – television – airs on NFL Network every Friday (5-6pm EST) (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-fantasy/09000d5d8142b442/Week-10-Fantasy-Start-em-Sit-em)

Fantasy sleepers  — television – airs on NFL Network every Saturday (7-8 EST): (http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-fantasy/09000d5d81430048/Top-10-Fantasy-sleepers)

RotoExperts

Fantasy Playbook

http://www.ubatv.com/Channel.aspx?Show=3d

Fantasy Playbook is a weekly, live streaming internet TV show on UBATV, and is a joint effort between RotoExperts and FREE THE FAN. Experts Scott Engel and Adam Ronis are joined by host Derek Tabacco and top industry insiders. Games are fully previewed from the fantasy perspective, and user interaction is encouraged. The show is shot on location in New York’s Financial District and utilizes a professional studio and equipment.

Is there any other information you would like us to consider: The first episode of the show was a full industry mock draft. Several of the 12 participants joined for analysis in the studio or via Skype.

Rotoworld/NBC Sports

The Fantasy Fix:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25863080/ns/sports-nfl

Video:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22825103/vp/34000250#34000250

Rotoworld.com’s Managing Editor Gregg Rosenthal and Tiffany Simons break down the latest fantasy news with their weekly Fantasy Fix Show. They also do a Live Fantasy Fix show every Sunday during the NFL season providing callers with critical roster advice.

GridIron Fantasy Football (World Championship of Fantasy Football)

The World Championship of Fantasy Football Main Event, Celebrity League and $25K Platinum League on Versus Network! For the first time in the history of high stakes fantasy football, the World Championship of Fantasy Football Main Event festivities were nationally broadcast to over 70 million households on Versus. Nationally acclaimed Winnercomm Productions teamed with Comcast to provide sports fans and specifically fantasy sports fans an inside look into the premier high stakes event in the world.  The World Championship of Fantasy Football received coverage from ESPN Magazine, Fox Sports, ESPN, Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal to name just a few for its nationally televised broadcast of the World Championship of Fantasy Football. Among those attending WCOFF Main Event in 2009 were Evander Holyfield, Montell Jordan, Erik Kuselias, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, Dennis Phillips, Roberto Clemente Jr. and Gary Payton.

Watch the WCOFF Television Premiere as seen on Versus at http://www.wcofs.com/wcoff/wcofftv

Best Podcast

This award will recognize the website with the best combination of information and presentation in an audio podcast.

Baseball HQ

Baseball HQ Radio uncovers the inner workings of what it takes to win in its weekly podcast. Host Patrick Davitt is joined by top analysts and special guests from within the fantasy baseball industry, for interviews and insights, each week from January through August. All shows are free 30+ minute mp3 files available for download or subscription through iTunes.

EACH WEEK: American League Market Watch, National League Market Watch, Minor League Minute, Brandon Kruse’s Skills Monitor, Ray Murphy’s Speculator, Ron Shandler’s Master Notes. Weekly feature segments include reports from Spring Training, Rick Wilton (Dr. HQ), outside experts (e.g. Jeff Erickson of Rotowire, Todd Zola of Mastersball, etc.), fantasy roundtables, strategy insiders and more.

March 28, 2009

http://www.baseballhq.com/radio/hqradio032809.mp3

Show #9 of 2009 features Part One of a Rotisserie Auction Roundtable with BaseballHQ.com editor Ron Shandler and Roto analyst Craig Neuman … Harold Nichols analyzes the NL, and Market Pulse columnist Matt Beagle talks AL in our regular Market Watch segments … Brandon Kruse discusses starting pitchers in our “Skills Monitor” segment… Rob Gordon looks at White Sox infield prospect Gordon Beckham in the “Minor League Minute” … and Shandler explains how to use 2009 as a steppingstone to 2010 (and have fun doing it) in his “Master Notes” … Runs 48:20

Blog Talk Radio

The first radio channel devoted entirely to fantasy sports. The FSC provides fantasy sports advice, news and commentary 24 hours a day with at least 12 hours a day of live interactive programming.  We currently stream over 50 shows in our 2^nd year with industry leaders such as fantasyguru.com, footballguys.com, fantasyfootball.com, thefantasyfootballguys.com, fantasypros911.com, rotoexperts.com, fantasysportsgroup.com, fantasysharks.com and more.  Listeners can participate in chat rooms during the shows or elect to call in to the show and participate with the hosts.

There isn’t another single web site on the internet that provides more FREE fantasy sports advice and content from more proven experts.  Major industry experts along with up and comers have all joined forces to create a one stop shop at no charge to the fantasy sports channel audience.  Truly one of the most valuable fantasy sports tools on the web or any other media outlet.

• FantasyPros911.com/The FSC: 24-Hour Talking for A Cure

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/talkingbaseballlive/2009/03/07/24-hour-talking-for-a-cure-1

Summary: Lenny Melnick, Paul Greco, Tony Cincotta host a 24 hour live fantasy baseball talkathon to help raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=2942325

Fantasy Focus Football is a daily podcast featuring Matthew Berry, Nate Ravitz and producer Jay “Pod Vader” Soderberg. The show prides itself on personality-driven fantasy analysis and features recurring segments like the Name Game, Stephania Bell’s injury analysis and discussion of the popular Man’s League. Matthew and Nate frequently make fantasy-performance-based wagers that are then tracked on “The Board.” Guests of the show in 2009 have included NFL players Adrian Peterson, Maurice Jones-Drew, Reggie Wayne, Matt Forte and Matthew Stafford.

Fantasy Focus Football has been nominated for two awards these year at PodcastAwards.com, including Best Sports Podcast and People’s Choice.

Football Guys

“The Audible”, Footballguys.com’s fantasy football podcast is your one-stop shop for all things NFL.  With over 300 shows a year, The Footballguys podcast will take you through the college All-star games, the NFL Draft, Preseason fantasy prep and through each week of the NFL season.  Unlike other football podcasts, “The Audible” covers football all year long.

“The Audible” has been on the air the last four years, and unlike other podcasts we broadcast all year long.  Hosts, Cecil Lammey and Sigmund Bloom love to talk football, and are recognized as two of the most knowledgeable analysts in the fantasy football community.  Each year, Footballguys.com releases over 300 episodes full of the best football information, interviews, opinions, and insight that you can find anywhere on the internet.

We cover the draft beat from January to April, giving a fantasy football spin to what’s transpiring in the NFL.  We report regularly on free agency, coaching changes, and other news from around the league.  We also are in attendance at certain pro days, where we report and interview more top prospects.  Our draft coverage wraps up at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.  Sigmund attends the event, and is on the floor of the draft with full media credentials where he gets to talk football with some of the best in the business like Jon Gruden, Brian Baldinger, and Adam Schefter.  Cecil reports from Broncos headquarters (Dove Valley), interviewing players and talking to analysts like Paul Burmeister and Mark Schlereth.

Our podcast is driven first and foremost by the love of football, breaking down barriers between the fans and the game, and covering the game from the thinking fan’s perspective – fantasy football is just another way that we engage our love of the game.

http://podcast.footballguys.com/2009/Footballguys-Audible-2009-Vol84a.mp3

RotoExperts

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rotoradio

RotoRadio is a featured “station” on BlogTalkRadio’s Fantasy Sports Channel. Award-winning Fantasy veteran Scott Engel co-hosts Sunday and Thursday podcasts on football and baseball. The suite of shows also includes a Fantasy Basketball podcast, “Sports Smack”, an “anything goes” program, and an auto racing show co-hosted by Mike Forde of NASCAR

Top industry guests are welcomed are welcomed every week, and have included Peter King, Gil Brandt, Michael Fabiano, Ron Shandler, Brad Evans and many others. The list is a virtual “who’s who” of the Fantasy Indusrty. The NASCAR show may be one of a kind.

Best Video Podcast

This award will recognize the website with the best combination of information and presentation in a video podcast.

ESPN

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4619615

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4629449

ESPN.com Fantasy Focus is a daily video show available on ESPN.com or iTunes. Generally about six minutes, the show provides analysis and advice with host Paul Severino and analysts Matthew Berry, Eric Karabell, Christopher Harris, Keith Lipscomb and Stephania Bell. In 2009, this show moved to an ESPN television studio, providing a higher level of video quality.

RotoExperts.com

Fantasy Playbook: http://www.ubatv.com/Channel.aspx?Show=5b

Fantasy Playbook is a weekly, live streaming internet TV show on UBATV, and is a joint effort between RotoExperts and FREE THE FAN. Experts Scott Engel and Adam Ronis are joined by host Derek Tabacco and top industry insiders. Games are fully previewed from the fantasy perspective, and user interaction is encouraged. The show is shot on location in New York’s Financial District and utilizes a professional studio and equipment. The first episode of the show was a full industry mock draft. Several of the 12 participants joined for analysis in the studio or via Skype.

Mandt Bros. Productions (Fantasy Sports Girl)

http://www.fantasysportsgirl.com

We are the leading video content provider for fantasy news and information.  Whether it is prepping for your draft, looking for tips on the waiver wire, or keeping up with the latest injury reports, our site delivers practical and useful tips in a most entertaining package.  The site is year round and provides not only football, basketball and baseball coverage, but also hockey, nascar and even Premiere League soccer.

Stinkball

http://stinkball.com

The video podcast StinkBall.com would most like to submit can be found on the homepage at http://www.StinkBall.com. All other video podcasts can be found on the StinkBall.com official blog at http://www.StinkBall.com/blog in the podcasts category. Stinkball.com video podcasts have featured monthly NFL news and fantasy football updates, as well as expert interviews from the 2009 FSTA Spring Conference.  StinkBall.com Fantasy Football is the first ever fantasy football web site dedicated solely to a loser-league style contest. Currently StinkBall.com offers free teams, public leagues and private leagues for members that want a new, innovative challenge and to develop new fantasy football skills.  Unlike traditional fantasy football web sites, to win the fantasy football contests found on StinkBall.com, site members must have extensive knowledge about the NFL and use strategic thinking based on “negative” outcome football stats to predict the worst player performances in order to gain more points and win their league and the overall season contest. Essentially members must choose fantasy DUDS instead of fantasy STUDS in order to win big. At StinkBall.com:  If You Stink, You Win!!

In the first year of operation the StinkBall.com system has been in a testing phase. The season long contest has been running and members can add free teams and create leagues, however technical adjustments have been made throughout the season as the stats have been calculated and the scoring system implemented for the first time.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) has been made aware of a situation in which four Fidelity Investments employees were terminated for perceived gambling in the form of fantasy sports.

The FSTA is disappointed by this action, as it furthers the incorrect perception that fantasy sports is linked to gambling.

“The FSTA recognizes each company’s right to set guidelines for an employee’s use of company assets and time for outside activities,” said FSTA president Paul Charchian.  ”However, the reason cited by Fidelity for the termination of these employees is that they gambled by playing fantasy sports, and that reasoning is troubling.”

Gambling law expert, Professor I. Nelson Rose, observes that, while fantasy sports may be considered gambling in a minority of states, “the government exempted fantasy sports from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA),” an action that reinforces the FSTA’s position that fantasy sports is not gambling.

Charchian continued, “Congress recognized the distinction between fantasy sports and criminal sports gambling, and wrote exclusionary language around fantasy sports play. No fantasy sports company has been the subject prosecution for gambling.  No person has been the subject of prosecution for gambling related to fantasy sports participation.”

Courts and federal government rulings definitively divide fantasy sports from gambling.  In Humphrey v. Viacom (2007), the courts found that, “as a matter of law, the entry fees for … fantasy sports leagues are not ‘bets’ or ‘wagers’ because (1) the entry fees are paid unconditionally; (2) the prizes offered to fantasy sports contestants are for amounts certain and are guaranteed to be awarded; and (3) defendants do not compete for the prizes.”  This ruling set the tone for the exclusionary UIGEA text that exempts fantasy sports from the UIGEA regulations, which are set to go into effect on Dec. 1, 2010.

According to a June 2009 FSTA study by research firm IPSOS, there are 27 million Americans aged 12+ playing fantasy sports.

Additional research commissioned by the FSTA via Dr. Kim Beason at the University of Mississippi indicates that:

• 54% say fantasy sport participation increases the camaraderie among employees in their workplace.
• 37% say fantasy sports participation is a positive influence in their workplace.
• 16% say fantasy sports participation has allowed them to make valuable business contacts.

“Fantasy sports offers virtually-free workplace team-building, providing myriad benefits, including cross-functional communication,” said Charchian.  “Restricting fantasy sports play chisels into workplace morale at a time when many companies are challenged by that very issue.”

Additionally, fantasy sports is embraced by all major sports leagues, players associations, and major media portals such as NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN and Yahoo!

Added Charchian, “If there were any merit to Fidelity’s suggestion that fantasy sports participation is gambling, these entities would very likely not support it.”

“The FSTA is happy to work with Fidelity to enhance their understanding of the legal issues around fantasy sports participation, especially surrounding the gambling distinction.”

About the FSTA

The FSTA is the largest and oldest trade group representing the fantasy sports industry with over 120 members ranging from small startups to large media corporations. As the voice of the industry since 1998, the FSTA has been the leader in providing demographic data, annual conferences and collective action to ensure unfettered growth.

Related Links:

Fantasy Sports Trade Association: Visit www.fsta.org for more information.

Professor I. Nelson Rose: (http://www.gamblingandthelaw.com)

Complete Text of the UIGEA: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:6:./temp/~c109YxQR7a:e220380

Charlie Wiegert’s comments from his blog, http://www.godfatheroffantasysports.com/

Jeff Thomas’s comments via http://www.fantasysportsbusiness.com

Think your company did award-winning work in 2009? Want to give someone else a slap on the back for a job well done? Now is your chance.http://www.fsta.org/conference. The early bird registration fee of $349 for FSTA members and $499 for non-members is good until Dec. 17. And don’t forget to reserve your room at the Palms by calling 1-866-725-6773 and asking for the special FSTA rate of $119/night.

Nominations are being accepted for the 2009 Fantasy Sports Trade Association Industry Awards. Read all about the rules and award categories — there are some new ones this year to reflect changes in the industry and new technologies — by going to http://www.fsta.org/blog/awards. The nomination deadline is Nov. 20 and only FSTA member organizations are eligible.

Winners will be announced at the 2010 Winter Conference in Las Vegas on Jan. 26 & 27. Join the FSTA for two days of networking and discussions around the hottest issues facing the fantasy sports industry at the Palms Resort and Casino.

Check out more details and register for the conference at

Able to get into town early? Then be sure to join your colleagues on the night of Jan. 25 for an informal, pre-conference networking session and the annual FSTA Fantasy Baseball Experts Draft.

If you’re interested in drafting a team or have any other questions, be sure to contact FSTA Association Director Megan Van Patten at megan@fsta.org.

SB Daily (Subscription required) has an article today citing the most recent data from the Fantasy Sports Association reinforcing the conclusions drawn by the FSTA for years: That Fantasy Sports players are voracious consumers and are more likely to purchase technology, media, and sports-related items making them an attractive demographer for brand marketers.

Read the article in its entirety (subscription required) here: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=sbd.preview&articleID=133436

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association was founded by a group of like-minded business owners who had a passion for their work–fantasy sports was more than just a pastime.  That passion is revisited with the beginning of every sports season with millions–29.9 million North Americans according to the last FSTA Survey–of participants playing the game they love leading to great business successes for hundreds of fantasy sports providers.

The commencement of the 2009 fantasy football season was no different as fantasy sports continues to earn their tag as “recession proof” and “a good investment” in times of economic turmoil.  Below are a few of the stories FSTA member companies have experienced in the first week of the NFL season.

————-

Scott Swanay, The Fantasy Football Sherpa:

In late June the Fantasy Sports Trade Association hosted its annual Summer conference in Chicago.  Three fantasy football leagues were formed as part of the pre-event festivities, populated by some of the most recognizable names in the fantasy sports industry.

Follow the action all year long, courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com:

FSTA Hearts League

FSTA Spades League

FSTA Clubs League

USA Today has a story about four new fantasy sports products by companies traditionally unrelated to the fantasy sports industry, including Best Buy, Snickers, Ford, and Coors Light.  FSTA President Paul Charchian contributed to this article, opining that fantasy sports players are, to advertisers, “highly dedicated, highly committed players with very, very attentive engagement.  “Read the entire article from USA Today.

FSTA President Paul Charchian was on The Takeaway, a podcast service that discusses politics and issues in popular culture.  Listen to the interview at The Takeaway website.

Saturday, August 29 BlogTalkRadio.com will host a 12-hour fantasy football talkathon to help raise money for The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Cecil and Sigmund from footballguys.com will host the event beginning at noon EST and wrapping up at midnight on August 30.  There are several ways the fantasy sports industry can help promote this event.

For more information about the event contact Marc Ronick from BlogTalkRadio.

Click here for more information about the event.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association brings you the latest news on the fantasy sports industry including the first announcements of our biannual conferences through Twitter!  Follow the FSTA at: http://www.twitter.com/FantasySportsTA

Enhance your networking experience by connecting with fantasy sports professionals on Facebook by joining the Fantasy Sports Trade Association group!

And join our group on LinkedIn as well!

If you have any questions about the FSTA or the Fantasy Sports industry please contact Association Director Megan Van Patten at megan@fsta.org or call (312) 771-7019.

The Associated Press is reporting that the NFL Player’s Association and Yahoo Inc have reached an out-of-court settlement regarding the use of player names, photographs, and statistics in their fantasy football product. Details of the settlement have not been made public.

Yahoo filed suit last month claiming the right to provide their fantasy games without paying royalties to the leagues for materials that are publicly available.

Read the entire story from USA Today

Bloomberg.com has a little more information, released July 8, 2009.

American Needle, a clothing manufacturer, has filed a suit against the NFL challenging their right to engage in collective licensing agreements on anti-trust grounds.  Lawyer, legal blogger, and fantasy sports enthusiast Marc Edelman at sportsjudge.blogspot.com details the case and his opinions on the ramifications beyond clothing licensing on his website.

An article on Entrepreneur.com detailing Mike Levy and FSTA member OPENSports.com talks about the positive aspects of investing in the fantasy sports industry in 2009.  Author Karen Spaeder calls the fantasy sports industry one of the best startup markets this year.

“Once you’ve found your niche, it’s critical to find ways to make your sports fan customers happy. Levy says of his OPENSports.com users, “These users are a dedicated bunch.” And you don’t even need to set out beer nuts to do it.”

Read the entire article here

The ESPN fantasy sports documentary “Silly Little Game” will be filming at the 2009 FSTA Summer Conference, Sponsored by MyFantasyLeague.com, June 18 & 19.  The project, first announced in May, is described below:

“Fantasy Sports is a $4 billion dollar industry that boasts more than 20 million participants and a league for almost every sport imaginable. But for all this success, the story of the game’s inception is little known. The modern fantasy leagues can be traced back to a motley group of writers and academics who met at La Rotisserie Francaise in New York City to form a baseball league of their own: The Rotisserie League. The game quickly grew in popularity, and with the growing use and popularity of the Internet, the “Founding Fathers” never foresaw how their creation would take off and ultimately leave them behind. Innovative filmmakers Adam Kurland and Lucas Jansen will chronicle the early development and ultimate explosion of Rotisserie Baseball, and shine a light on its mostly unnoticed innovators.”

A film crew will be in Chicago speaking to attendees about the growth and history of fantasy sports, along with looking at the future of the industry.

There is still time to reserve a spot at the 2009 FSTA Summer Conference in Chicago–check out the agenda and get registered here:  http://fsta.org/news/events/chicago2009.php

(June 3, 2009) The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has become aware of a lawsuit filed by Yahoo! Inc. against the NFL Players Association in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota over the issue of licensing fees.

This suit appears to be similar to the one initiated by CBS Sports against the NFLPA last year in the same court.  CBS Sports won summary judgment in the case in April (the NFLPA has since appealed). 

In 2007, CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. won rulings in both the United States District Court in St. Louis and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rulings against Major League Baseball and its Players’ Association which allowed the company to use player names and statistics without paying a licensing fee. The U.S. District Court where the CBS lawsuit was heard and where Yahoo! has filed its lawsuit is part of the Eighth Circuit.

“The fact that the NFL Players Association continues to demand licensing fees is disheartening news for the industry, and for fantasy sports participants,” says Paul Charchian, President of the FSTA.  “The Players’ Association is seemingly oblivious to the obvious and tangible benefits derived from the proliferation of fantasy sports, along with the many cases that have already been decided in favor of fantasy operators.  While the FSTA will support Yahoo in this case, we also hope to cooperate with each of the players’ associations to help maximize fantasy sports products.”

Read the filing in its entirety here.

This is sure to be a hot topic at an already hot conference June 18 & 19–make sure you register to reserve your place at the 2009 FSTA Summer Conference, Sponsored by MyFantasyLeague.com.  Check out the agenda and get registered! 

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has been the voice of the fantasy sports industry since 1999. Learn more about the organization and become a member here.

John Charles Bradbury, author of the book “The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed” will join the 2009 FSTA Summer Conference sponsored by MyFantasyLeague.com to provide insights into current economic conditions and looks at how these unprecedented times will affect sports and other leisure activities.  Conference attendees will get exclusive access to Dr. Bradbury’s research and discussions that will give you the advantage for 2009 and beyond.

The complete agenda for the 2009 FSTA Summer Conference is available now at fsta.org.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is proud to welcome MyFantasyLeague.com as the title sponsor of the 2009 FSTA Summer Conference. Taking place at the historic Drake Hotel in Chicago June 18-19, the show will be jam-packed with information pertaining to the economy, pressing legal issues, and new products to push your business over the top. Check out the agenda today!

Nearly 11 months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Major League Baseball Advanced Media and the MLB Players’ Association in the CDM case — thus allowing CDM to continue using players’ names and stats without having to pay a licensing fee — the fantasy sports industry received more good news Tuesday.

Referring to the CDM case as “controlling” law and citing the NFL Players’ Association’s “numerous contacts with Minnesota,” a U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota granted CBS Interactive’s motion of partial summary judgment in its case against the NFLPA and Players Inc. and denied the NFLPA’s attempt to move the litigation from Minnesota to Florida.

As you’ll recall, in Sept. 2008, CBS Interactive sued the NFLPA, alleging that it was being wrongly pressured into paying licensing fees to operate its fantasy football games. The CBS suit was filed in Minnesota, a state which is part of the Eighth Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals, the same venue in which the CDM case was decided.

“This victory further cements the autonomy of fantasy sports operators from sports leagues and player unions,” said newly elected Fantasy Sports Trade Association President Paul Charchian. “The ruling ensures that the industry’s hundreds of fantasy companies will continue creating wide ranging products to serve the needs of fantasy players.

“Fantasy sports provide significant advantages to the leagues and players unions, creating a wide variety of tangible and intangible benefits. As has always been the case, the FSTA welcomes the opportunity to work with each of the leagues and their players’ associations.”

According to Glenn Colton, a partner in the New York office of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal who authored amicus briefs on behalf of the FSTA in the CDM case, the ruling is “yet another victory for fantasy sports players and businesses, and most importantly for all of our First Amendment freedoms.”

“The decision is yet another brick in the wall that will insure that the millions of fantasy sports players continue to be able to enjoy the game and the innovations and improvements that come with freedom to operate and invent without fear of players associations swooping in at the 11th hour and wresting control of the benefits of those inventions and innovations,” said Colton.

As to what will happen next in the case, Colton says that he hopes the leagues and players’ associations react to the ruling by demonstrating an increased willingness to work with the fantasy sports industry.

Tuesday’s ruling and its ramifications for the fantasy sports industry will be a hot topic at the FSTA Summer Conference in Chicago on June 18 and 19. Register for the conference ($349 for FSTA members/$499 for non-members before May 18) by clicking here.

The complete ruling from the United States District Court – District of Minnesota on the Memo and Order regarding CBS Interactive Inc. and National Football League Players Association, Inc. is now available for FSTA members in the download area of our website.  To download, log in to your account through this link or at the top of the screen and select “Member Resources.”  The file, an Adobe PDF, is located in the section labeled “Lawsuits, Laws, Briefs, and Rulings.”  Non-FSTA members can download the document by clicking here.

Download the Official Rules Sheet (with scoring system).

Download the Official Player Spreadsheet.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association announces requests for submissions from FSTA members interested in participating in the 2009 Fantasy Baseball Projection Accuracy Challenge.  The FSTA, in conjunction with FantasyDispute.com, Fantasy Football Librarian and TheMostCredible.com will be analyzing fantasy baseball projections from participants.  The projections will be compared with actual player statistics at the end of the 2009 season, and awards will be presented based on the accuracy of those predictions.

Rules:
Submissions will be accepted immediately; however the projections MUST be final before the first game of the season, April 5, 2009.  Submissions may be accepted throughout the season; however if they are submitted after the April 5 deadline, it must be verifiable that the projections were published and publicly available (whether free or pay-model) prior to the deadline.  Submitters must fill in projected statistics for all 200 players on this spreadsheet.

Awards will be for accuracy of projected player statistics compared with actual year-end player statistics.  Accuracy will be judged based on a combination of relative scoring (entrant closest to actual statistic vs. other entrants) and range based scoring using the tables found on the official rules sheet.

Player statistics will be judged for the following categories for hitters: Runs, Home Runs, RBI, Stolen Bases, and Batting Average.  Player statistics will be judged for the following categories for pitchers: Wins, Strikeouts, Saves, ERA, and WHIP.

Submissions should be sent simultaneously to Bill Green at greenbill@fantasydispute.com, Sara Holladay at fflibrarian@gmail.com, and Donnie Campbell at dc@themostcredible.com.

Awards will be presented at the Winter 2010 FSTA Conference.  In order to encourage participation (without fear of embarrassment), final results will NOT be published, except for the names of all entrants and the names of the highest ranking entrants (approximately the top third).

Judges:
Bill Green, www.fantasydispute.com
Sara Holladay, www.fflibrarian.com
Donnie Campbell, www.themostcredible.com

Your organization must be an FSTA member to be eligible to win.  Awards elegibility is just one of the many benefits of membership in the FSTA!  Find out more at FSTA.org.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is proud to announce the winners of the elections for the 2009 FSTA Board of Directors.  There were 17 finalists for the five open seats.  The winners will begin their three-year term on the board of directors on April 1, 2009.  Below are the winners, in alphabetical order:

1. Brett Baker, Fantasy Coverage

2. Alan Karben, XML Team Solutions

3. Danielle MacLean, CBS Sports

4. Jeff Thomas, World Fantasy Games

5. Whitney Walters, The Huddle

First Alternate: Geoff Stein, Mock Draft Central.  If any board member is unable to continue their service the alternate will be appointed to fill out their term.

The FSTA would like to thank all the nominees for their interest–we look forward to seeing you at our next conference in Chicago this June!

Follow the 2009 FSTA Fantasy Baseball Experts League, as drafted in Tampa at the FSTA Winter Conference by heading over to Fanball.

Experts from fifteen of the finest fantasy sports companies participated over three days to put together the most competitive league known to man.  Follow the drama courtesy of the FSTA!

Fantasy sports, where fans select real athletes for make-believe teams, are exploding onto new platforms like smart phones and social networking sites, grabbing the attention of advertisers, wireless carriers and software companies.

View full article at Reuters.com

Blazing headlines warning that American business will lose a billion or more dollars because of the college basketball playoffs have become a ritual of spring. Now such sports-related doom-saying is creeping into the fall. I just saw a headline that claimed fantasy football was going to cost American businesses $435 million per week during the upcoming NFL season. The basic premise that this kind of money is actually lost is more than a bit wacko..

View full article at NetworkWorld.com

The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal of Major League Baseball and its players union of the lower-court decision ruling that MLB statistics were not proprietary was great news for fantasy fans everywhere. But what if things had gone the other way? Consider this scenario:

View full article at the Wall Street Journal Online

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declared open season for fantasy-sports companies. The high court effectively ended a three-year legal battle when it refused to hear an appeal from Major League Baseball and its Players Association that, if successful, could have given professional sports leagues the ability to control the lucrative fantasy-sports business. Instead, the court’s decision solidifies the rights of fantasy-sports companies to run their businesses without having to buy licenses from the major sports leagues or their players’ unions anymore.

View full article at Wall Street Journal Online

Are you a fantasy sports fan? Play fantasy football? Fantasy baseball? Yesterday the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Major League Baseball and its players association to overturn a ruling that gives for-profit fantasy leagues on the Web a free-speech right to use the names of real players without paying a licensing fee. It’s a big deal for everyone involved and puts to rest a three year fight.

View full article with video from FoxBusiness.com

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Major League Baseball and its players association, thereby giving a fantasy sports operator the right to use players’ data without paying licensing fees.

View full article at Gaming Industry Media

I just interviewed MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman about their loss in the fantasy baseball case, as the Supreme Court let stand the appeals court opinion that players names when tied to statistics are not subject to copyright law.

View full interview at CNBC.com

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Major League Baseball and its players association, leaving intact a ruling that lets a fantasy-sports company use players’ names and statistics without paying licensing fees.

View full article at Bloomberg.com

The Supreme Court justices were spending part of their time last week on fantasy baseball, but not because summer is near and they were bored with the legal work. Rather, the justices were deciding whether to take up a billion-dollar dispute over whether for-profit, fantasy games on the Internet have a free-speech right to use the names and performance statistics of famous athletes.

View full article at LA Times Online

In this opening week of the baseball season, most major league managers have their home plates full with only one team to worry about. Cuong Truong has to manage players from different 10 teams.

Truong is no Joe Torre, but he is one of a growing number of fantasy sports enthusiasts. These fans spend countless hours at their computers pondering the statistical permutations of their own custom teams, made up of players from all the rosters in Major League Baseball.

View full article at ABC News Online

Union Grove Elementary School teacher Linda Rae Slife got tired of sitting on the sidelines while her husband, Jay, made his weekly fantasy football picks.

So she entered her own team, Rae’s Chillipeppers, and enjoyed it so much that she wrote a song, “Fantasy Football,” as a tribute to all the joys of the alternative league.

View full article at JSOnline