Back in January, an intrepid little news site defied the expert picks and took home the 2008 FSTA award for best new website.

Oh yeah, and a few other folks won in some other categories.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has opened the nomination process for its annual awards, with ballots accepted through Nov. 20.

In addition to the categories carrying over from last year, this year’s slate will include Best Video Podcast and Best Fantasy Sports Broadcast Presentation. Awards will also be given in the following categories …

• Commissioner Product
• Online Draft Room or Mock Draft Room
• Online Draft-Style Contest
• Online Salary-Cap Contest
• High-Stakes Contest
• Live Fantasy Event/Contest
• Unique Contest
• Innovation
• Draft Kit
• Draft and Game-Assistance Tool
• Print or Online Ad
• Magazine
• New Website or Site Update
• Specialty Products or Services
• Online Content Service
• Podcast

Nominees must be FSTA members to be eligible. Awards will be given at the winter conference Jan. 26-27 in Las Vegas.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

- Unfortunately, we missed this one during our September slowdown, but ESPN and NBA.com are presenting a co-branded fantasy basketball game for the quickly approaching season.

- This Nando Di Fino column ran in late September on The Wall Street Journal’s site, but the content remainst relevant. Di Fino, an avowed baseball guy who told FSB.com that he operated 14 fantasy teams in 2008, offers a few general suggestions for how to close the popularity gap between fantasy baseball and fantasy football.

- This middle-school teacher from Illinois who uses fantasy sports to teach math says it best: “If I can get them to play math with me, that’s like three-fourths of the battle.”

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