November, 2009

FSB Daily 11/18: FSTA Conference, Geopolitics, Fantasy Soap

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

- The Fantasy Sports Trade Association has announced the agenda for its upcoming winter conference, including a featured appearance from half of the husband-wife creative team behind “The League.”

- We tie our fantasy fortunes to the performances of football players, anglers, bull riders and “American Idol” contestants. Why not take a crack at predicting global performance with “fantasy geopolitics“? If there’s one thing the worldwide recession showed us, it’s that we can’t do much worse than the folks actually in charge of this stuff.

- “Sundays of Our Lives” touts itself as a fantasy football comedy soap opera for the Web. Will it be funny? Will it be stupid? Will it at least pay more attention to the football than “The League” does? We’ll see when the first episode debuts. Until then, here’s the trailer.

- Athlon acquired college fantasy games producer U-Sports earlier this year, and the combined outlet is now live with its first season of fantasy college basketball. Although U-Sports was a pay site on its own, the Athlon version of the game is free.

- Juliann Haynes checks in on the SportsJudge blog with Part 1 of her argument for why women should play, or at least support their significant others in playing, fantasy sports.

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FSB Daily 11/13: The Demoffs, NFL Network, Fantasy Ethos, FF Pros/Cons

Friday, November 13th, 2009

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

- Among the early experiences with football for Kevin Demoff, Rams executive VP of football operations and chief operating officer, was the fantasy team he ran at age 8 with his dad, superagent Marvin Demoff.

- Following that lengthy standoff with cable companies, the NFL Network now credits some of its spread to the growing interest in and popularity of its RedZone Channel. The network that tracks every game on Sunday is particularly cited as catering to the interests of the fantasy player.

- Derrick Eckardt of FantasyEthos.com gives some insight into the process of starting a business in the fantasy sports industry. Just like with most things, make sure you really think, research and plan well before jumping in.

- A Columbia University senior ponders the abstract potential pros and cons of fantasy football while defending it to her father.

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Mock Draft Central Up for Sale

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Eight years after creating Mock Draft Central, Jason Pliml says he’s ready for new challenges.

“Having achieved what I set out to do when I started Mock Draft Central back in 2001, my roles and responsibilities have diminished and I want to take my life and career in a different direction,” Pliml told FSB.com. “With my energy focused on sales, brand awareness, and managing software consultants, we grew revenue to the point of profitability. MDC has reached the point of having reliable, award-winning technology, a well-known and respected brand, and a large, loyal audience.”

Pliml says that audience includes a user base of 128,000, with unique-visitor traffic averaging about 30,000 a month over the past year. (That number, of course, varies wildly throughout the year, peaking at 109,770 in August — just before football season — according to Compete.com.)

As for revenue, a feature in The Detroit News to which we recently linked said that MDC is bringing in $250,000 this year.

The company won Fantasy Sports Trade Association awards in both 2007 and 2008 for its technology and has held licensing partnerships with various companies around the fantasy sports industry.

Pliml says that MDC has received some direct purchase offers, which will be reviewed by the board of directors. No deadline has been set for the sale, but the site continues to operate throughout this process. (Visitors can already get a jump on the 2010 baseball season, for example.)

Interested parties can contact Pliml, whose e-mail address is also available on the MDC website.

FSB.com will have more information once a sale is made.

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FSB Daily 11/6: FantasyXPERT, Android app, Fantasy Market

Friday, November 6th, 2009

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

- FantasyXPERT.com is aiming to sift through the bevy of fantasy football recommendations out there to single out the most accurate sources for info in different areas. In this post, the site lays out some of its findings for October.

- Our own technology guy Phil Threadgould — who also founded and runs On Board Stats — was among the Michigan-based fantasy sports professionals featured in a recent write-up in the Detroit News.

- Those who have jumped on board with Sprint’s new Android device already have an app to help them play Yahoo! fantasy football.

- Among other points on the subject of online marketing to the sports-fan audience, Clickz.com’s Tessa Wegert points out what a favorable target the fantasy sports player can be.

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