FSB.com learned Wednesday night of some apparent big changes at Fanball.

An anonymous source has told us that about a third of the company’s staff has been let go, including CDM Fantasy Sports co-founders Carol Matthews and Brian Matthews. (CDM was acquired in 2006 by Fanball’s parent company.)

FSB.com has independently confirmed that the purge did take place and that Ryan Houston, publisher and senior VP of business development, has been promoted.

Word is that some recent ventures have underperformed financially, though FSB.com has yet to confirm any specifics on that front. We’ll bring you more details as they become available.

Footballguys co-owner Joe Bryant provided an unusual number of announcements in Wednesday’s daily subscription e-mail, the biggest of which was a partnership on a new high-stakes contest.

Bryant and fellow Footballguys.com creator David Dodd have combined with Dave Gerczak and Alex Kaganovsky to create JDAD LLC, which will put on the Footballguys Players Championship this summer. The event will consist of live online drafts from Aug. 1 through Sept. 8, currently set at $350 per entry.

“For years, we’ve had customers asking us to create a high stakes contest,” Bryant wrote in the e-mail newsletter. “I’ve wanted to have a presence in this space for a long time and so has David.

“David (Gerzcak) and Alex have a fantastic reputation for outstanding customer service running their FFPC leagues. We think it’s a perfect partnership as they compliment what we do very well.”

According to the releases on both Footballguys.com and the FFPC site, draft times are set twice daily from Aug. 1 through Sept. 8 — 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays, and 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, with additions possible. Top prize for the contest is set at $50,000.

The entry of Footballguys into this space will be interesting, because the site’s strong content is often mentioned by competitors in the high-stakes space and the subscriber base brings an immediate pool of potential customers.

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Aside from the new high-stakes contest, Footballguys.com also unveiled Wednesday a redesigned site and announced an iPhone app that is awaiting Apple approval for distribution.

Based on screenshots, the free app looks like it will feature quick access to Footballguys content, podcasts and updates as well as NFL team depth charts.

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

- When a fantasy baseball documentary gets put on by ESPN, it garners a full review in The New York Times. (We’ll have our word on it as soon as we can get to the official FSB.com viewing.)

- Sports Business Journal reports that Brand Interaction Group has reached a deal with Ashton Kutcher’s company Katalyst to grow its SuperDraft fantasy football event in Las Vegas.

- Freelancer.com has a listing seeking contractor bids from Web designers with experience in doing fantasy football sites.

- The Melbourne Storm of Australia’s National Rugby League was found to have violated salary-cap rules and stripped of premiership status and forced to return tournament prize money. That doesn’t mean a whole lot to most of us in the States, but it could raise questions for fantasy players over the validity of results and whether those results would be changed. Fox Sports Australia, at least, is sticking with what happened on the fields. The situation could be of particular interest for anyone who runs fantasy games for single events such as the Olympics, tennis tournaments or the Tour de France, in which a disqualification after the fact could alter official results.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

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

- Visitors to FantasyPlayers.com — which is owned by Fantasy Sports Ventures and serves as the online home for their Fantasy Players Network — will notice that the site is currently redirecting to KFFL.com. KFFL’s Ryan Bonini told FSB.com that this is a temporary move while the company is “revamping” FantasyPlayers.com. We’ll check back in with details on the changes once the site is back up.

- The ESPN 30 for 30 fantasy documentary Silly Little Game premiered tonight, and here’s a semi-review Steve Gardener of USA Today. (We had to DVR it here at FSB.com headquarters for viewing after a week and a half of visiting the South.)

- As part of its promotion for Silly Little Game, ESPN.com put together a quick quiz on the origination of rotisserie baseball. (I got a decent 7 out of 10 correct, without cheating. I swear on my Rafael Palmeiro rookie card.)

- Ireland-based Ubecha.com is launching what seems to be a daily-game style fantasy platform for the upcoming World Cup. The press release is short on specific details of the game, but the general description seems to be in line with the short-turnaround, quick-payout games that have been popping up all over the place on the American fantasy sports scene recently. (The name of the site and discussion of “betting” in the release exemplifies a different marketplace the one governed by the UIGEA.)

- Harsh Jain of Dream11 has this writeup on the growing Internet market in India and the growth potential for fantasy sports in that market, particularly cricket.

Send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).