Part of the surprise over the “Fanball closing” announcement was that it appeared the doors were simply being shut without inventory moving on. This week, however, brought us the second acquisition of former Fanball holdings since that news.

As posted now at Fanball.com and CDMSports.com and e-mailed to Fanball users:

RG Ventures, LLC announced today that it has completed its purchase of various assets from Liberty Sports Interactive, Inc. (”Fanball”) which includes all of the rights to a suite of Fantasy Challenge and Draft and Play games. John Brison and Charlie Wiegert, two of the original founders of CDM Fantasy Sports, and a group of former employees and industry veterans will operate the games for RG Ventures under the trade name “CDM Sports” beginning immediately.

The Company’s suite of games will include the legendary fantasy baseball Diamond Challenge, Football Challenge, Draft and Play Baseball, Draft and Play Football, and Fantasy Cup. The Company will begin taking registrations for its fantasy baseball games within a few days. The Company’s portfolio of challenge games will be extensive in the future and will likely include fantasy auto racing, and golf games.

The CDM name, of course, is familiar to anyone in the fantasy sports industry and many veteran players as it has been around from the early days. CDM was acquired by Fanball in 2008 and its games incorporated into the Fanball line.

This acquisition, of course, follows the recent move by STATS to buy a controlling share of Greg Ambrosius’ National Fantasy Championships. We’ll pass along any further info that comes our way.

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

- We’ve made our feelings known in the past on the annual “study” in which Challenger, Gray & Christmas tells us how far down fantasy sports are dragging the economy. As such, we tend to frown upon stories generated by the “study.” This short, IT-focused item, however, takes an interesting look at how companies shouldn’t worry too much about the supposed productivity loss and how the tech folks can actually help expedite our fantasy research.

- I probably missed his first couple of appearances as a fantasy football columnist for SI.com, but this week Maurice Jones-Drew said that the NFL picture will be much clearer for fantasy owners once we have three games behind us.

- In this report from St. Louis Business Journal, Charlie Wiegert says of his parting with Fanball, “They would have gotten rid of me a week before, but I was running a football draft in Buffalo.”

- It’s out there, and the fact that it’s an Associated Press story means the story that calls daily fantasy sports “gambling” right in the headline has and will continue to be run by various outlets. We will have plenty to sort out within this story over the coming days.

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

By Jeff Thomas

The split with Fanball is just a bump in the road for Charlie Wiegert. He’ll be back, although he’ll probably spend more time on the beach and with his family. He deserves it.

I have a unique view of Charlie’s career — as a long-time competitor. Ali and Frazier? Maybe not, but we’ve been in the ring together more than once.

Charlie and his partners launched CDM about nine months before I opened Sports Buff in the early 90’s. We battled often for game-management deals and watched a long, long list of competitors come and go. CDM actually made an offer to purchase Sports Buff in 1999. It didn’t work out, but I was able to get to know Charlie better during the process. He’s a great guy, he loves this industry, and he has worked hard to help it grow and prosper.

His contributions are extensive. In fact, most current industry operators have no idea how extensive. Even before the FSTA was created, Charlie organized meetings in St. Louis to begin the communication process between companies in a very young industry. He and CDM invested heavily and led efforts to help clarify legal and licensing issues, years before the FSTA or the MLBAM lawsuit. Without these early efforts, many of today’s content companies and game operators — small, medium and large — would not exist.

He has followed that up with 12 years of devotion to the FSTA Board, continuing to contribute to industry growth for a second decade.

This is an odd set of events with Fanball. I think Fanball is in trouble. Charlie’s not. He’ll be fine.

(Jeff Thomas is an 18-year veteran of the fantasy sports industry, fellow founding member of the FSTA — for which he served a three-year term as president — and CEO of World Fantasy Games, which owns and operates this site.)

Pretty much any time an employee parts with a company, it’s at least significant for someone. In this case, though, the split is significant for an industry.

Charlie Wiegert, a founder of CDM Fantasy Sports nearly 20 years ago, will officially part ways with Fanball on Tuesday.

“Charlie’s impact on the industry is hard to overstate,” said Paul Charchian, another industry veteran and president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. “His 20-plus years of effort have helped define pay game contests. He’s supported the industry through work on the FSTA, sponsorships of industry events, and helping countless employees.”

After 17 years in newspaper ad sales — much of which was also spent competing in fantasy leagues — Wiegert helped found CDM Fantasy Sports in 1991. That company quickly became a leading games operator, running fantasy contests for media partners and other sports outlets. CDM was acquired in August 2006 by FUN Technologies, by then also the parent company of Fanball.

“I have really enjoyed the past 19 years in this industry, and look forward to having some time off,” Wiegert told FSB.com. “I do not have any plans for the future yet, but do plan on staying active in the industry, still writing my blog — godfatheroffantasysports.com — and remaining as treasurer of the FSTA.”

Of course, the most impactful segment of Wiegert’s career came in the courtroom. That was where his company — in CBC v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media — assured fantasy operators everywhere the right to use player names and statistics in their games without having to pay rights fees to the leagues involved.

“Winning the lawsuit with MLBAM/MLBPA was the highlight of my career, and knowing that fantasy sports games will remain in the hands of game operators instead of the leagues is very satisfying,” Wiegert said. “Most fantasy sports players do not realize that the games they play and love would have been changed and/or eliminated without a positive decision.”

Charchian added: “CDM’s successful battle with MLBAM saved the industry from monopoly by the leagues.”

We here at FSB.com wish Charlie the best of luck in whatever he decides to do next.

More: Jeff Thomas shares thoughts on Wiegert’s impact on the fantasy sports industry.

(Note: Although Charchian co-founded Fanball, he has no affiliation with the company at this point.)