Hello, how are you doing? I hope you are enjoying yourself today. We have a few things to get you excited. Well, they got us excited, and I hope they can get you going. Without any further ado, or words to preface it, or roadblocks to your reading (okay, perhaps a little ado), here are a few fantasy sports tidbits:
Alright, enjoy your day.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:16am
derrick eckardt
BallHype announced that it was purchased by Future US, an international special-interest media group. BallHype was also acquired with its entertainment counterpart ShowHype in a deal that will allow its founders and employees to become full-time employees (get paid), bring on a few more employees, and really grow its business.
BallHype competes with YardBarker to be the Digg for sports; by the way, a battle it is winning, according to Compete.com’s Comparison of BallHype and YardBarker.
No purchase price was disclosed. With 300,000 unique monthly users and growing (according to compete.com), and some pretty slick technology, I would not be surprised if this deal ended up in the seven-digit range.According to TechCrunch, BallHype and ShowHype were purchased for $3M.
BallHype was also acquired with its entertainment counterpart ShowHype in a deal that will allow its founders and employees to become full-time employees (get paid), bring on a few more employees, and really grow its business.
With Yardbarker growing its own ad network, bringing in athlete bloggers, and raising serious venture money , BallHype needed to make a move. It has found a parent company that has its hands in all types of media, which can be a tremendous asset to Ballhype going forward.
Congratulations to BallHype
Additional Coverage
BallHype Acquired by Future US (BallHype Blog)
Future Acquires BallHype Inc (MarketWatch)
July 16th, 2008 at 02:05pm
derrick eckardt
Previously, we asked for your input on the FSTA “Future of Sports on the Web” Panel. Ted Kasten has been nice enough to write-up the resultant discussion from your questions.
Randal Burgess of Pre Pro Sports asked a question about “open data”, the lack of competition in stats delivery and rising costs of this critical “raw material” for the industry. This is an excellent question and something that almost every start-up entering the fantasy sports market has to evaluate at some point. I posed this question to our panelists and others at the FSTA conference and got some interesting feedback from a variety of perspectives. Here is a summary of the feedback I received:
As Randal commments, stats are extremely expensive and there are only a few companies that offer them. Most bootstrapped start-ups forgo adding stats unless they are absolutely required for their new product (i.e. it is a game based on the stats), otherwise a company typically needs to have funding, existing sources of revenue or the ability to view these stats as an investment that will pay off down the road. Some start-ups have been extremely successful adding stats from day one as it immediately provides content and depth to a new website. Pete Vlastelica, the founder of YardBarker, included stats in his site early on and they now have VC funding and huge traffic across their network. Other successful start-ups that included stats early on were FanNation (sold to TimeWarner/SI just a few months after the launch of their beta) and Matt Berry’s Talented Mr. Roto website (sold to ESPN). The stats included in these sites were not the primary driver of success for these start-ups, but the stats certainly added to the validity of their overall site and product offering. I am sure these founders would state that while the stats are expensive, they are worth it.
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July 16th, 2008 at 09:55am
Guest Author
At last week’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s conference, the latest research data revealed that the fantasy sports industry is directly an $800M industry, with 29.9M fantasy players in the United States and Canda aspending an additional $3B a year on media products (think DirecTV Sunday Ticket) to support their habit. Those are really big numbers, and that is real money.
In years past, the number thrown around was that the fantasy industry was around $1B-$2B, but no one really knew what that included. This years numbers seems to be much more concrete, and reasonable. It’s $27 per person, while spending about $80 on related extras. More importantly, that means there is a real audience for advertisers to advertise too.
Anyone looking to build a case for a fantasy sports business, that’s one huge data point for you.
Additional Coverage
Fantasy Sports Industry Grows to a $800 Million Industry With 29.9 Million Players (Press Release)
July 15th, 2008 at 12:43pm
derrick eckardt
Hello, readers. I am back, and you should expect to see a resumption of our regularly scheduled programming.
On a much sader note, my laptop’s hard drive died over vacation, and taught me a valuable lesson–Backup your computer as often as you can. Tonight, go to Best Buy, purchase an external hard drive (you can get a huge one for like $250), and program your computer to update nightly. Trust me, it will save you time, money, and headaches in the future.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:49am
derrick eckardt
I have a special treat for you this week. Maura Gladys is a journalism student at Ithaca College who recently wrote some great pieces on the fantasy sports industry, which we are more than happy to publish, with this one being the third of three pieces (see also: ESPN, Matthew Berry and the Impact of Fantasy Sports on Sports Journalism, Fantasy Sports Writing vs. Traditional Sports Writing). If you have any comments or thoughts on her article, please feel free to contact her at mgladys1@ithaca.edu.
The fantasy sports world revolves around numbers and what they mean. Whether it’s scores, statistics, or averages, fantasy players and writers live and breath figures, stats, and numerical symbols. They’re constantly searching for ways to read, interpret, break down and hype up numbers. This causes an interesting contradiction for a fantasy sports writer. They are writers, not mathematicians. Is it their job to measure and define the way a ballplayer should be judged?
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July 11th, 2008 at 01:00pm
Guest Author
You see that gentleman on the right? That is Ben Ice, and he is the managing partner of RotoExperts. If you are not familiar with RotoExperts, it is a new fantasy start-up that trying to bring some attitude to fantasy analysis. It is also the site that just hired over Scott Engel from ESPN. If you want to know more about the site, I highly recommend you read the RotoExperts site profile that we published yesterday. I got a chance to speak with Ben Ice of RotoExperts last week, and here is what he had to say about his company and fantasy sports.
RotoNation: There is plenty of fantasy sports content out there, and plenty of good fantasy content out there, why create another fantasy content site?
Ben Ice: Most of the content is pretty much the same. You see a little variation on player rankings and such, but it feels mostly sterile. Whether you liked him or not, Matt Berry broke the mold by introducing his personal life and other media into his coverage. We are following his philosophy with a mix of entertainment and fantasy analysis, and I hired people specifically for their knowledge and talents in those areas.
The other part is people seem to be afraid to actually take a stance. As an example, my guys were circulating something from a major site on Matt Garza saying what a stud was, and in the next sentence said he was NOT a must start. Too much playing the middle. Fantasy fans know you are going to be wrong some times, so be wrong passionately, and when you are right, like our Diamond in the Rough coverage on guys like Mike Aviles before anyone else, you brag about it.
How do you plan to get yourselves noticed?
Depends on what you mean by that. I’m a big believer in guerilla marketing. Hiring Scott Engel flows against that theory, but at the same time was one of the best investments we could have made, both from a content development as well as a marketing standpoint. You have to create a buzz, do what Seth Godin says in “Purple Cow”, to make your site stand out from others. And we’ll take advantage of the media inherent with the internet and our stable of writers, who also have broadcast and production experience in several industries.
So entertainment and accountability are what you are promising?
I believe people want to be entertained. Unfortunately that includes with their news, but that’s a rant I won’t go on about here. They want to be amused, shocked, astounded, and more importantly to have a reason to respond, whether positively or negatively, to what they consume. As far as accountability, we are all accountable in this industry, but that has to be measured by the total body of work and usually can’t be done until the season is over. For instance…another well-established site dropped Albert Pujols to 34th in their preseason 1B rankings when reports of his elbow issues surfaced. That was irresponsible. We had a huge internal debate and eventually dropped him to fifth.
Do you have anyway of tracking of how accurate your writers, and comparing them to the rest of the industry?
Does anyone? I’d be interested in knowing if there are metrics established for this. I doubt it, because it would likely expose a lot of sites to unnecessary and often negative attention. At the end of the day the real question is, did you serve your users in the best, most honest fashion? If you did, and you treated them right and let them have a voice in making your site better, then you should have no problems sleeping at night
When and why did you decide to pursue the creation of RotoExperts?
I’ve been thinking about this ever since I left Talented Mr Roto in 2006. A good friend of mine, Tony Holm at Fantasy Sharks, told me when I was writing for him in 2004 that he thought I’d eventually launch my own site. I scoffed at the idea then, and I blame him now for planting that seed. As far as why, that was a more recent event. I’d been in discussions with various people for over a year, looking for a solid mix of talents that I thought were necessary to bring something like this together. We actually purchased the URL in May of 2007, but the pieces didn’t come together until January.
Okay, lets move onto some business questions. How are you guys funded?
That seems to be the question of the day and one I won’t go into a lot of detail on. However, when we began building our team, money was a key part of the plan and we addressed that during the planning phase.
Do you plan to remain free (ad-supported, I assume?) (in other words: how do you plan to make money?)
If it’s free it’s for me. I don’t think you can launch a new site and hit critical mass by charging people out of the gate unless you are sitting on a warchest of millions. Unless of course you really aren’t interested in growing rapidly. I believe you first have to establish trust with your readers, and of course you need readers to establish that trust with. Once you’ve built that core, who by the way are also your best form of advertising, then you can introduce products and services that they’ll readily buy.
How big is the RotoExpers staff?
That number changes so quickly. We are approaching 30 people on staff. Seven are full time, the rest part time. It’s approximate because we have another dozen or so in the interview and/or assessment, one or more who could easily be hired by the time this interview goes live. It takes a lot of people to make a site click. The good news is, there is a tremendous interest.
Who do you see as your competition? Put it another way, do you want to become the first place fantasy players go for information, or do you want to be the top secondary site, after they’ve already visited ESPN/Yahoo/CBSSports?
Who isn’t our competition? Anyone competing for the hearts and minds of fantasy players is competition to everyone else in the industry. Some may focus on a niche strategy, which is completely viable, while others, like us, will take a broader approach. Personally I think the hardcore fans go to the second tier sites and then manage their leagues on the Yahoo/Sportsline/ESPN nexus because they offer superior league management systems. LMS’s are an extremely expensive proposition to do right, and frankly most of what I’ve seen out there pale in comparison to the Big Three. I’ve used several that I’ll call ‘off-brand” simply to differentiate them from the nexus and each has left me wanting. I’m sure fantasy players at all levels would concur to some extent.
As for the second part of the question, if you aren’t in it to win it, why are you in it in the first place?
A year from now, where do you want RotoExperts to be? Three Years? Five Years?
Our goal over the next twelve months is to put ourselves in a positive cash flow position. That isn’t our primary focus in the early stages, but everything we do today has a ripple effect on our monetization efforts in the future. The five year plan I laid out for the ownership group isn’t one I’d share at this juncture, but I will say it is very aggressive.
Beyond fantasy content, what other areas of the fantasy market should we expect RotoExperts to move into?
Content is our key driver, but certainly tools are important as well. Several of us come from the software industry and we have a development team working on different projects, one which we expect to launch this football season. We aren’t looking to get real fancy, but we are going to get our feet wet and assess some of the other non-content areas that we feel have plenty of profit potential.
We actually thought about developing our own league management system (LMS), but after a short cost analysis realized it was a much bigger undertaking than we’d originally anticipated.
Where do you think you have room to innovate in the industry?
I don’t think there is a single segment of the industry that doesn’t have room for innovation. The internet is changing, much like technology in general, almost daily. Today Facebook apps, Twitter and widgets are all the rage. Tomorrow could bring something totally different. I spend a lot of time at the leading edge just looking at different technologies and concepts, and other sites as well, to see what makes sense to me and how I think it might fit our model moving forward. It is sometimes daunting, but also exciting….like how climbing to the top of Mount Everest must feel. The key for us will be to stick to our game plan, tweak it when it makes sense…kind of like what our home town Rays are doing in baseball. When Sternberg and company took the helm, a lot of casual fans didn’t pay attention to all the work they put in behind the scenes. But they had a plan, they stuck to the plan and now…? The best record in baseball. That says a lot. If we can accomplish a small percentage of their success, we’ll be pretty happy…for a while anyway.
I would like to thank Ben for taking the time to sit for an interview and wish RotoExperts luck in its future endeavors.
July 10th, 2008 at 09:30am
derrick eckardt
RotoExperts made a big splash week last week with the announcement that Scott Engel was leaving ESPN to become of the featured writers at RotoExperts and head up its fantasy football coverage. With fantasy content widely available, I took a deeper look to see what RotoExperts offers fantasy players.
RotoExperts maintains a delicate balance between solid fantasy analysis, such as Angles from Engel, to the much more entertaining, Big Fat Claims, where a fantasy writer’s credibility is put on the line. I like this approach because it reflects what fantasy players are looking for in fantasy content: reliable fantasy analysis and entertainment. I think the “entertainment” aspect of (fantasy) writing is lost by a lot of sites. Yes, people will go back to sites that help them make good picks, but they are more likely to keep going back if they get good information and a good laugh. This point is not lost on RotoExperts as the founders are focused on bringing some attitude to their analysis.
RotoExperts faces an uphill battle. First, the competition for fantasy content is really stiff, and getting fantasy players to change their habits is not an easy thing to do. Second, fantasy players are so secretive about their information, even RotoExperts’ converts will hesitate to tell their friends about RotoExperts. Even if RotoExperts ends up with the best content and analysis, it will take fantasy players a while to come around (read: years).
That said, I like what I have read so far and would be interested to see how the site develops as RotoExperts refines its voice and develops an audience. We wish RotoExperts good luck.
P.S. One more bit: Tomorrow, we will have an interview with Ben Ice, the managing partner for RotoExperts, so make sure to check back in.
July 9th, 2008 at 07:00pm
derrick eckardt
I have a special treat for you this week. Maura Gladys is a journalism student at Ithaca College who recently wrote some great pieces on the fantasy sports industry, which we are more than happy to publish, with this one being the second of three pieces (see also: ESPN, Matthew Berry, and the Impact of Fantasy Sports on Sports Journalism). If you have any comments or thoughts on her article, please feel free to contact her at mgladys1@ithaca.edu.
Although fantasy coverage is becoming more accepted in mainstream, there are still marked differences between a fantasy column on ESPN, and an article found in the sports section of the New York Times.
The difference lies in a 6′1″ right-handed outfielder on the Boston Red Sox. J.D. Drew broke into the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1998, after being selected 2nd overall in the 1997 draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. In his 10 year career he’s played for the Cardinals, the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and is currently on the Boston Red Sox’ roster. He has a career batting average of .284 and 173 career homeruns.
But according to Berry, J.D. Drew is everything that is wrong with sports.
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July 9th, 2008 at 01:00pm
derrick eckardt
It has been a couple of weeks since George Carlin’s death, and I have been thinking of the best way to honor the man. First, some background: My brother and I listened endlessly to Carlin’s Classic Gold, and his wry, demented sense of humor definitely shaped my own warped since of humor. Carlin is most known for his “The Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.” I think we could have some fun with it. I now present to you “The Seven Words You Can Never Say in Fantasy Football.”
- Collusion - Everyone has seen really bad deals in their leagues. You know what I’m talking about: deals so bad that even Isiah Thomas would not have made them. Sometimes, the “C” word is the real motive behind the deal.
- What Rule? This one is a compound word. At some point, you are going to make a fool of yourself by saying you didn’t know that was a rule. Think back to your draft, and more than likely, the commissioner asked, “Any more rule questions or changes?” You shook your head and said nope. Sorry, your loss.
- Vulture - This is when your running back does all the hard work for 79 yards but has HIS touchdown stolen by the goal-line running back or a quarterback. A move made famous by Mike Alstott. Other variations include vultured, vulturing.
- Tiki - As in Tiki Barber. If you can watch the Today show and say that the guy sitting next to that annoying chatterbox, Anne Curry, used to be on your fantasy football team, hold your head in shame. I’m waiting. Hold … in … shame.
- Inactive - How can a guy go from being the likely starter to not even playing? By getting declared inactive right before the game. Had you been at your computer and not at the bar, you might have had a fighting chance to stop this disturbance in the force. Bill Belichick and Mike Shanahan are most likely to have caused this last-minute bit of pain.
- Who? - Utter that word just once during a fantasy draft, and you might as well fork over $120 to get the word “Sucker” tattooed on your forehead. Just shut your mouth, and nod along.
- Arrested - This is most likely to be said shortly after drafting a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. You knew it was only a matter of time before your Bengal was arrested. This kind of behavior has caused groups like the Who Dey Revolution to form.
Honorable mentions include running back-by-committee (RBBC) and Injured Reserve.
Shout-out to Ryan at KFFL for helping me brainstorm.
July 9th, 2008 at 09:00am
derrick eckardt
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