I told you earlier about how CBS Sports was cancelling its fantasy NASCAR and fantasy golf games for 2010. Now, it is clear that ESPN is also on this bandwagon and is cancelling its fantasy NASCAR game for 2010 as well. One of our readers received the following message upon logging into his ESPN account:

Although it is a bit fuzzy, it says:

GAME NOTICE
The 2009 racing season will be the last season for ESPN Fantasy Stock Car. Thank you for playing and check back next February to sign up for our other great fantasy racing games on ESPN.com. If you have any questions, please call the Fantasy Help Desk at 1-888-549-ESPN.

This message seems to imply that there will be a new game come Daytona 500 time, but I am not buying it. Why would you tell your customers that the game is gone and chase them away, and then, try to get them back with a new and improved version a month later? If there was a new and improved version coming, you would tell them that right away would you not?

This announcement backs up the speculation that has been going on in ESPN Fantasy message boards for a while now (see Don’t Cancel Fantasy Stock Car and This game won’t be back next year). As in the case of most niche fantasy games, Fantasy NASCAR fans are a very rabid fan base. One reader even offered to run the game for ESPN.

Again, this is a disappointing turn of events. Fantasy NASCAR has been tauted as the next big thing in fantasy sports, but with CBSSports.com and ESPN both dropping it, it may not be as commercially viable as once thought.

ESPN’s decision to cut fantasy NASCAR is probably the same reason that CBSSports.com cut its game–money. Between statistic costs, software maintenance, marketing, and writers, running a fantasy game on a major site like ESPN.com could easily get expensive with very little direct return to date. With everyone’s budgets tight these days, it is not surprising to see a reduction in services.

If you are looking for a business opportunity in the fantasy space, creating a simple fantasy NASCAR game may be. You would not have the same cost infrastructure as ESPN and may actually be able to make money doing it. Just a thought.