Dear Valued Fantasy Games Player,

Due to a shift in our core business strategy, SportingNews.com will no longer offer new fantasy games going forward (excluding Strat-O-Matic). The fantasy industry is changing, and we feel it’s best to devote our resources to providing the best fantasy content and advice on the internet, and beyond. We believe SportingNews.com’s fantasy content, tools and advice are already best in class, and over the next few months, we will completely redesign the Fantasy Source section of our site to deliver a new and improved user experience. With this shift in strategy, we will dedicate our entire fantasy staff to building Fantasy Source into the number one destination for fantasy information, accessible via internet, mobile devices, and other new technologies.

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This is huge news! During the 1990s, the Sporting News was a major source of information, and hosted its own very successful games which were powered by CDM Sports (now Fanball). In recent years, it has fallen off the fantasy radar as fantasy players have flocked to sites offering free fantasy games with lots of bells and whistles. Holding on to its fantasy business for purely nostalgic reasons just does not make good business sense. It does plan to continue producing fantasy content via the Fantasy Source.

The Sporting News has been aggressively changing its business model over the last few years as the need (or demand) for a weekly sports magazine has dissipated over the last few years. Last month the Sporting News announced that its Sporting News Today product would switch to a subscription model starting in April. The Sporting News is focusing on making sure that as the sports information industry evolves, it is ready and profitable.

Also a loser in this announcement is also RotoHog, who just last June announced that RotoHog would be providing the fantasy games for the Sporting News. RotoHog, who is fully focused on white-label games currently, will definitely miss the cachet and doors that running the Sporting News’ fantasy games might open. After all, the Sporting News is still a very recognizable and trusted brand in fantasy sports.

The winner in all of this is CBSSports.com. Later in the email Price recommends that Sporting News users looking for fantasy baseball to sign up for CBSSports.com’s fantasy baseball commissioner at a nearly 50% discount.

It is sad to seem these change in the industry. I applaud Jeff Price on being able to make a decision that was definitely not an easy decision for him to make.

Thanks to everyone who let me know about this in a very timely manner.

For interested buyers, the sale process is simple – Mock Draft Central will be placed up for auction on October 30, 2009 with a starting bid of $195,000. The auction will held on eBay.com with a tentative end date of November 12, 2009.

Mock Draft Central is a profitable company that sustains itself through subscription, licensing, and advertising revenue.

Pliml started Mock Draft Central in 2001 as a means to improve his own fantasy baseball drafting skills. Mock Draft Central has since grown to be the leader in mock drafts and powers a number of other fantasy sites’ drafts.

While Pliml’s role with the company is to be determined, it is more than likely that Manager of Operations Geoff Stein will stay on after Mock Draft Central is purchased.

Mock Draft Central is willing to provide company details, including financial, traffic, advertising metrics, etc to parties with a bona-fide interest, and you can contact MDC at (616) 363-6306.

Jason, Geoff, and Mock Draft Central provide one of the highest-quality services on the web, and whoever acquires them will definitely be picking up a valuable asset.

More importantly, the fact that two of the major players in the fantasy industry are teaming together on a game should make you take note. ESPN has become the number two player (behind Yahoo!) by offering completely free fantasy games. Fanball is the leader in pay-to-play games under its own brand, and hosting white-label games, such as the Fantasy Football Open Championship. According to Ryan Houson, Fanball’s Vice-President of Business Development, that this game came about through, “Lots of discussions. We discussed this a lot and we are excited it finally got done.” It is a win-win deal for both sides. It allows ESPN to tap into the pay-to-play market, while giving Fanball another game to market to its existing customer base, and more importantly, the ability to market to the millions of fantasy players that play at ESPN.

Congratulations to both sides on the deal, and I look forward to see how this relationship develops. If this is successful, you better expect to see something come fantasy baseball season.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that Fantasy Ethos and The Big Lead are sponsoring a Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest 2009. All you have to do to enter is submit your best fantasy football team names in the comment field below. There is a limit of three fantasy football team names per person per day. If inspiration strikes you in the middle of the night, feel free to come back the next day and enter three more names. You must fill-out your email in the comment form so that I can contact you if you have won. The contest closes on August 11th, 2009 at 11:59pm, and the winner will be announced on August 12th. Due to some unexpected website downtime, the contest deadline has been extended until August 17th, 2009 at 11:59pm EDT to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to enter ithe best fantasy football team name contest.

While it is fun to think and to share favorite fantasy football team names, it would be best to incentive everyone with prizes. Advanced Sports Media is stepping up and is offering the top five fantasy football team names a complimentary copy of its 2009 Draft Analyzer Ultimate Package, which retails for $44.95. Draft Analyzer evaluates the picks in your draft and makes pick recommendations for you. Draft Analyzer is available on the web or your desktop, and it features rankings and cheatsheets from ESPN Fantasy, CBS Sports, Fanball, Accuscore, and RT Sports. This is a tool I have personally used (and paid for myself) the past two seasons, and it has provided me with phenomenal results. If you have the best fantasy football team name, you will get it for free this year!

Do not delay, enter now!

Fantasy Football Team Names Resources:

• Lester’s Legends Best Fantasy Football Team Name Contest
• Fantasy Team Name’s Fantasy Football Team Names
• About.com’s Funny Fantasy Football Team Names