After running a successful test in Chicago, ESPN announced that it will be launching new local sports sites in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas. In just three months, ESPN Chicagohas surpassed the Chicago Tribune’s Sports section as the top sports section in Chicago. Three months, that is all it took. That has to be even faster than ESPN had anticipated.

While this may not necessary mean too much for fantasy, it is interesting to note on the ESPN Chicago landing page, fantasy is no where to be seen. I find that interesting since local sports coverage is probably one of the best sources of information about fantasy players. Not even a “Hot Local Fantasy Tip” box. Then again, the emphasis is on local news, and not fantasy.

On a mostly unrelated note, does anyone find the box to the Huffington Post‘s Chicago-related news out of place? I am just surprised it is not a link to news reports from WLS-7, ABC’s Chicago affiliate.

Additional Coverage:

• ESPN Launching More Local Sports Sites: NYC, LA, Dallas Next (DIS) – Business Insider
• Across U.S., ESPN Aims to Be the Home Team (New York Times)
• ESPN.com vs Local Newspaper Sports (DanShanoff.com)

MySportsBroker is a launching the Pro Sports Exchange (PSX) for those fantasy players who want to trade athletes like stock. PSX is a game where you buy and sell athletes like stock, whowever ends up with the largest sports portfolio is the winner. Currently, fantasy players are able to add players to their sports portfolios from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and English Premier League (EPL).

A fantasy sports stock market is an idea that has been around for a while. I first saw a similar game years ago on Wall Street Sports, and this idea has been tried most recently by OneSeason, RotoHog, and ProTrade. RotoHog is now much more focused on developing fantasy games for a slew of media partners, while ProTrade’s parent company has re-branded itself as Citizen Sports and is focused on making games in the Facebook and social networking arena.

MySportsBroker also plans a mobile version of the PSX game, and plans to use the trademarked name SportsBerry or MySportsBerry. MySportsBroker is currently looking for a telecom partner to work with them to release a SportsBerry sports specific smartphone. Once again, not an original idea, as a few years ESPN Mobile was a tragic failure.

Fantasy sports stock markets are one of those ideas that everyone likes on the surface and thinks is a good idea. Despite the various incarnations of this genre of fantasy sports, it still has not taken off as a widely-popula fantasy sport.

I am interested to see what is unique about PSX and the MySportsBroker team that will allow this game to transcend into the fantasy mainstream. Perhaps the problem is just in the marketing and distribution. My fear is that it will be yet another good idea that is unable to find an audience.

Good luck to the PSX team!

Additional Coverage

• MySportsBroker Launches Unique Fantasy Sports Game

If you are the kind of fantasy football player that finds regular fantasy football too boring and even finds leagues with individual defensive players (IDP) a bit too easy, then you are going to love Trench Fantasy. Trench Fantasy is building a game where offensive lineman and nose tackles will bring you to fantasy glory, while quarterbacks and running backs will take their turn riding the fantasy bench. More importantly, Trench Fantasy just received some angel funding which should enable it to bring this game to life.

Trench Fantasy acknowledges that its game is not for everyone. It is targeting that NFL Draft aficionado who has all this great information about the non-skill players, and no longer has anything to do with that information. Trench Fantasy gives the draft gurus a means to flex a few fantasy muscles of their own.

The big question is, are there are enough fantasy players who care about the trench players to want to play this game? Like any new fantasy game, you have to learn what stats matter, and who the studs. If you are interested in playing, there is sign-up on the site to receive notification when the game is available.

As a side note, the most peculiar thing about Trench Fantasy’s recent news is that it has received angel funding from Elite Power, a Sacramento-based electrical contracting company. The connection? Power systems are built by guys in the trenches. Seems like Elite was looking for a new way to invest some funds.

Congratulations to Trench Fantasy on its funding, and good luck on its pending launch!

Additional Coverage

• Trenches Announces Angel Investment to Bring Excitement Back to Fantasy Football: Sacramento-based Investor Backing New, Hard-Working Brand of Trench Fantasy Football (Press Release)

Over the last few years, the idea of live fantasy sports has gain significant traction as market pioneers such as Live Hive Systems‘ Nanogaming and YOUbeQB’s fantasy football game have emerged with major media companies (ESPN, CBS to name a few) have signed on for various incarnations of these live fantasy sports games to be played for a computer. While those games provide a wealth of information from a web browser, Event Day Games simplifies the idea of live fantasy sports and makes it mobile friendly.

Likening itself to things such as Super Bowl box pools and March Madness brackets, Event Day Games focuses on creating free games for singular events such as the NFL Draft and NASCAR races. During the events, registered players receive text messages with questions, and the players text back with their predictions. If you are correct, you score points. If you are wrong, everyone of your friends that entered the contest along with you, has a chance to rag on you. It is really a win-win situation.

While still refining its game play, I love the fact that Event Day Games is targeting NASCAR. The first big benefit is that NASCAR has very loyal and dedicated fans, which enables Event Day Games to develop a loyal fan base. Second, there is a race every week which enables them to continue developing the game and sign-up new members. Third, by focusing on groups of friends, Event Day Games is focusing on making a large game seem small.

Technologically, Event Day Games systems has kept the system so simple that people play it while away from their computers, something that differentiates itself from the other live fantasy sports solutions. No mounds of data, just a simple text interface. While I am a fan of the data-rich solutions, it is nice to have an on-the-go solution that does not require me to sit on every pitch or every down.

Congratulations to Event Day Games with its launch, and good luck as it enters the live fantasy sports market.

For those of that are looking for a way to make Wimbledon just a tad bit more interesting, Grand Slam Fantasy Tennis is bringing a new look to the nascent world of fantasy tennis. While many sites have tried to create a successful fantasy tennis game, no one has really succeeded and captured that market. Even the ATP Tour who tried launching a fantasy tennis game a couple of years ago seems to have abandoned it this year (correction: the ATP does have a fantasy tennis game, its Draw Challenge, but it is now just relegated to a section of the fanzone.)

Grand Slam Fantasy Tennis’ game play is very straight forward. At the start of a tournament, men’s, women’s, or both, pick the 8 players that you think will go the furtherest in the tournament, and you score points according to how well they do. Then, starting in the round of 16, pick the winner of each match, and score some more points. The game is free to play, and currently the prizes for each tournament are $25, $15, $10 for first, second, and third, with Wimbledon is considered officially the third beta test of the site.

Grand Slam Fantasy Tennis’ game format is creative. It allows for the early rounds to matter, but ensures that fantasy players will be engaged in the later rounds. Continuous engagement is the battle that most fantasy games fight (and often lose).

In addition, the fact that this fantasy tennis game is focusing on the Grand Slam events is probably a good idea. While hardcore tennis fans may watch week-to-week action, the casual fan really only pays attention when a major trophy is on the line. By focusing on just these four events, and treating them as individual fantasy seasons, Grand Slam Fantasy Tennis is able to promote each game individually.

I congratulate Grand Slam Fantasy Tennis on its launch and wish it good luck as its enters the world of fantasy tennis.

Additional Information:

New Grand Slam Fantasy Tennis Website Offers Fresh Approach to Fantasy Tennis

Putting the Stink into Stinkball Fantasy Football?Anyone can predict that Adrian Peterson is going to have a good game, but who can predict what players are going to absolutely stink it up? Enter Stinkball. About a month ago, Real McCoy Fantasy Football officially launched Stinkball Fantasy Football. The concept is to put together as bad a fantasy football team as you can. The worse your players perform, the better you do. If your stud (err, dud?) running back only gets two carries for two yards and actually manages to fumble the ball, you are going to have a great day.

Stinkball is attempting a paradigm shift for the fantasy football player looking for a new challenge. Is picking duds harder than picking studs? Personally, I like to think that Stinkball appeals to the George Costanzas of the fantasy football world. Those fantasy players who realize that their every instinct is wrong, so why not just do the opposite of it. Perhaps, your fantasy football league’s perpetual cellar dwellers will have finally find something they are good at.

This is definitely not a new concept, but perhaps the first site solely dedicated to it. At the end of the day, all Stinkball has really done is change the scoring system. My biggest concern is the negative connotation to the game. Will fantasy players have as much fun rooting for their players to do poorly, and their opponents to have a good game. In some sense, this amounts to watching a movie and rooting for the bad guys. It’s like rooting for the prison guards in The Longest Yard, or the Yankees in Major League. Once players play Stinkball once and get their novelty laugh out of it, will they keep coming back?

Additional Coverage
New Fantasy Sports Website, Stinkball.com, Gives Fantasy Football Fanatics an Innovative Challenge (Press Release)

Quietly in the night yesterday, Fantasy Ethos published its very first article. A small piece about Fantasy Sports Blips, but a giant leap for Fantasy Ethos. After taking a sabbatical from the fantasy sports industry in order to keep my perspective fresh, I am happy to announce the launch of Fantasy Ethos. The goal of this site is for fantasy players and fantasy sports professionals to learn and discuss about the fantasy sports world. From the fantasy sports business to its unique culture, from industry news to some lighthearted fantasy humor, and even fantasy sports jobs and videos, there is a lot occurring on a daily basis in the fantasy industry.

Fantasy Ethos is built on the premise that there is a better way to operate in the fantasy sports world. If you leave our site a little smarter, a little more knowledgeable, then we are doing our job, and that kind of quality is what will bring people back to our site.

Fantasy Ethos is going to try a lot of different things. Some will work, some will not. For all of them, we see the reader as our partner, and any feedback you can provide as immensely valuable. Feel free to use the contact page or email me personally at derrick@fantasyethos.com.

Why Ethos?

When trying to create a memorable name for the site, the name Ethos just made the most sense. Originally suggested to us by a friend, the word is short, memorable, and really gets at the core of what we are doing here. The ethos of a society refers to the norms, the standards, or the essence of a culture. Fantasy Ethos aims to capture just that–the heart of the fantasy sports world and the fantasy player.

Secondly, ethos also bring to mind the notion as to how we should conduct ourselves. Ethos is the root in which ‘ethics’ is based. Fantasy Ethos conducts itself in the highest of professional manners. We will not stoop to a low level. No mud-slinging here. No thinly-disguised self-promotion. If there is a high road to be taken, that is where Fantasy Ethos will be. If you ever feel that we are not being honest and conducting ourselves with the highest of ethical standards, please let me know.

The fantasy world is big and is in constant motion–please join us while we examine it.

Sincerely,

Derrick Eckardt
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
derrick@fantasyethos.com