We are one week into Fantasy Ethos’ March Madness and promise of 65 posts this month. This marks the twelth post of the month and puts us right around schedule. With that in mind, here are some links to get your brain going this Monday:

• Inaugural FantasyFootball.com Roundtable Discussion (FantasyFootball.com) It is March, and these guys are discussing what the fantasy foootball season will bring. Questions that will not be fully answered until December. Hey, someone has to get the ball rolling on these discussions.
• Do’s and don’ts of fantasy (SI.com) David Sabino provides fantasy baseball drafting tips that are likely to keep you from making any serious mistakes. If still have not hit your stride in fantasy baseball (or even if you have), you might want to check it out. Always good to get back to basics.
• KFFL Reaches Multisport Deal with RotoExperts (Fantasy Sports Business) Matt Schauf has picked up a tip that KFFL will now syndicate RotoExperts’ NASCAR, golf, and soccer content. Since KFFL does not currently have golf or soccer, nor a very robust NASCAR site, this deal allows it to add additional content to its site without too much additional hassle and cost, since syndication is generally a cheaper alternative than producing the content yourself.

Keep on coming back here, because there are always more treats for you on Fantasy Ethos

Note: I previously worked for Fantasy Sports Ventures, the owner of KFFL.com

Usually I am not that big a fan of celebrity endorsements, but I think this one was nice and novel. Fantazzle has partnered with the New York Giants’ Steve Smith in a deal that will get Fantazzle more players, Steve Smith more Pro Bowl votes, and fantasy players some cool prizes like tickets to the Pro Bowl.

To help Steve Smith get to the Pro Bowl, you have to become a fan of Steve Smith on Facebook and vote for him in the Pro Bowl. You can also win some Steve Smith memorabilia by playing Fantazzle’s free Steve Smith game. In case you were unaware, Fantazzle offers weekly fantasy sports games, which by the way, is a great thing for you to consider playing right now while your other fantasy teams may already be done for the season (there are other sites too, try FanDuel, SnapDraft.

While most of the endorsements I have seen by athletes for fantasy games have been “okay,” at best, this one I think is great because it is benefiting fantasy players and the athletes directly. More than likely, I bet Fantazzle did not have to even pay for this sponsorship package since it has such a symbiotic relationship.

The trip to the Pro Bowl will only be given away if Steve Smith gets enough votes to go to the Pro Bowl. No matter what happens, Steve Smith ends up with a much more personal and direct relationship with his fans as a result of this promotion and the daily interaction he now has with the over 55,000 Facebook fans he has now.

Well done. If you are thinking about a sponsorship, I hope you took some notes.

By harnessing the real-time nature of Twitter, Fantasy TweetZone lets fantasy players know who the most talked about fantasy football players are at any given moment. Right now, Larry Johnson’s release and uncertain status is topping its chart, as it should be. Fantasy TweetZone is an advertising tie-in with Sprint‘s ad campaign where it totals everything that is going on in its network; Fantasy TweetZone totals up everything fantasy football related on Twitter.

I love the concept of this site because it gives fantasy players easy access to which players have significant developing news. Monitoring this site on a regular basis may give fantasy players an edge when a no-name player emerges on the chart, indicating that something is happening with that player. Also, it allows fantasy players to see how others view the same athletes. For example, clicking on Marion Barber’s TweetZone page right now brings up a number of trades that fantasy players are considering for Marion Barber. If you are a Barber owner or lust after having him on your team, you can get a feel for what might be a fair trade offer for Barber.

Unfortunately, the site has a bit of noise in its relevancy, such as being unable to differentiate jokes about Michael Vick and Reggie Bush from real fantasy news. Also, the most popular players tend to be the most talked about players, creating additional noise. However, for a first edition of this tool, I think this is an acceptable noise level. Besides, who still does not enjoy a good Michael Vick joke these days?

This is an excellent use of Twitter. Federated Media, the company that launched the tool, has taken public domain data and analyzed it to bring value to fantasy players. Currently, the site is only monitoring fantasy football, but with the site branding just as Fantasy TweetZone, don’t be surprised if this gets expanded into other sports.

Well done!

Note: Ads for this site may or may not have run on this site a month ago when I had some ads up from an ad network. I never saw the ads myself, but allegedly they were running.

I’m sorry did someone say there was a recession? Judging by the $5.5 Million dollars that Watercooler just raised, you would never know it. Last year, Watercooler’s March Madness game on Facebook had over 1.7 million active users, instantly making it a major player in the world of (social) fantasy sports, and now it has a war chest to take the company to the next level.

If there is an immature market in the fantasy industry, it is within social networks. While fantasy players are well-entrenched in their habits, Facebook holds the potential to be a game changer in the fantasy industry. Over 100 million Facebook users actively socialize online, and it is only natural to transition these users to socializing over fantasy sports within their already existing networks. However, none of the big fantasy sites have made a major shift to making their games fully accessible via Facebook, which creates a big opportunity for new fantasy sites to become major players. Currently, this companies that have entrenched themselves in this niche is Watercooler and Citizen Sports.

One item of concern about this funding arrangement is that the $5.5M funding round was lead by online gambling site Betfair. From a legal perspective, there is a thin line between fantasy sports and gambling. I think it is not worth blurring that line, but that is just personal preference. The two can legally coexist, and Watercooler seems up to the challenge.

Congratulations to Watercooler on its new piggy bank, and I look forward to seeing how it spends its money.

Additional Coverage:

• Watercooler Inc. Announces $5.5 Million Series B Funding Led by Strategic Corporate Investor Betfair (Press Release)
• Watercooler raises $5.5M to expand social fantasy sports game business (VentureBeat)

Each year, fantasy football becomes more popular and creates additional distance between itself and fantasy baseball in terms of popularirt. When I saw this email (pictured below) in my inbox, I could not help but think it a little bit odd. MLB.com had a special sign-up offer for CBSSports.com‘s Fantasy Football commissioner product. Really?

Maybe it’s because of its existing relationship for March Madness (MLB Advanced Media powers CBSSports.com’s March Madness on Demand) that MLB.com is pimping for CBSSports.com. Perhaps, it figures that at this point, those that are going to play fantasy football are going to play it, so MLB.com might as well make some money doing it. Nonetheless, definitely not something you would expect to see.

Is this the future of fantasy? Perhaps. As a means to monetize one fantasy business, it definitely makes sense to work with other fantasy sites that have complementary products that do not interfere with each business’ core product offerings.

While ESPN consistently promotes its free fantasy football games, it has not completely abandoned the pay model. Fanball and ESPN just unveiled their new $50,000 Fantasy Football game. It is a pay-to-play salary cap game with point-style scoring, where the winner will take home a cool $50,000. Not too shabby for a $39.95 entry fee.

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 Tom Brady a first round pick last year, fantasy football teams were dealt a crucial blow to their season with his season-ending injury. If those owners had taken out a fantasy sports insurance policy on Brady, at least their wallets might have been. That is the kind of service that Fantasy Sports Insurance provides, and this year, Fanball players using its commissioner product, will have the opportunity to insure their players and teams against a season-ending injury.

With Fantasy Sports Insurance being a secondary service, integration into a commissioner platform is key for the business’ success. Scoring a relationship with Fanball is a major accomplishment for Fantasy Sports Insurance.

No details of how the relationship will work between the two companies. I imagine there will be some sort of revenue share on the insurance premiums paid, and that fantasy football players will be able to seamlessly take out policies on their players and teams.

Well done.

The entire press release is below

Fantasy Sports Insurance Partners with Fanball.com

Contact: Henry Olszewski
Email: fsi@intermarketins.com
Office: 631-421-2424 Ext. 30
www.fantasysportsinsurance.com