FANBALL shutting down? (1 Viewer)

[atl3695]

I have a feeling google enters the FF realm full force next year. Too much money not to be a player.

Google isn't in the content game. They aggregate, sure, but they don't produce original IP.

If they can create something good or better and give it away for free (ie GMAIL, Google Maps ecetera) and drive ads and ad traffic, they'll do that though.I concur they won't dip their toes in here but I don't think it'd surprise me if they did, if they thought they could drive ad content.

Fantasy football leagues would seem perfect for google. They would instantly have millions of people who spend many hours a year on the fantasy site. Thats a lot of ads as some people spend hours WEEKLY checking news, managing, llineups, putting in free agent bids, etc. The continuous navigation through the site would allow for multiple ad impressions. Fantasy football is one of the most popular features of yahoo and it is just a matter of time before Google steps in.

 

[Jason Wood]

I have a feeling google enters the FF realm full force next year. Too much money not to be a player.

Google isn't in the content game. They aggregate, sure, but they don't produce original IP.

If they can create something good or better and give it away for free (ie GMAIL, Google Maps ecetera) and drive ads and ad traffic, they'll do that though.I concur they won't dip their toes in here but I don't think it'd surprise me if they did, if they thought they could drive ad content.

Fantasy football leagues would seem perfect for google. They would instantly have millions of people who spend many hours a year on the fantasy site. Thats a lot of ads as some people spend hours WEEKLY checking news, managing, llineups, putting in free agent bids, etc. The continuous navigation through the site would allow for multiple ad impressions. Fantasy football is one of the most popular features of yahoo and it is just a matter of time before Google steps in.

That's not Google's business model. They already make tons of money serving ads on all the existing fantasy football sites. Yahoo! has an entire staff of app developers, QA folks, editors, writers, web designers, database managers, etc...to manage a subscription and advertising fantasy business with its own P&L. Google has no interest in that kind of thing. Particularly now given their current scale. There's ZERO chance they could start a fantasy football business and come close to matching their corporate margins, and the incremental revenue would be a drop in the bucket for them.

 

[del mar]

There is a group of long time CDM/Fanball fantasy contest players who are interested in playing these types of games (roto and points) someplace else in the future. If you wish to be kept informed about possible alternatives or contribute you own research as to alternatives drop an e-mail to formerfanballplayers@gmail.com and you can be placed on a mailing list created specifically for the purpose of disseminating this information. Please do not respond regarding league management alternatives as that is not the focus of this group.

 

[atl3695]

I have a feeling google enters the FF realm full force next year. Too much money not to be a player.

Google isn't in the content game. They aggregate, sure, but they don't produce original IP.

If they can create something good or better and give it away for free (ie GMAIL, Google Maps ecetera) and drive ads and ad traffic, they'll do that though.I concur they won't dip their toes in here but I don't think it'd surprise me if they did, if they thought they could drive ad content.

Fantasy football leagues would seem perfect for google. They would instantly have millions of people who spend many hours a year on the fantasy site. Thats a lot of ads as some people spend hours WEEKLY checking news, managing, llineups, putting in free agent bids, etc. The continuous navigation through the site would allow for multiple ad impressions. Fantasy football is one of the most popular features of yahoo and it is just a matter of time before Google steps in.

That's not Google's business model. They already make tons of money serving ads on all the existing fantasy football sites. Yahoo! has an entire staff of app developers, QA folks, editors, writers, web designers, database managers, etc...to manage a subscription and advertising fantasy business with its own P&L. Google has no interest in that kind of thing. Particularly now given their current scale. There's ZERO chance they could start a fantasy football business and come close to matching their corporate margins, and the incremental revenue would be a drop in the bucket for them.

Funny you should say it doesnt fit Google's business model. Focusing on the incremental revenue is missing the big picture. Google produces their own things such as gmail, google earth, google maps, and google voice. Running a fantasy site is much simpler than any of these. Google could contract out the news and articles portion no problem. Even a large news org. like ESPN gets the fantasy players news on their site from Rotowire. It would be worth it for Google if they could create the site to where it is optimal with google chrome and gets more people to download a google mobile app (mobile ads are a fast growing segment). Everyone playing would need a Google account where Google could push their other products. Google would gladly run the business at a small loss if it could get millions of people to have Google more integrated in their lives. If Google created a top notch site (cant see why they couldnt) and gave it away for FREE, they could get a huge share of the market in no time at all.

 

[Schirmdog]

As a member of fanball who needs to move can people rank the sites that would be best to move to as well as the pricing? I am also involved in a league in yahoo (free but limited for dynasty) and CBS (very expensive). Any advice on where to go would be greatly appreciated. So far I have seen the following sites mentioned and both will move your league history.

MFL - 89.95

RTS - 89.95

 

[austinke]

both MFL and RTS are offering free leagues to fanball converts in 2011.

 

[Jason Wood]

Funny you should say it doesnt fit Google's business model. Focusing on the incremental revenue is missing the big picture. Google produces their own things such as gmail, google earth, google maps, and google voice. Running a fantasy site is much simpler than any of these. Google could contract out the news and articles portion no problem. Even a large news org. like ESPN gets the fantasy players news on their site from Rotowire. It would be worth it for Google if they could create the site to where it is optimal with google chrome and gets more people to download a google mobile app (mobile ads are a fast growing segment). Everyone playing would need a Google account where Google could push their other products. Google would gladly run the business at a small loss if it could get millions of people to have Google more integrated in their lives. If Google created a top notch site (cant see why they couldnt) and gave it away for FREE, they could get a huge share of the market in no time at all.

That's aggregation and portal...which gets back to my original point, Google isn't in the content creation business. We're in the content creation business, as was Fanball. The OP was posing Google as a competitive threat to the content business, and its' not, even in your scenario. What you're talking about is similar to Google Finance (or Yahoo! Finance) which aggregates data from other creators and leverages it. That would be awesome to see, because it would only serve to help those who create great content.

 

[atl3695]

That's aggregation and portal...which gets back to my original point, Google isn't in the content creation business. We're in the content creation business, as was Fanball. The OP was posing Google as a competitive threat to the content business, and its' not, even in your scenario. What you're talking about is similar to Google Finance (or Yahoo! Finance) which aggregates data from other creators and leverages it. That would be awesome to see, because it would only serve to help those who create great content.

Seems we were talking about two different things as I was speaking from the point of a league manager service rather than producing the actual informational content. A nice, free league manager service with news, analysis, etc. provided from the best of other sources would be great for fantasy football while expanding Google's reach. I agree that a FootballGuys type informational site is not in Google's wheelhouse.

 

[Maroney=Speed]

Any more news?

 

[Johnny Rock]

Are they really shutting down or what?

 

[Keith R]

Are they really shutting down or what?

It's true. They have announced it and it is on their main page.

 

[Joe Bryant]

This may be good news to some. It looks like some of Fanball's games have been sold to CDM Sports...

Saint Louis, MO - March 10, 2011 - RG Ventures, LLC announced today that it has completed its purchase of various assets from Liberty Sports Interactive, Inc. ("Fanball") which includes all of the rights to a suite of Fantasy Challenge and Draft and Play games. John Brison and Charlie Wiegert, two of the original founders of CDM Fantasy Sports, and a group of former employees and industry veterans will operate the games for RG Ventures under the trade name "CDM Sports" beginning immediately.

The Company's suite of games will include the legendary fantasy baseball Diamond Challenge®, Football Challenge, Draft and Play Baseball, Draft and Play Football, and Fantasy Cup. The Company will begin taking registrations for its fantasy baseball games within a few days. The Company's portfolio of challenge games will be extensive in the future and will likely include fantasy auto racing, and golf games.

I don't have any inside info on this but if true, it'd definitely be good news. Charlie Wiegert is a good guy and will do well I'm sure with the games.J

 

[Yellow Line is Unoffcial]

This may be good news to some. It looks like some of Fanball's games have been sold to CDM Sports...

Saint Louis, MO - March 10, 2011 - RG Ventures, LLC announced today that it has completed its purchase of various assets from Liberty Sports Interactive, Inc. ("Fanball") which includes all of the rights to a suite of Fantasy Challenge and Draft and Play games. John Brison and Charlie Wiegert, two of the original founders of CDM Fantasy Sports, and a group of former employees and industry veterans will operate the games for RG Ventures under the trade name "CDM Sports" beginning immediately.

The Company's suite of games will include the legendary fantasy baseball Diamond Challenge®, Football Challenge, Draft and Play Baseball, Draft and Play Football, and Fantasy Cup. The Company will begin taking registrations for its fantasy baseball games within a few days. The Company's portfolio of challenge games will be extensive in the future and will likely include fantasy auto racing, and golf games.

I don't have any inside info on this but if true, it'd definitely be good news. Charlie Wiegert is a good guy and will do well I'm sure with the games.J

CDM Diamond Challange is up. I'm in it.

 

[cobalt_27]

Yeah, I'll wait and see. Given that Paul Charchian (another one of these insider "good guys") ran Fanball into the ground, I'll take a pass for now, as another Fanball native, Weigart, takes an opportunistic tumble into the entirely dysfunctional suite of Fanball offerings.

Good luck to those guys. Their days likely are finished, but hopefully they gain some good experience in resuscitating a corpse.

 

[austinke]

Given that Paul Charchian (another one of these insider "good guys") ran Fanball into the ground...

The above statement is nothing close to the truth. Please, please, please know facts before you post something so blatantly false in a public forum like this - that's how ugly rumors get started. Paul Charchian(as well as a lot of the other original members of Fanball's team) were long, long gone from Fanball before their recent problems started - I believe his affiliation with Fanball ended in 2007.To reiterate, he had _nothing_ to do with any of the recent Fanball problems. Stating he did in a public forum like this doesn't do anyone any service.

 

[RTSportsDude]

FYI...

RealTime Fantasy Sports Acquires Fanball's Commissioner League Assets

St. Louis, MO, March 30, 2011 --(PR.com)-- RealTime Fantasy Sports Inc. ("RTSports") announced today that it has purchased from Liberty Sports Interactive, Inc. ("Fanball") its MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA fantasy commissioner league assets.

"We are extremely proud to be the new home of Fanball's commissioner leagues," said Mark Hanna, President of RTSports. "The leagues will have all their data -- including all league history -- kept completely intact when they move to RTSports.com. We will strive to provide the same great product that the Fanball users have become accustomed to over the years." Hanna stated that Fanball users will be allowed to access and modify their leagues as usual on Fanball's website up until the time they are transferred to RTSports, sometime in May. Fanball's users will be alerted of the move ahead of time.

This is the third asset acquisition for RTSports, which acquired Fantasy City Sports in 2009 and Web League Commissioner last year.

"RealTime Fantasy Sports is a perfect home for the Fanball commissioner leagues," said Jim Enright, Vice President of Fanball. "Their technology, expertise and ability to innovate quickly will produce a seamless transition for these valued commissioner customers."

RTSports, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., is a top fantasy football provider. The 2011 football season will be the 17th year RTSports has provided fantasy commissioner services. RTSports also has pay-to-play games, unique content, extensive player notes, video updates, free draft guide, mock drafting tools and more.

 

[tater22]

Just received an email from Fanball for one of the league's I play in. Pretty much says the same as what RTSportsDude posted above, but it also states that my league gets to play the next fantasy season (whether it be 2011 or 2012) for free. Very nice...

Thanks RTS!