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If you'll be whiling away work hours on fantasy football this fall, you have a difficult pre-season decision to make: choosing which site will host your team.
Nearly 5 million Americans per month hit the fantasy pages of three leading sports sites last football season. Yahoo Sports alone had 3 million players and expects more of the same this year.
"There's a lot of competition between the fantasy sites," said Greg Ambrosius, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (yes, it does exist). "Pricing grabs people's attention, and a lot of features are standard, but you need to consider the entire package."
Fantasy football allows regular people – overwhelmingly male college and office types – to draft teams of their favorite players from across the National Football League and score points based on the performance of those players in games each week.
Participants act as coaches and general managers, setting weekly lineups; proposing, accepting and rejecting trades; signing free agents; and competing against other teams in the league. The websites do all of the math, add up scores, create schedules, manage the league draft and even allow team managers to interact on message boards.
The growing popularity of fantasy football is clear, and with so many leagues and sites to pick from, Wired News looked at last season's most popular offerings to help fantasy coaches decide where to play. From pricey and competitive to cheap and fun, there's a selection for every coach. But don't wait too long: The NFL season kicks off Sept. 9.
Now entering its 10th year of fantasy football, ESPN Fantasy Games has unleashed a barrage of content on fans. Not only does it offer the games, but there are also feature articles in ESPN The Magazine, weekly analysis on the SportsCenter television show (last week, it examined top fantasy picks for each position), radio coverage, a pay-per-view special, online shows and columns throughout the season from the station's football and fantasy analysts.
ESPN went overboard to deliver everything a fantasy geek could want, for a price. One team costs $30, or participants can become commissioner and purchase a league of up to 20 teams for $100, have friends chip in and set their own rules and scoring systems. The pay-per-view television special, which aired Aug. 28, was another $20.
Yahoo Sports' free offering is good, especially for those players new to fantasy games. Yahoo gets players hooked on fantasy with teams and leagues available at no cost. Participants also get expert analysis from Yahoo "gurus." The gurus' pedigrees can be questionable, as in the case of guru Mike Harmon, who previously worked at an erectile dysfunction clinic. However, they are prolific and offer keen insights from their years of fantasy geekdom.
Coaches looking for more options can purchase an advanced team or league, for $25 and $125 respectively, where they can set everything from the draft rules to scoring systems, running a league of up to 20 teams. Yahoo also offers add-ons like Stat-Tracker for $10, which gives coaches real-time updates on all fantasy stats. Even while watching Sunday games at the bar, they can keep up by getting the info wirelessly ($4).
Participants who've dominated work leagues over the years might consider CBS SportsLine's Fantasy Football Double Diamond League, for $500. Experts play against just 11 other teams, and the payoff could be huge, with a prize of $3,500 for each league winner. There are also competitive teams available at $40, $100 and $250.
Cost-conscious coaches can also have a team for as little as $15, and leagues can be had for $150, allowing for an unlimited number of teams and rule options. For their insider's guide, SportsLine teamed up with NFL.com, offering e-mail newsletters from NFL analysts and up-to-the-minute scoring updates "straight from NFL stadiums."
"We're the biggest pay service by far," said Larry Wahl, spokesman for CBS SportsLine.com. That was certainly the case last year, when 1.3 million players paid to play, tripling second-place ESPN.com's numbers. That speaks volumes for the site, which this year offers teams in various price ranges and competition levels.
If you're not content to follow the crowds to these sites, a multitude of other sites host fantasy football teams and leagues. Console-game staple EA Sports now offers its own fantasy football games, a first for the company, as do SportingNews.com, SportsIllustrated.com and others.
Control freaks can even buy software to run their own leagues from Fantasy Football League Manager.
Or, if you'd rather see the competition face-to-face and maybe a few models as well, men's magazine FHM will sponsor a live fantasy draft at Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut on Sept. 11. Entry fees are $999 per team, and proceeds benefit the Pat Tillman Memorial Fund.
