Fantasy Football 2009 Stats & Thoughts

Posted by Darren on Aug 2, 2009 • (Comments)

My Sundays during the NFL Football season go something like this:  wake up and read the football injury reports as well, as, perform keyword searches on the hometown newspaper websites of my key players to make sure that I’m fairly certain that they are going to start.  Sunday mid-day – lock in rosters for the head to head match up in my various leagues.  Around 1:30pm, I’m glued in front of the televisions with my laptop open to both of my leagues and my iPhone is buzzing with text messages from team owners from my leagues.  It’s captivating and fun – and best of all – my wife likes football too, so I don’t need an excuse to participate.

The 2009 Fantasy Football conversations have begun in both of my leagues and I’m starting to think about my draft strategy and which data/draft sources I’m going to subscribe to this year.  Per this post, last year I spent over $60.00 subscribing to statistics and in one league, I finished 5th (out of 10) which included missing the playoffs, and in the other, I finished 3rd (out of 12), so neither league did I win.

I continue to think there is a big opportunity around fantasy sports in general and in this case, statistics.  In Week 1 of last year, I was playing around with a project called GoalLine.tv but never got around to updating it because I just didn’t have the time.  I tried to take all of the quantitative statistics around all of the games and visualize them- which was the purpose of GoalLine.tv.

There seems to be three camps of content creation around the fantasy sports space:

  1. User Generated:  Sites like BleacherReports and FanIQ
  2. Professional:  Sites like ESPN, Yahoo!, CBS Sports
  3. Hybrid:  Sites like FFtoday and FantasyPlayers

I do not think one camp is better than another, but it’s interesting to see the landscape unfold and weed itself out.  I think the User Generated sites have a big opportunity if they can amass enough players and use the wisdom of the crowds to inform predictions.  One could argue that the wisdom of the crowd is stronger than one professional analyst.

From an investor point of view, I like fantasy sports for the following reasons:

  • Subscription models
  • Application of game theory
  • Gaining a leg-up generally means the purchase of additional research or consumption of additional content
  • Inherently social nature of the game
  • Lean forward game

I’m psyched for this season and looking forward to hearing any recommendations anyone has on different stat packages and websites I should subscribe to.

Tagged as , , , , , + Categorized as Internet & Web X.0, Media & Entertainment
  • mjsenno
    Darren, Great column, didn't realize you were a big fantasy fan. I'm on board about the biz opportunity because it's such an engaged, passionate audience with a high willingness to pay for online content. Almost a desire to pay. Though the market is mature, I see opportunity in the research area, as well, and possibly in a different angle on the games.

    I love your mention of game theory. Actually pitched an online strategy game that was premised on game theory with a friend, but was always more intrigued with its application as a fantasy sports decision tool to help get the edge on the competition. If done well, would someone pay for it - I have no doubt. Your other points are well taken, its social, its engaging, and the demand is high. Fantasy sports is a great play for a linear content provider because they can move viewers from the TV to online to mobile draw more viewers through viral interest and generate revenue not suceptible to advertising risk.
  • clouvi
    Ha, every time I think of a FF moneymaker I think DH would be into this. I think there are a few predicitors that get left out....not sure how to monetize those, but love to talk about it sometime. Good luck w/ the season. Watch for Pierre Thomas as a sleeper ;).
  • Darren - Have you checked out www.sportsdatahub.com? I am biased but recommend a subscription with us. We are the only place for interactive stats. We have tools for player, coach, venue stats, projections, and roster in our subscription package. We also have lots of expert analysis from a unique perspective.
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