CBSSports.com making fantasy sports news, formerly part of a premium service, available to all

[clevfan]

Thu, Jun. 12, 2008

CBSSports.com frees up fantasy sports news

BY BRIDGET CAREY
MIAMI HERALD

In an attempt to attract a larger piece of the fantasy sports fanbase, CBSSports.com is opening all of its fantasy sports news and information content to the public for free.

Fantasy sports services -- which allow fans to create and manage teams and leagues based on real-life players and their statistics -- generate about $500 million a year in fees and advertising revenue, according to a study from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

Fort Lauderdale-based CBSSports.com is one of the more popular destinations for fantasy sports players, as are Yahoo! and ESPN.

CBSSports.com charges $149.95 for its service that allows users to manage a league, and fantasy news and statistics were previously included as part of that subscription. Now, users need not be subscribers to the ''Commissioner'' level service to access the information.

Jason Kint, senior vice president and general manager of CBSSports.com and CBSNews.com, said the move is to get more fantasy players to use CBSSports as a source of content, even if they play fantasy sports on another site.

It is using baseball season as a testing ground before the start of the football season, for which fantasy play is more popular.

''It develops a relationship with those users so over time they can test out our fantasy game service,'' Kint said.

Fantasy baseball fans wanting statistics on Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez, for example, could always get information for free from several smaller fantasy websites.

But the announcement by CBSSports.com marks the first time a large fantasy sports provider has made formerly premium content available to anyone.

''The challenge in this industry is to determine what to give away free and what to charge for,'' said Jeff Thomas, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and chief executive of fantasy site SportsBuff.com.

''You're seeing a lot more information coming out from behind the wall,'' Thomas said. ``It's going to be more and more difficult for the subscription-based websites to survive in the next couple of years.''

By offering greater accessibility to content, CBSSports.com is betting that site traffic and advertising revenue will increase.

''If you have a good enough stream of revenue from advertisers and sponsors, it can actually replace or be higher than anything you could get from selling this information,'' Thomas said.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision last week determined that fantasy sites no longer have to pay for licenses to use names and statistics from major sports leagues or players. The ruling removes a hurdle to getting into the fantasy sports industry and may result in more competition among fantasy service providers.

CBSSports.com declined to comment on the Supreme Court decision.

But if there is more competition, content becomes all the more important in securing fantasy fans for the sites.

Thomas, whose site was already offering its news for free, said he wasn't worried about CBSSport.com's opening up its information.

''The small sites really have a niche following,'' Thomas said. ``I think they'll survive and they'll be fine. More and more as the industry goes in this direction of free information, it certainly will impact the industry over time.''