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A fantasy sports journeyman ponders retirement
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If you're a fantasy sports nut like me you may have noticed yet another lawsuit come down earlier this week that could have a huge impact on the Fantasy Sports industry as a whole. Yahoo! vs. the NFLPA is the third installment in an ongoing battle for player name and stat rights. For a little more detail on the lawsuit itself check out Sports Examiner Paula Duffy's great write up here.
Fantasy Sports is big business. According to a recent study by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA.org) more than $800 Million was spent on fantasy sports products and services in 2007 alone. 27.1 million American's play fantasy sports each year, with the majority playing Fantasy Football (82% or 22.2 million).
A precedent has already been set with regards to who owns player names and stats. In 2006 CDM, a fantasy sports company, filed suit against Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) claiming that "right of publicity" laws do not apply to fantasy sports statistics usage and could ultimately lead to the MLBAM having a monopoly if they were allowed to limit the number of companies that can use Major League Baseball stats and player names. CDM not only won this case but all counter claims made by MLBAM and the Major League Baseball Player's Association were dismissed and their appeals which reached the Supreme Court in June of 2008 were also denied.
Fast forward to 2009 where CBS and now Yahoo! battle the NFL Player's Association over those same name and statistic rights. CBS has won a ruling in their case against the NFLPA that is currently awaiting appeal. Yahoo! entering the fray could possibly put an end to these lawsuits and decide once and for all what is public domain.
I started playing fantasy sports in high school some 15+ years ago. I was commissioner of an 8 team NBA league that I ran on paper. Since the stats only came out weekly (the Tuesday edition of the USA Today had a weekly rundown of every NBA boxscore from the previous week) our league was always a week behind. I don't think I'd ever been so excited for Tuesday's in my life; I'd get the USA Today Sports section and tally all the player stats one by one, updating head-to-head matchups and standings. It was the best four hours of my week.
As time went by I got interested in other things, music, beer, girls. It seems my love of stats and fantasy sports would be just a minor footnote in the mediocre book of my life. I went to college, listened to music, drank beer and met girls. I still loved watching sports on TV but dedicating endless hours of my life to running a fantasy sports league was no longer appealing. Having to do all of that drunk could only be harder.
Than came the internet. Many many years ago I was invited to join a fantasy football league on Yahoo!, There Ain't No Stop In US. I was reluctant at first, remembering those countless hours adding up stats, configuring schedules, and updating standings. But wait, the internet does it all for you! From that point on fantasy sports was no longer a footnote but an obsession. The Mighty Lincolns were born (named for an obscure college nick name Shlink Lincoln) and thus a long career of mediocre fantasy play began. Fantasy football, baseball, basketball, golf, hockey, racing.......................I did it all. And all very average at best.
Should CBS and Yahoo! win their suits not much will change for me. I will still be free to choose what fantasy leagues I would like to join, and on what sites. I'll still check my fantasy teams on an almost daily basis and won't have to bother opening the Sports page of my local newspaper.
However, a win by the NFLPA could shake up the fantasy sports industry as we know it. The NFL, already known for squashing competition (see NFL Sunday Ticket and EA Madden Football) would not do the fantasy sports industry any favors should the courts find they infact own their players names and statistics. History has shown they would most likely enter into an exclusive contract with a fantasy sports entity to be the sole provider of NFL Fantasy Football. Not only could the NFL and the "chosen site" charge whatever they wanted to play their game, but you could probably asume the "chosen site" would be ESPN (as the other two of the big three fantasy sports sites have already filed suit). I can't think of anything that would suck more.
Other sports leagues would follow, and we'd have to join different sites for different sports. MLB would be soley on MLB.com and Yahoo! NBA.com and CBS would have fantasy NBA, etc. It would be too much work having to track multiple teams on multiple sites. It's hard enough managing multiple teams on one site. Newspapers would be relevant again as commissioners scramble to take the power back the old fashion way, on paper.
It would be the final fantasy sports footnote for me. I would officially retire. I would put the Mighty Lincolns franchise up for sale, drop my keepers to waivers and take my imaginary ball and go home. Every August rumors would circulate that the Mighty
In my newly found spare time I would build a time machine.
