While almost every entity in sports and entertainment continues to try and find ways to make the digital environment financially viable (and few have succeeded thus far), the one area that continues to be viable and lucrative, both for programmers and those looking to get into the sports field, is the fantasy gaming side.Media Post, is the fantasy fotball site FleaFlicker, which has been acquired by AOL.FleaFlicker provided a safe entry point by providing semi-unique content and the ability to draw eyeballs, especially in the very elusive male demo. The acquisition was not expensive and fit in the digital strategy of the online giant, who timed the announcement to run prior to this weekend's NFL Draft. Is FleaFlicker that different from many of the fantasy sites out ther.? Probably not. But the developers found the key ways to build an efficient network, aggregate content and spin their property differently than the thousands of other sites out there, and made themselves a good investment.nthony Reiber of Newsday took a look at some of the issues local new York baseball athletes are having with their individual sites. Many athletes, like Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens, have effectively used their sites to provide news and unique content to their fans and the media. However the time and effort for an athlete to put into developing and running a unique site remains very ineffective on a daily basis, and the best sites on athletes remain fan sites and those run by large organizations. Agents and athletes have yet to find ways to make most individual sites financially viable. That being said, for the job seeker looking to get into the market there remains a huge void to fill in finding ways to make sites for individual athletes cash effective. Its all a matter of investing time and effort to driving eyeballs with unique content. Just ask the guys at FleaFlicker on how they did it for AOL.
On to some other topics…kudos again go to the New Jersey Nets and their PR guy Barry Baum, for finding a way to create a non-event into a promotable property. The Nets this week announced a sponsorship for their non-playoff schedule, sponsored by T-Mobile. Once again Brett Yormark found a hole that teams had never filled, and by creating ways to keep season subscribers, fans and sponsors engaged in a time where basketball has its biggest presence, the playoffs and the run to the NBA Draft, actually makes great sense. It is a program which other non-playoff markets, encouraged by the NBA, have tried and failed to take advantage of in the past, as many teams worried about the negative focus fans and business partners would put on not making the playoffs. However the Nets chose to look at the macro success of the sport and build off that and into the future, with no real downside. Smart move, one that should be copied by any non-playoff team…nice story in the Miami Herald this week on tennis player James Blake following through on his loss of a be. to golfer Paula Creamer…Blake, with the support of his folks at Nike, used a pink bag during this week's Pro Am at Turnberry Isle to make good after losing to Creamer in a few rounds in California last December…hopefully the bag gets its way to the auction block for charity after he is done…also a really solid analysis of the UFC was offered up b. Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Steve Brunt this week, showing both the appeal, and the issues with the sport of MMA...worth a read for all those young folks trying to grasp the sport which is still in its infancy and find out if there are some job opportunities out there…lastly, best of luck t. th. United National Football League, which picked the right time (draft week) to announce its launc. as a minor league to the NFL.If it works it will get lots of folks jobs in sales, marketing, PR and branding. Howeve. the event business is expensive, and as the well funded groups like the UFL and AAFL have recently found out. the market between the NFL and college football (which is the development league for the NFL), not to mention the CFL and the AFL, remains almost closed.
