From the founders of Hubdub, comes a new fantasy sports site FanDuel, which is geared around daily head-to-head fantasy games. Hubdub is an interactive site where users predict the news, so fantasy sports is a good tangent for the company.

To play FanDuel, fantasy players select the players that they think will score the most fantasy points for that day. At this time, only fantasy football and fantasy baseball are supported, but expect that to change if FanDuel grows. Currently, players can play for free, but the game’s big allure is the ability to play for cash prizes, with players able to enter a cash league for as little $5. For each $5 entry fee, a player can win a $9 prize. He who scores the most points wins the game and gets paid instantly. If you sign-up and add funds right now, FanDuel will also give you an additional $10 bonus.

Short-term fantasy leagues are definitely a growing market, as evidenced by the recent launches of SnapDraft and Instant Arena. FanDuel is keeping their game simple by focusing on head-to-head match-ups, and making game play very straightforward.

Congratulations to Hubdub with the launch of FanDuel, and good luck with the launch.

Additional Coverage:

• News Betting Site Hubdub Launches U.S. Fantasy Sports Games (PaidContent)
• Brand New Fantasy Sports Game – brought to you by the Hubdub Team! (Hubdub)

Last week, in my article MySportsBroker Launches Another Fantasy Sports Stock Market Game, Pro Sports Exchange, I erroneously wrote that Pro Sports Exchange (PSX) is a fantasy stock market for trading athletes. PSX is actually a fantasy stock market where fantasy players manage a portfolio of sports teams, and not athletes.

As I said earlier, while fantasy stock markets sound like good ideas, none of them have transcended into the fantasy mainstream. When I asked Denise Eckert, PSX’s Vice President for IT Marketing, why will PSX’s stock portfolio game will succeed, while many have failed with similar concepts, she replied, “It’s more realistic and more interactive. We believe that players are ready for a new game.”

I am now more convinced than ever this will be a game that can’t find the broad audience it craves.

Good luck to PSX as it fights for fantasy success.

After running a successful test in Chicago, ESPN announced that it will be launching new local sports sites in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas. In just three months, ESPN Chicagohas surpassed the Chicago Tribune’s Sports section as the top sports section in Chicago. Three months, that is all it took. That has to be even faster than ESPN had anticipated.

While this may not necessary mean too much for fantasy, it is interesting to note on the ESPN Chicago landing page, fantasy is no where to be seen. I find that interesting since local sports coverage is probably one of the best sources of information about fantasy players. Not even a “Hot Local Fantasy Tip” box. Then again, the emphasis is on local news, and not fantasy.

On a mostly unrelated note, does anyone find the box to the Huffington Post‘s Chicago-related news out of place? I am just surprised it is not a link to news reports from WLS-7, ABC’s Chicago affiliate.

Additional Coverage:

• ESPN Launching More Local Sports Sites: NYC, LA, Dallas Next (DIS) – Business Insider
• Across U.S., ESPN Aims to Be the Home Team (New York Times)
• ESPN.com vs Local Newspaper Sports (DanShanoff.com)

You have to appreciate the British approach to advertising–it gets your attention. As you might be able to determine from the woman on the left, she is promoting the Daily Star’s Fantasy Football game, which is now open for sign-ups.

This time of year, while most fantasy football players are gearing up for the upcoming NFL season, there are a few fantasy football players that are gearing up for the start of the English Premier League, and the launch of a different kind of fantasy football.

The Daily Star game offers a top prize of £50,000, ($82,600) with three teams costing £10 ($16.50). It is a simple salary cap game where you pick a starting roster of 11 players utilizing a £100M salary cap. Score points as players contribute to their teams. If they play well, you do well. They end up riding the pine, you suffer. Pretty simple.

English Premier League Fantasy Football is growing and you can even find up-to-the-minute soccer player news on sites like RotoWire these days. It is growing market, and possibly the next great fantasy sport.

Additional Coverage:

• http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/89617/FANTASY-FOOTBALL-IS-BACK-/

Rotowire, which is based in Madison, Wisconsin, recently received some great coverage from Madison’s WKOW-27, an ABC affiliate. In a two-minute piece about the upcoming fantasy football, Rotowire and its president Peter Schoenke were featured interviewed on two-minute piece about the upcoming fantasy football season. Check out the embedded video clip:

You cannot buy that kind of coverage. Congratulations to Peter and the whole RotoWire team on the press!

It is a couple of days into the offer, but if you tune your DirecTV boxes to channels 720 through 749, you will be able to enjoy a free preview of MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV through July 22nd. In case you are unfamiliar with MLB Extra Innings, its the ability to watch about 80 out-of-market baseball games on DirecTV.

If you like watching baseball than you know what to do with, or like obsessing over your fantasy baseball team, then you might want to check it out. It is hard to argue with this offer.

MySportsBroker is a launching the Pro Sports Exchange (PSX) for those fantasy players who want to trade athletes like stock. PSX is a game where you buy and sell athletes like stock, whowever ends up with the largest sports portfolio is the winner. Currently, fantasy players are able to add players to their sports portfolios from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and English Premier League (EPL).

A fantasy sports stock market is an idea that has been around for a while. I first saw a similar game years ago on Wall Street Sports, and this idea has been tried most recently by OneSeason, RotoHog, and ProTrade. RotoHog is now much more focused on developing fantasy games for a slew of media partners, while ProTrade’s parent company has re-branded itself as Citizen Sports and is focused on making games in the Facebook and social networking arena.

MySportsBroker also plans a mobile version of the PSX game, and plans to use the trademarked name SportsBerry or MySportsBerry. MySportsBroker is currently looking for a telecom partner to work with them to release a SportsBerry sports specific smartphone. Once again, not an original idea, as a few years ESPN Mobile was a tragic failure.

Fantasy sports stock markets are one of those ideas that everyone likes on the surface and thinks is a good idea. Despite the various incarnations of this genre of fantasy sports, it still has not taken off as a widely-popula fantasy sport.

I am interested to see what is unique about PSX and the MySportsBroker team that will allow this game to transcend into the fantasy mainstream. Perhaps the problem is just in the marketing and distribution. My fear is that it will be yet another good idea that is unable to find an audience.

Good luck to the PSX team!

Additional Coverage

• MySportsBroker Launches Unique Fantasy Sports Game

Earlier this week, I reported how Bleacher Report had censored an article about Bleacher Report. Last night I received an email from Dave Morrison at Bleacher Report, and he reported that the article had been re-posted. You can now find Don Fish’s article, “CBSSports.com Burns Bleacher Report Applicants For NFL Correspondents” happily posted on Bleacher Report.

Kudos to Bleacher Report for reversing course, and posting the article online. While Bleacher Report has content deals with CBSSports.com and FOX Sports, the thousands of users generating content are its most important customers, and the ones that it needs to keep happy. If Bleacher Report were to get a reputation for censoring its users whenever it did not agree with them, that would be detrimental to the site’s long-term health and viability.

FLW’s FantasyFishing.com is arguably one of the most successful non-traditional fantasy sports game out there, and part of its success is its ability to market its winners. Each winner has a story, and FantasyFishing.com has made to sure to let as many people as possible know about these stories. Check out these press releases on two recent winners:

Bad Luck Streak Ends With $100,000 Fantasy Fishing Miracle This article could also have been called “54-year-old Unemployed Man Recovering from Open Heart Surgery Wins Big While Fantasy Fishing.” Here is a story of Eugene Sullivan from Syracuse, NY who has been having a hard time, and just got a huge lifeline. This is just stuff you cannot make up.

Atlanta Reels in First $100,000 Fantasy Fishing Prize Winner as Georgia Prepares to Host $2.5 Million Forrest Wood Cup in 2010 A bass fishing enthusiast wins big playing fantasy fishing. Oddly enough, he is one of the few fantasy fishing winners who is an actual bass fisher.

What is the most important is that these are real people, and they have stories. By bringing the game down to a relatable human level, FantasyFishing.com makes the game appeal to more people.

If you were not able to tell from the previous article, it is a bit of a slow fantasy news day. I looked at all my usual (and a few unusual) places for information, knocked on doors, and just was not feeling it. But, there is good news, I did find a few links that merited a few honestly, it is just a bit of a slow fantasy news days.

Fantasy Football Is Adult Christmas and the Draft Is Like New Year’s Eve Michael Deszo breaks down why this time of the year is his favorite season, and what steps you need to take to get ready for the fantasy season. There are a few good tips in there (do a mock draft), and a few non-traditional ones (be the Alpha Dog, whatever that means).

Fantasy Football: My Most Fulfilling and Consistent Relationship For some, fantasy football is that one constant in their lives that never changes. Year, after year, fantasy football is there providing thrills and disappointments, but mostly, moments of Joy. Michael McDonald contemplates the actuality in his and provides the steps that you need to develop this kind of healthy relationship in your life.

Verizon Adding Widgets, Web Video To Fios TV If you are one the people lucky enough to have Verizon FiOS and happen to play fantasy sports on ESPN, you will now be able to check out how your fantasy team is doing without living your couch or opening up your laptop. Verizon FiOS is adding the capability to view numerous widgets, such as the ESPN Fantasy Widgets, or probably more popular ones like Facebook.

That is all for now, but please check back often for more news.