For the longest time, Yahoo! Fantasy Sports charged for its Stat Tracker. This little feature sucked you in during Week 1 of your fantasy football season. Week 1 was free, but if you wanted that hit for the rest of the season, you would have to pay Yahoo! a measly $10. While Yahoo! Fantasy Football was “free,” I knew very few players that actually paid nothing to the site. Alternatively, leagues could sign up for a Fantasy Football Plus account for $125, which gave every team member Stat Tracker, plus a few other minor bells and whistles. But, things are different now, and as a result of its actions, it is possible that Yahoo! may have destroyed the paid fantasy commissioner market.

For the 2009 fantasy football season, Yahoo! made Stat Tracker available for free. In addition, Free Agent Acquisition Budgets became available for use on the waiver wire. Both of these features were previously premium options. The biggest change was that Fantasy Football Plus was now only $30, which mainly covered the costs of the championship trophy and the draft guides that it provided its players. For the 2010 fantasy baseball season, Yahoo! has gone one step further and got rid of the Plus package all together, made Stat Tracker free, and added auction drafts to the site. It is a much better product than the previous version.

In other words, the reasons that would often cause fantasy leagues to want to move to a “better” paid fantasy commissioner site are quickly going away. Why would you pay $75 to $175 (or more) for a commissioner service when your league can get almost all of the features you need out of Yahoo?

In the past, with its clean interfaces, Yahoo! was great for new leagues or leagues looking to keep it simple and casual. Leagues would normally graduate from Yahoo! to a much more premium service. But now, with these premium features, Yahoo! is speaking to the experienced leagues that want a little more intense fantasy experience.

ESPN Fantasy helped put fantasy down this very free path over the last few years as it made has made a big push, leading by making fantasy football and fantasy baseball free and adding premium options for free. Now, it appears Yahoo! is slowly, but surely, following suit. Yahoo! is the clear leader in the fantasy sports market, so when it shifts strategy, everyone should take note. The emphasis on a free, ad-supported revenue model by the Top two fantasy sites is not a good sign for the paid guys.

Does this mean paid commissioner products are going to completely disappear and suffer? No, I don’t believe that for a second. According to Kevin Austin of MyFantasyLeague, “We still grew at a very good clip this year over last, in spite of Yahoo and ESPN both having increasingly good, free products, and in spite of the country-wide economic situation.” Many of the leagues that the paid commissioner services cater to have special or unique rules that sites like MyFantasyLeague cater too. The ability for this to be a continuing trend is what worries me most.

What is your take? Do you think Yahoo!’s completely free move will hurt paid commissioner services?