What is easily the largest prize for any fantasy horse racing game, Derby Dreamer has unleashed its game that allows fantasy players to create fantasy stables that could be worth $10,000 a month. For an entry fee of $12 per stable, fantasy players select 18 horses and five jockeys to ride for their stable. Then, stables accumulate points depending on how well their jockeys and horses perform. The stable with the most points each month wins $10,000. As an added bonus for March, the monthly winner will receive two box seat tickets for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks in May. Each stable is good for a year entry, so that

From a game play perspective, each month the slate is wiped clean, and everyone has an equal shot at competing for the monthly $10,000 prize. In other words, fantasy players get to compete in 12 separate contests for $10,000. I really like this because it should help limit the amount of stables that drop out throughout the season. Further, stables are able to seamlessly join the action since there is no “begin” or “end” of the season. Instead, you just start competing in the month that a fantasy player enters the competition.

With a top prize of $10,000, Derby Dreamer is likely to get a lot of attention for these prizes. Having a large prize brings in a certain amount of shock value and is likely to help drive sign-ups. For long-term viability, if Derby Dreamer is able to create a fun player experience, it may eventually be able to turn this a very profitable niche game.

From the look at the leaderboard right now, Derby Dreamer does not have a ton of sign-ups, so you might have good odds of winning in the next couple of months. If you like horse racing and/or large fantasy sports prizes, saddle up and head over to Derby Dreamer.

The concept of simulated fantasy games is new, but Yesteryear Fantasy Sports has put a new twist on the game. To play, draft a roster of historical players and play head-to-head like regular fantasy football game. However, for your players’ game statistics, YesterYear’s Fantasy Football’s system will randomly select real statistics from a three-year window of that player’s career. The game is free to play if you want an autodrafted team, or $3.99 if you would like to select your own team. Currently, YesterYear is hosting a challenge in which the top teams will get a chance to compete NFL greats like Mike Ditka (Da Bears!), Tony Dorsett and Dwight Clark.

I am not sure what I think about this game, since you know exactly how well your players will perform. The more I think about it, while in theory you will know, it is possible that a player will have all of his big games in one season or could have all of his bad games in a season. In other words, your players could still be total studs or duds, just like regular fantasy football.

Simulated games are not a new concept. YesterYear competes with other simulated games like WhatIfSports, which has been offering siumulated games for a number of years. Heck, simulated games go way back to the card and dice game with things like APBA Baseball and Strat-O-Matic. Personally, I am a fan of simulated games.

The best thing that YesterYear Fantasy Sports has done is framed this as a continuation of fantasy football season. In fact, it seems to avoid words likes “simulated,” as they imply something much geekier and less cool.

Good news is that a part of the proceeds go to the Gridiron Greats fund, which supports retired football players from when football players did not make mountains of money.

Additional Information

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/64861/
• YesterYear Fantasy Challenge Kicks Off New Season in Fantasy Sports (Press Release)

With the races that lead to the Kentucky Derby, WinStar Farms announced the launch of its Fantasy Derby contest. Fantasy players create a stable of 15 horses and earn points as the horses earn money in the run-up to the Kentucky Derby. The games runs from February 13 to April 17, which is when the run-up to the Kentucky Derby occurs.

The winner of the fantasy derby receives roundtrip airfare and accommodations for two to the 2010 Kentucky Derby plus tickets to the Kentucky Derby itself (you’ll have to bring your own floppy hat, though). The top ten players will receive prizes from WinStar. This fantasy game is not likely to have a ton of entries, so even if you are not a horse racing expert, you may be able to get yourself up to speed and win some cool prizes.

One of the coolest prizes I have ever seen for a fantasy game is the ability to name one of WinStar’s horses. WinStar Farm is farm for horse racing and thoroughbred horses. I like it when fantasy games provide prizes that are unique to their sport or to the company sponsoring the game.

Congratulations to WinStar Farms on its new game and good luck on its launch.

That’s Kerplookee, as in the sound a golf ball makes when it drops into the cup after a well-executed putt. Kerplookee is also a new fantasy golf site with a fantasy golf game. It’s a simple salary cap game where you get $20 million to spread across as many as ten golfers. Score points based on how well your golfers finish in the money.

Kerplookee has an interesting strategy for the start of its game. It started play in the first weekend of January, but those are practice rounds. The game officially starts on February 11. It allows for fantasy players to get used to the game before the start of the season. The downside is that players may drop-off before the season actually starts. The free game is broken into sessions that gives fantasy players a fresh start every few weeks. In addition, Kerplookee also has a pay fantasy game planned that will kick off with the Masters in April.

According to founder Chuck Fridinger, the site has signed up over 500 members since its launch in December and that over 96% of players are actively playing. With a few more promotion events planned, he expects to have a strong number of sign-ups by the time its season starts.

Congratulations to Kerplookee on its launch, and good luck to it as it navigates the fantasy waters.

Think you know how to pick stocks or just like investing based on the stock’s name? J.P. Morgan has a new Fantasy Fund Manager game for you! The premise is simple–build as big and successful a portfolio as possible. Make lots of fantasy money and end up winning real money, while learning a little bit about the market in the process.

J.P. Morgan is putting some significant muscle behind this year-long competition, with a top prize of £35,000 ($58,000), making it one of the larger free fantasy games on the market. There are additional cash prizes along with Amazon gift certificates and iPhones.

This is yet another example of a fantasy game being used to market to a different audience. The concept of fantasy games is so mainstream that it becomes an easy means to market your product.

While this is a United Kingdom based game, I find the idea of a fantasy fund manager game sort of funny in that wasn’t-treating-real-money-like-fantasy-money-what-got-us-into-this-economic-misery kind of way. Or, maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, if you are interested in, I recommend checking it out.

Additional Coverage
JPMorgan Fantasy Fund Manager competition: Choosing the right plays for better performance (FT Adviser)

By harnessing the real-time nature of Twitter, Fantasy TweetZone lets fantasy players know who the most talked about fantasy football players are at any given moment. Right now, Larry Johnson’s release and uncertain status is topping its chart, as it should be. Fantasy TweetZone is an advertising tie-in with Sprint’s ad campaign where it totals everything that is going on in its network; Fantasy TweetZone totals up everything fantasy football related on Twitter.

I love the concept of this site because it gives fantasy players easy access to which players have significant developing news. Monitoring this site on a regular basis may give fantasy players an edge when a no-name player emerges on the chart, indicating that something is happening with that player. Also, it allows fantasy players to see how others view the same athletes. For example, clicking on Marion Barber’s TweetZone page right now brings up a number of trades that fantasy players are considering for Marion Barber. If you are a Barber owner or lust after having him on your team, you can get a feel for what might be a fair trade offer for Barber.

Unfortunately, the site has a bit of noise in its relevancy, such as being unable to differentiate jokes about Michael Vick and Reggie Bush from real fantasy news. Also, the most popular players tend to be the most talked about players, creating additional noise. However, for a first edition of this tool, I think this is an acceptable noise level. Besides, who still does not enjoy a good Michael Vick joke these days?

This is an excellent use of Twitter. Federated Media, the company that launched the tool, has taken public domain data and analyzed it to bring value to fantasy players. Currently, the site is only monitoring fantasy football, but with the site branding just as Fantasy TweetZone, don’t be surprised if this gets expanded into other sports.

Well done!

Note: Ads for this site may or may not have run on this site a month ago when I had some ads up from an ad network. I never saw the ads myself, but allegedly they were running.

Fantasy sports know no borders, and today I will take you to Italy. Serie A Live is a fantasy soccer league focusing on the top Italian soccer league, the Serie A. The site is the brainchild of Serie A-lover Vince Cullotta and is one of the very first independent fantasy Serie A sites out there, with only Yahoo! and ESPN among the big fantasy sites playing in the Italian soccer market.

My favorite part is that Serie A Live has created a challenge for next season with its Serie A Champions League. The top 30 teams will compete in a champions league next year. This little nuance will keep players playing once they are out of the hunt for the top spot. Three months into the Serie A season, of the 219 players signed up, about 179 actively playing, which is an impressive percentage. In addition, the site also features live scoring, which is very high-end feature and keeps fantasy players regularly engaged.

A point about the internationalization of fantasy sports. Think back to about 1990 when the fantasy industry was full of little niche sites creeping up everywhere. Ultimately, those sites merged, emerged, failed, were acquired, and became part of the fantasy sites that we grow and love today. Well, for the rest of the world, it is 1990 all over. Except, this time around the new fantasy companies have the playbook from the past twenty years. There is no reason to make the same mistakes and to not do what you not works.

When I see a new site like Serie A Live investing in the features that are essential to running a successful game, like live scoring, and ways to innovate the game, it gets me excited. Cullotta is investing in making a top product. Once the market demand for fantasy Serie A grows (it will, just as fantasy EPL has grown), Serie A Live will be in a great position to capitalize and gain those new customers.

Congratulations to Vince on the site launch, and good luck with Serie A Live!

This just made me laugh. I love fantasy sports because you can have fun with just about anything. Fantasy SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) is for the legal buff or law student that takes an interest in the court system. This game allows users to act as the “Tenth Justice.” Surprisingly, the scoring for Fantasy SCOTUS is very intuitative and natural. Players need to determine how the court will side on a particular case and which justices will vote which way. Score points according to how close you are to the actual decision.

This game may actually take off as a niche fantasy game for law schools as a way of teaching constitutional law and understanding the dynamics of the Supreme Court.

As an aside, I think it’s hysterical that the Fantasy SCOTUS has to use a “.net” domain name, because someone actually already owns the “.com” domain name. In fact, the .com is available for $397, if you are really interested in purchasing it.

Congratulations to Fantasy SCOTUS on its launch, and good luck.

With the hype building in Australia at Tiger Woods playing the Australian Masters, now is your chance to get playing with the PGA Australia’s fantasy game.

While Tiger is guaranteed $3 million for just showing up to play the Australian Masters, you get the opportunity to compete for some lesser, but awesome prizes. Winning this free fantasy golf will net you a brand new set of Srixon clubs and golf bag. To play, select a roster of twelve golfers within a $6 million salary cap. The fantasy golf game is built around Australia’s summer of golf of November and December, which makes for a quick fantasy season.

If you have an itch for fantasy golf and cannot wait for the Sony Open, the traditional opening of the golf and fantasy golf season, you may want to check out this new fantasy golf game from the PGA. Entries are due Wednesday afternoon (Thursday morning if you are in Australia).

From the “I couldn’t make this up if I tried” category, you can now get weekly fantasy football sleeper picks from three bikini-clad beauties in a hot tub. Hot Tub Sleeper Picks is a new video series offering fantasy advice.

Hot Tub Sleeper Picks is clearly tailoring to the mostly male fantasy football audience, and some find them offensive and/or chauvinistic. The videos are well produced, and the fantasy advice is backed up with rationale. Again, no one will watch for the fantasy advice alone.

Below is the Week 5 Sleeper Picks video, where the ladies nailed one of their three sleeper picks, after going two for three the week before.