This upcoming Friday, the release of the Fantasyland, the film version hits your internet on Snag Films and Hulu. The movie, which is based on Sam Walker’s tale in Fantasyland, (You can read our book review of Fantasyland here), is a documentary featuring Jed Latkin who in 2008 recreated Sam’s steps by first competing in Tout Wars and then travelling around the country to make his fantasy baseball team just that much better every day.

I am seeing a sneak peak of the movie of this week and will have my review for you prior to that. In the mean time, the film has been kind of enough to post some clips online for everyone to check out. The first clip below features Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle talking about a fantasy league of his featuring some celebrities:

And the second clip features Mike Francesa of WFAN New York talking about why he really hates fantasy:

Check back soon for my review of the full film.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media will be able to complete its hat-trick of online sports video offerings in a new deal with ESPN. MLB.TV and March Madness On Demand are two of the finest live video offerings on the internet and will now be joined by the 3500 live events streamed by ESPN. The new site will called ESPN3.com, which will be a rebranding of the current ESPN360.com offering. Apparently, technology was a key factor in the decision to use MLBAM, as the previous version of ESPN360 required users to download Microsoft Silverlight.

ESPN360.com became one of my favorite sites this past season as I was able to watch numerous USC Trojan football games online. Since ESPN/ABC has a contract for PAC-10 and Big Ten football games, this meant that the out of market college football games were frequently available on ESPN360.com. It is a great product and definitely will be a part of sports viewing in the future.

For MLBAM, this is a major score. MLBAM, which is separately co-owned by the 30 MLB owners and MLB, has been expanding its product offerings and customer base over the last few years. All the while, raking in cash for its stakeholders, who have already received a more than ample return on their initial investment. In 2007, an initial public offering (IPO) of MLBAM stock had the company’s rumored valued at $5B. One can barely fathom what that offering would be now that MLBAM has cemented itself as a leading digital sports company (and many would argue the best).

Also, how is this for irony? The media is going to a professional league for distribution of its offerings. This offering further blurs the line between sports and the media.

via Broadcast Engineering

One of the most amazing sports businesses in the last 10 years has been the emergence of Under Armour as a major player in the sporting goods realm. Here is a video of speech given by Under Armour’s Chairman, CEO and Founder Kevin Plank. It is a very riveting video and some great insights into how to build a great business–compete. I highly recommend you check it out, if even it takes multiple sittings (it is 74 minutes long):

Did you watch it all? What do you think? Ready to compete?

via Campus Entrepreneurship

We have all heard of the The League on FX by now, but there is a new fantasy football web series on the interwebs, Sundays of Our Lives. The series follows Jake Diablo as he attempts to win his fantasy football championship. Like any good soap opera, there is lying, cheating, and the occassional celebrity cameo. It’s an entertaining watch, so you should check out the first two episodes below:

Episode 1

Episode 2

While gun control is not normally a topic you would see on this site, nor will I express my opinion on the subject, it was what naturally came to mind upon seeing this video. If there ever was an argument for it, this would be it. The details, A hardcore Redskins fan bet his Facebook fans that if the Saints won the game, his friends could shoot at his big screen television. Well, the Saints won, and the guy’s television was toast.

via FamousDC

Quick post to get you a little pumped this morning. Last week I told you how you can Play Some Fantasy Serie A (Italian Soccer) at Serie A Live. Now, Serie A Live just released a new promo video for its site. It’s simple, fun, and should get you pumped (at least a little):

Hope you enjoyed that, and don’t forget to check back later today for some articles.

In case you are dragging on this Monday, like half of the population, you might want to check out this inspirational sports story. You have probably seen it before, but it cannot hurt to check it out again.

I still get goosebumps from it.

Many years ago, people thought that ESPN was crazy for broadcasting the World Series of Poker, and we all know how well that turned out for them. Now, Versus is hoping that same kind of magic will work with the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF). The WCOFF has been around for many years, and has become the premier high stakes fantasy football league.

The first episode aired on Thursday, October 15, but you can check out the first episode by checking out WCOFF TV. The show is well done, and surprisingly intriguing. For the fantasy industry, this is a breakthrough opportunity to make the game even more popular. Combine this show with FX’s new show The League, which is a sitcom built around a fantasy football league, these are great opportunities of watching fantasy football as entertainment.

Will it take off? Only time will tell. In the mean time, check out the video online, and let me know what you think.

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.

While ESPN consistently promotes its free fantasy football games, it has not completely abandoned the pay model. Fanball and ESPN just unveiled their new $50,000 Fantasy Football game. It is a pay-to-play salary cap game with point-style scoring, where the winner will take home a cool $50,000. Not too shabby for a $39.95 entry fee.

More importantly, the fact that two of the major players in the fantasy industry are teaming together on a game should make you take note. ESPN has become the number two player (behind Yahoo!) by offering completely free fantasy games. Fanball is the leader in pay-to-play games under its own brand, and hosting white-label games, such as the Fantasy Football Open Championship. According to Ryan Houson, Fanball’s Vice-President of Business Development, that this game came about through, “Lots of discussions. We discussed this a lot and we are excited it finally got done.” It is a win-win deal for both sides. It allows ESPN to tap into the pay-to-play market, while giving Fanball another game to market to its existing customer base, and more importantly, the ability to market to the millions of fantasy players that play at ESPN.

Congratulations to both sides on the deal, and I look forward to see how this relationship develops. If this is successful, you better expect to see something come fantasy baseball season.