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PC Games (Games) The Internet Entertainment Games

EA Sports to Kick Off Fantasy Football Website 20

Posted by simoniker from the ever-expanding dept.
loid_void writes "Reuters reports that EA Sports, best known for its market-leading sports video games, 'said on Wednesday it would offer paid online fantasy football for the upcoming football season. Players will be able to join a 'public league' set up by EA Sports and sports information provider STATS Inc., or use EA's online system to track their own league of up to 32 'team owners' starting July 21, a company spokeswoman said. The EA Sports Fantasy Football site sets up personalized home pages for each league to monitor real-time scores and statistics, the company said. The cost to play will be $9.99 for the public league and $99.99 for private leagues, the company said.'" Seems like the service will be similar to the well-known Yahoo! Fantasy Football website, sponsored by EA last year.
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EA Sports to Kick Off Fantasy Football Website More

EA Sports to Kick Off Fantasy Football Website

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  • Lacks information. (Score:3, Informative)

    by KDR_11k ( 778916 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @08:59AM (#9451965)
    I RTFA in hope of understanding it better, but I still don't get one thing: How do the matches get played/decided? Do they match numbers and throw out a result or do you have to play Madden online or what?
    Currently it seems to be some kind of MMO football manager, I never knew sports management sims had a large market in the US...
    • The way fantasy football works usually (I'm no expert btw) is that you make up a team of real players, and the points they give you are set according to their real life performance. So they will use stats from NFL games, unless they have a pretty interesting new concept..

    • Re:Lacks information. (Score:2, Informative)

      by MegaT ( 672432 )
      TBH I didn't RTFA. But I'm going to guess it works like this, as fantasy football usually does. So, FYI:

      Users create their own team using a budget to buy players. These players then go and play real matches in real life. The users' teams are then rated based on the performance of the chosen players. The values of these players may go up or down based on their performance. Users' teams probably score points and are ranked. Being as it's being paid for, one would assume there are prizes available for top man

    • You don't have the right idea. Here's how fantasy football works. All the players in the league, draft players to build their team roster. Then, once the season gets started [the real season that is, in real life] the players in the fantasy league decide which players they want to start and play on a given gameday. Stats from the actual games [again, the real life games] have point values. Say your running back runs for 100 yards, you get a certain number of points for this. But your quarterback throws two
  • you and your league mates take turns at the beginning of the real football season "drafting" players to fill your roster. You'll select actual players from the various positions (qb, rb, wr, etc.) and place them in your roster. Then each week, during the real football games, you get points for your team based on the player's real life performance. Depending on how the fantasy league is set up, you either have head to head competition (where you compare your weekly score with another team to decide who wi
  • Sports News for nerds.... Isn't that like Military Intellegence?
    • Jumbo Shrimp!

    • Re:News? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Jane_the_Great ( 778338 )
      Why can't a "nerd" enjoy sports? Of all sports, I would think that football would appeal most naturally to the "nerd" in the wild due to the very strategic nature of the game. Furthermore, why did you bother posting at all?

      Okay, you don't like sports. It's been noted. Obviously some people who read Slashdot do because articles about sports video games are read and commented on. I am sure you look down your nose at people who enjoy sports but guess what - I look down my nose at people who look down their nos

      • " I look down my nose at people who look down their nose."

        Man.. That puts weird thoughts into my head...

  • Well, the pricing is fairly standard (good) and considering that most use Stats Inc., they can only add more perks to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. 32 teams in the Commissioner package is definitely a major perk. It makes for a much more deep, competitive game.

    However, the League Manager package is coming up short since it doesn't look like it will let you run your own. Now, you might be asking if that is the same as asking for the Commissioner package for the $10 price. It is not. In mos
  • I am a very avid gamer and I love fantasy football. I play EA games all the time, especially the Madden series. I do not really see a market for this kind of thing. I have done real fantasy football for about five years now and I do not see any personal enjoyment out of doing a fantasy league based on online gaming.

    I personally do fantasy football because it allows me to get more enjoyment in watching football games on TV that do not involve my home team. Basically, if there is a game on TV, chances ar
    • Well, first off - you're completely and totally wrong. This is an EA venture but the results of the league are not based on games of Madden 2005 [yeah, 2005 - not 2004, as you said]. This is a standard fantasy football league based on real games which just happens to have the EA branding. How did you manage to read the summary and/or linked articles and conclude that games of Madden 2004 [last year's game no less!] were involved? Please reply, I am curious how you made that connection.
  • There is really good free football game. That sound like little like that. You shoud have a look [hattrick.org]. I have played it sometime and I'm loving it.
  • After reading the clueless replies above, I have to respond as a guy who plays in at least 3 FFL a year.

    The model they are trying is simply not going to work. $100 or $10 per person isn't going to fly. They should either try the Yahoo model, free to play charge for premium services, or like fanball, start for free then start charging per year. I don't see how the synergy between Madden is going to work. I play Madden. I never go to the Madden website. How would I see that a FFL is even offered. Why
  • I can get a league going at Real Time Sports for $10 cheaper than $99 and they actually have some years experience under their belt. rtsports and yahoo are both pretty good sites so EA had better have something pretty good to offer. I think their best strategy is to bundle discounts with their Madden line of games.

    I do think this is a good idea for the person who is interested in fantasy football and doesn't have a group to join, but I'm curious how they'll work such public leagues. There are only so ma
  • The article sounds like madden 05 may just provide some kind of front end for an FFL. However, I've been thinking for a while it would be really cool if you could actually play an entire season's worth of games using a league of fantasy draft players. I.E. 8 or however many people enter the league, they all log on at the same time and draft their teams from the same pool, and then set up matches each week or however often they want to play for the championship. Having never played Madden online I don't know
  • This pricing scheme seems rediculous. The only way I can see this making sense is if it works like this;

    a)You pay $9.99 and get to draft a team in a public league

    or

    b)You pay $99.99 to set up a private league, and once set up the individuals who join the league join for free.

    This makes sense, as it would encourage groups of people to set up private leagues with EA as opposed to ESPN where teams are around $30, but can play in either a private or public league.
  • How is it different than Yahoo!'s offering? Why would I switch? Yahoo! works and without a compelling feature to make it worthwhile to switch, no one I know will.

    What would make it worthwhile (as I've said to all my fantasy buddies who would listen) is for someone to sign a deal with TiVo to integrate their services together. If a fantasy service allowed me to watch football games and see fantasy updates on my TV without having to check my laptop, I would definitely switch.

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