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<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Jeff Ma (left) and Mike Kerns have introduced a program that enables the fantasy football leagues to be managed within the popular Internet hangout Facebook.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, August 17, 2008 Pair toss fantasy football onto Facebook's field The statistical leagues are suited to social networking sites, they say, and they've convinced Sports Illustrated to join in. Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO -- By the time he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jeff Ma already had led a life many guys dream about. His card-counting prowess at blackjack tables during wild weekends in Las Vegas and Atlantic City won him and his college buddies millions of dollars, inspiring a best-selling book and the recent movie "21." Now 35 years old, Ma thinks he can hit his next jackpot in a different fantasy land -- the fanciful football leagues that will preoccupy millions of people during the next four months as they accumulate points based on the statistics of NFL players picked for their imaginary teams. Hoping to introduce a younger generation to the game of fantasy football, Ma and his primary business partner, Mike Kerns, have launched a program that enables the leagues to be managed within the popular Internet hangout Facebook. Ma and Kerns, who run Citizen Sports Inc., reason that fantasy sports are ideally suited for online social networks such as Facebook because the leagues are typically formed by groups of friends looking to deepen their bonds. The idea was compelling enough to persuade Sports Illustrated to stamp its name on the program, its first fantasy football venture. The magazine spent the past decade on the sidelines watching Yahoo, ESPN and CBS build popular Web sites to help manage the leagues. The 54-year-old magazine, owned by Time Warner Inc., is providing content for Citizen Sports' fantasy football program, handling all the advertising sales and promoting the service in its print edition and Web site. "We think this can change the fantasy landscape," said Jeff Price, president of Sports Illustrated's digital operations. Still, the odds appear to be stacked against San Francisco-based Citizen Sports because the most rabid fantasy football fans are entrenched in leagues that have been running for years on other Web sites. "The switching costs for people to leave a league to come over to another site is a significant hurdle," Price said. But he believes it will be easier for Citizen Sports because having its program run on Facebook, where millions of people already spend hours every day, "brings fantasy football to the player instead of having the player come to you." The field is led by Yahoo Inc., whose fantasy football site drew 6.6 million U.S. visitors in the opening month of the season last year, followed by ESPN.com at 2.6 million visitors, according to comScore Inc. And Yahoo isn't taking its advantage for granted. The company has developed even more tools for its fantasy football service, including more graphics and audio alerts, while making it easier to play on mobile phones. "It's a daunting task," Ma said of the challenge facing Citizen Sports. "Do you look at what Yahoo has been able to do and say, 'It's just not worth taking a chance?' Or do you look at the advent of social networks and say, 'Let's give it a shot.' "

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