• Fantasy Sports’ Reverse Crossover - Interesting article from the Wall Street Journal
  which chronicles how cutting-edge technology used to track baseball stats can help fantasy owners own their competition.
• Press Release: Play Hard Sports Announces Beta Sign Up for Its Free to Play Online Football Game - Get in now to lock in your team name for the beta - it’s a football game online, not fantasy!
• Mobile Social Network Loopt Sues Loop’d Network, Over Name Similarity - Oops! Not a good sign for the social network for action sports athletes and enthusiasts.

Enjoy your Thursday! You can almost smell the barbeque, can’t you?

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• SoccerPro.com announced the launch of Goalmouth Scramble, a podcast for tips and tactics for the a fantasy sports soccer simulation game, SoccerManager.com - This is a soccer-based fantasy game worth checking out.
• Real Life Fantasy: A Solution To Salaries In Sports - An interesting proposition: how about paying athletes based on their statistical performance?
• Loop’d Network Takes BMX Social in Beijing - Social network covering BMX biking at the Beijing Olympics.

Have a great day!

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• Fantasy Sports Startup Lures Scott Engel away from ESPN.com - You’ve known him as one of the main experts for fantasy football on ESPN.com.
• CBS closes CNET Networks acquisition - CBS is definitely expanding and has now added the popular tech and gadget review site to it’s stable.
• EA Sports Press Release Confirms 250 Changes In FIFA 09 - Fans of the popular soccer video game franchise will be very happy with this news.

Happy first day of July, sports fans!

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• Fantasy Experts are sometimes wrong, but never in doubt - Well, this article brings of the dirty secret of fantasy sports - that your regular fantasy player is probably just as knowledgeable and sometimes moreso than the experts.
• Fantasy tips? How about Tipstrs.com? - According to this review, Tipstrs provides how-to’s and tips, including for fantasy sports.
• SmacChat.com, a Chat-based Sports Social Network - Live chat rooms for games, sports blogs, live scores, betting lines - but what about the game themselves? A site like Justin.tv deals with this issue already and you can watch the game live streaming.

Happy Monday, ya’ll!

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• Breeders’ Cup Launches Fantasy Challenge - horse racing and fantasy sports? You betcha.
• NFL, ESPN request test of white-space devices at games - Certainly an interesting developing for wireless mic technology during games.
• Axis Providing Virtual Views Of Euro 2008 - ESPN may utilize the technology for other sports during its broadcasts.

Have a great sports weekend, all!

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• Canadian Football League has fantasy football leagues too - Our neighbors to the north have adopted fantasy leagues for their 8 team league.
• They get their kicks from Euro 2008 - Based on ESPN’s numbers, the popularity of soccer in the US is rising.
• Wary Wimbledon takes the safe bet and steers clear of gambling - Apparently the tradition at the All-England Club does not include wagering on matches.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

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• Soccer, er, football social network called OleOle showing promise - 2 million unique visitors a month ain’t bad.
• 5 years later, Sprint pleased with NASCAR deal - The folks at Sprint NEXTEL are pleased with the partnership with NASCAR.
• EA Sports puts Spurs’ Parker on its cover - not only will he appear on the cover of NBA Live ‘09, he’ll also serve as spokesman for the product!

Happy over-the-hump day, everyone!

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• Loop’d Network launches the Nike 6.0 online community - Create your own mashups on this action-oriented sports network.
• Can Social-Networking Sites Make Money? - This in-depth article tackles this question - sports social networks take note!
• NBC Chooses TVTonic to Provide Downloadable Olympics Coverage - NBC providing viewers with ability to download and watch their favorite Olympics sports and events when they want.

Have a great day, all!

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Thud. That was the sound the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first attempt at a video hitting the floor back in 2004. UFC’s Sudden Impact game was roundly booed and threatened to harm the company’s chances at legitimacy with any game in the future. Dana White, President of UFC, admitted as much in a recent interview:

“Everyone knows our first [video game] sucked. We were looking for a partner to help us squash the stigma of the old video game. This is going to be the best fighting game ever launched.”

We certainly hope so. And there’s ample reason for hope here. The words “real” and “virtual” come to mind when one views the screenshots and watches the video demo. It feels like you’re watching a UFC event on pay-per-view. The only difference is that you get to control the fighters. Of course, the fighters are digitized, but they seem very real, and it’s the same ring, fighters, announcers, and even ring girls from the UFC. You can choose from over eighty fighters on the UFC roster, setting up the possibility of nearly endless fighting matchups.

Here’s a look at a couple screenshots:

The reviews are favorable and it looks like the decision to hire THQ to work on the design and creation of the game was an excellent one.

But the real question is, how is the gameplay? Can you perform moves, counters and strike like real fighters do? Apparently, each fighter in the game is given a particular grappling and striking technique they specialize in and use the moves of. There’s no “health” or life bar, so you can be submitted or knocked out at any given moment, depending on the circumstances. There are only a certain set amount of moves you can do to counter or defend, so button-mashing will be counter-productive in this game. This is definitely a different set of ideas at play here compared to wrestling or other fighting games.

This game is set for release in Spring 2009. Are you ready to rumble?

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• Maximum Fantasy Sports announces its Fantasy Football Leagues, No-Cost Survivor, Confidence and Pick ‘em Pools - worth a look, free leagues and other fantasy games.
• Facebook Continues Flirting with Gambling - first, the NCAA tournament and now the Euro 2008 soccer tourney. Is this a good marriage of social network and predictions or is it setting a bad precedent?
• Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue Comes To Your Mobile Phone - This could have employers and IT departments across the company up in arms!

Have a great TGIF and a wonderful weekend!

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