Press Release
Yahoo! Sports Kicks Off Second Season of Free Fantasy Football
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Twitter"Fantasy Football is all about intense competition and community. It is a game perfectly suited to this medium, which brings users closer to each other and to the real NFL players than ever before," said Tonya Antonucci, senior producer, Yahoo! Sports. "As a global Internet media leader, Yahoo! can capitalize on the immediacy of the Web to connect users with a wealth of up-to-the-minute football information and other fantasy players in a fun, intense, gaming environment. Yahoo! Sports can provide our users what they demand from a premium fantasy sports site, while at the same time increasing their enjoyment of the professional football season."
Beginning today, Yahoo! Sports gives users the opportunity to draft, play, trade, cut and bench real-life, pro football players and compete for prizes and bragging rights with family, friends, co-workers and experienced fantasy team owners alike. Players’ on-field contributions result in points for team owners, who have the option of earning points throughout the season to determine a winner or through head-to-head action that results in a weekly win-loss record. Unlike many competitive fantasy sports sites, which charge users a fee to join a league, access fantasy statistics and scoring, and conduct transactions,Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football is free to users.
Taking a Swing at Fantasy Football
Shawn Green, a member of Athlete Direct and the Yahoo!
Sports’ All-Star Club, is a featured team owner in Yahoo!
Sports Fantasy Football. During the season, he will compete
in a league against 13 fellow team owners randomly drawn from
entries received on the Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football site.
In addition, Green’s team score will appear on the overall
leaderboard, where his Fantasy Football performance can be compared
to all other team owners. Yahoo! users can visit Green’s
league to see how he is faring against the other team owners
and link to his Yahoo! Store and Official Yahoo! Club, where
fans can interact with him on the club message board. Also through
Athlete Direct, the league’s members will receive an autographed
baseball from Green, one of the league’s top hitters this
season.
Designed for the fantasy football veteran as well as the first-time team owner, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football offers intuitive and useful tools to help users manage their team. In the Fantasy Football game, team owners can configure and personalize their league, participate in live drafts to pick their teams, make unlimited player transactions throughout the season, adjust their rosters up to 30 minutes before kickoff for each player, and participate in playoffs at the end of the season. In addition, Yahoo! Sports arms team owners with an intuitive, comprehensive scoring system that users can customize within each private league.
Through Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football, users from around the globe can join in public leagues composed of 10 fantasy team owners to battle in head-to-head competition week after week. Team owners draft current pro football players on the active roster to form their teams. A comprehensive scoring system rewards players for every contribution their athletes make on the field from gaining yards and scoring a touchdown to defending a pass or blocking an extra point. Owners can choose to trade, waive, bench or start any athlete on their team. In addition, team owners have the option to join a league that is private by invitation, open to the general public or randomly generated. By creating a private league, the user becomes the commissioner and has the option of inviting others to the league.
The Rush is OnSign up Today
Beginning today, fans worldwide can sign up at http://fantasyfootball.yahoo.com/football
to register as a fantasy football team owner for the regular
1999 pro football season, which kicks off on Sept. 12, 1999.
Users who sign up for Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football prior to
Sept. 12, 1999 can enjoy a full season of playing. From Sept.
13 until Oct. 9, 1999, fans can enter a partial season of playing.
Fans who sign up for Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football will automatically
have access to Yahoo!’s suite of free personalized services
such as My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Auctions, Yahoo! Chat, Yahoo! Clubs,
Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Shopping, and many others.
By providing the tools, sports-related information and resources that fantasy team owners expect, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football delivers a personal and entertaining experience to users and makes interaction with other team owners easy. Throughout the pro football season, fantasy team owners can connect with other owners via Yahoo! Message Boards (http://messages.yahoo.com), where they can tackle issues, talk about players, and trade tips.
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is part of the comprehensive Yahoo! global,
branded network of Web properties. By working with leading
providers of sports content and services, Yahoo! Sports connects
fans with news, information and coverage of sports leagues such
as MLB, MLS, NFL, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, and WNBA. Yahoo! Sports
also provides coverage of world soccer, golf, tennis, and international
sporting events such as the World Cup.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet media company that offers
a branded network of comprehensive information, communication
and shopping services to 80 million users worldwide. As the first
online navigational guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com
is the leading guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household
and business user reach, and is one of the most recognized brands
associated with the Internet. The company’s global Web network
includes 19 World properties. Yahoo! has offices in Europe, the
Asia Pacific, South America, Canada and the United States, and
is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif.
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