Bang the Gavel: Yahoo Acquisition may Signal an End to Free Fantasy Sports

On Friday Febuary 4, Microsoft Corporation made a $44.6 billion hostile bid to take over Yahoo. Since the bid was announced, Yahoo bankers have begun to seek rival bids to acquire the Yahoo! business either in its entirety or in subparts. This deal would have huge implications for fantasy sports contestants.

Currently, it seems that Yahoo and CBS Sports (Sportsline) share category leadership in hosting fantasy sports games, with ESPN.com a close third. Amongst these three main competitors, however, only Yahoo has regularly offered free hosting services for private leagues (with additional features available at an add-on cost). CBS Sports offers a private-league hosting feature through its Fantasy Baseball Commissioner product for $129.95. Meanwhile, ESPN.com has varied its strategy from year-to-year based on marketplace trends.

Although it is far too soon to tell how the proposed Yahoo takeover will shake out, if Yahoo is acquired by another company (and especially if Yahoo Sports ultimately ends up in the hands of ESPN.com or CBS Sports), the days of free fantasy hosting may be gone. That is bad news for fantasy sports contestants who have come to rely on free gaming.

For further legal analysis on this issue, including antitrust implications of a potential Yahoo acquisition, please see my more detailed posting on this issue at Sports Law Blog. Concerned readers may also feel free to contact me directly at info@sportsjudge.com, with the subject heading of "Yahoo".

Bang the Gavel: Yahoo! Muffs Draft Data

This morning I was awakened with many inquiries about how to handle Yahoo!'s losing draft data for a number of leagues. Although Sports Judge is in the process of writing about a half dozen opinions on this issue, I strongly recommend that all team owners make sure to hand copy their selections at the end of the draft. That way, draft results are saved, even if Yahoo! servers overflow.

With respect to the many leagues that have lost draft data, replication (where feasible) is the preferred solution. To alleviate any future controversy about how to handle lost draft data, leagues should explicitly include in their constitution an obligation for each team owner to write down all picks (however, presumably SportsJudge.com will soon offer case law on how to handle this issue in the alternative).