Yahoo! Sports
 Top: A typical Yahoo! Sports homepage. |
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| URL | http://sports.yahoo.com/ |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Sports |
| Owner | Yahoo! |
| Created by | Yahoo! |
| Launched | December 8, 1997 |
| Current status | Public |
Yahoo! Sports was launched on December 8, 1997.[1] It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc.,[2] employs various writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American sport. (Before the launch of Yahoo! Sports, certain elements of the site were known as Yahoo! Scoreboard.)
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[edit] Sports covered
Yahoo! Sports covers many sports, including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, College Football, College Basketball, NASCAR, Golf, Tennis, World Soccer, Arena Football, Boxing, CFL, Cycling, IndyCar, Major League Soccer, Motor sports, Olympics, NCAA Baseball, NCAA Hockey, NCAA Women's Basketball, WNBA, World Cup, Track & Field, Cricket (UK), Figure Skating, Rugby (UK), Swimming, Mixed Martial Arts, and Horse Racing.[3] Yahoo! Sports also previously covered the now defunct ABL and WUSA.
[edit] Writers
As of November 2011, writers at Yahoo Sports included Dan Wetzel, Adrian Wojnarowski, Jason Cole, Charles Robinson, Jeff Passan, Josh Peter, Tim Brown, Kevin Iole, Dave Meltzer, Pat Forde, Bob Margolis, Jerry Bonkowski, John Murphy, Michael Silver, Matt Buser, Justin Phan, Terry Bowden, Kenny Smith, Matt Romig, Martin Rogers, James C. Black, Brandon Funston, Brad Evans, Greg Anthony, Cris Carter, Marc J. Spears and Gerry Ahern.[4]
[edit] Key dates in Yahoo! Sports
- December 8, 1997: Yahoo! Sports is launched.[1]
- January 17, 2003: Yahoo! Sports launched the first major redesign of the website.[5]
- February 8, 2006: Yahoo! Sports launched the Yahoo! Sports Blog.[6]
- May 8, 2006: Yahoo! Sports starts streaming free live NHL games.[7]
- May 30, 2006: Yahoo! Sports launched the Yahoo! Sports Beta website.[8]
- January 30, 2007: Yahoo! Sports puts the following on its sports homepage: "What if your favorite sports site got even better? The all new Yahoo! Sports. Coming soon."[citation needed]
- February 1, 2007: Yahoo! Sports launched the current homepage.[9]
- February 1, 2007: Yahoo! Sports Beta website was taken offline.
- June 21, 2007: Yahoo! Sports acquires Rivals.com.[10]
- January 11, 2011: Yahoo! Sports combines with SportsFanLive.com. to begin producing ThePostGame.com, a daily online magazine.[11]
[edit] Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
Yahoo! Fantasy Sports is a section of Yahoo! Sports.[1] Yahoo! Fantasy Sports was created with Yahoo's acquisition of Sportasy.com for an undisclosed amount in December 1998.[12] It has grown to include numerous sports. Yahoo! offers both free and pay fantasy sports.[13] The types of games offered include traditional fantasy sports, pick 'em contests, and salary cap games.
Yahoo! Fantasy Sports has captured a substantial fraction of the fantasy sports market. In the week ending May 6, 2006, its fantasy baseball product accounted for 35% of visits to fantasy sports sites. The main fantasy sports URL represented another 25% of category visits that week.[14] The site had 3.1 million users in July 2006, out of the more than 15 million adults that play fantasy sports in the United States.[15]
[edit] Fantasy Sports history
Fantasy sports first came to the mind of Wilfred Wikenbach in the 1950's. Wikenbach was a partial owner of the Oakland Raiders. He came up with the first fantasy idea using golf as the sport. Each individual in the league drafted several golfers and in the end the individual who had the lowest combine score between the golfers on their team would win. Later, Wikenbach adapted a similar scoring theory to baseball using home-run hitters and the statistics among pitchers. By 1962 Wikenbach took fantasy sports one step further after coming up with a fantasy football league. He presented his idea to two writers of the Oakland Tribune. The three men came up with a way to score points in the league that night: Ten points for an extra point, 25 points for a passing touchdown, 25 points for a touchdown reception, 25 points for a field goal, and 200 points for a punt, kickoff, or interception returned for a touchdown. They then developed an eight-team league for participants. In the early years there were very few leagues and competitors, but the ones who did participate were very serious. However, data-management technology was inadequateto track and communicate all the necessary information: not only statistics and other data, but also the roster changes each fantasy-league participant made.
Today, due to the technology and internet explosion, fantasy sports has become a modern-day phenomenon. Players can now update rosters instantly on mobile phones or laptops. Points can be tallied and scored minutes after games finish, and player statistics can be reported immediately. Communication between members in leagues today is now easier using social networking sites, e-mail, texting and instant messages as ways to organize league data. With such innovative technology, fantasy sports has expanded greatly, with new many new leagues created. With technology growing rapidly along with the popularity of fantasy sports and competition of different sites, fantasy sports looks to have a successful future. It has featured fantasy experts such as Matt Buser.[16] Fantasy sports leagues are ways that many dedicated fans can enjoy their favorite sports leagues at home away from the playing field. Fantasy sports league use real game statistics from on field play in a league made up of twelve or so competitors. These competitors have a draft where they pick individual players from different teams. A random draft is also an option as well. Over the season the users in the fantasy league accumulate points based on the individual statistics each player generates on their team.[17][18][19]
[edit] Yahoo! Fantasy Sports as an Online Community
An Online community[20]is a virtual community whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. Online communities have become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life. When it comes to Fantasy Sports, many leagues are made between friends. These friends see and communicate with each other face to face, but use Fantasy Sports as another means of communication, as well. Many means are used in social software separately or in combination, including text-based chat rooms and forums that use voice, video text or avatars. With Yahoo! Fantasy Sports, there are multiple ways interacting players can communicate within the website. The first is the live online draft. To create a team in a fantasy league, the players must go through a draft where they select there actual players that is very similar to the drafts of the actual sport. Players are selected one by one in a number of rounds until every players team is created. While this is going on, there is also a chat room open. This chat room is open to all the players participating in the league where they can talk about their players, or anything they would like to talk about.
Once the fantasy season begins, players have other opportunities to communicate with each other. One of these is Smacktalk.[21]Players have an option within their team page to post something on the league's homepage about their team or the league. It relates to smack talk because most of these posts end up being inflammatory comments insulting their opponents or talking up their own team. Smack talk can lead to long conversations because insulting or rude comments end up attracting more attention from other players than nice or indifferent comments. Players can also communicate through trade offers for players, free agency of players and the ability to vote for teams every who they believe will win.
[edit] Avatars
Avatar (computing) in fantasy sports are the player's physical representation in the online world. In most leagues, the player's avatar is fixed, however increasingly games offer a basic character model, or template, and then allow customization of the physical features as the player sees fit. Yahoo! allows players to create unique faces, clothing, backgrounds, hair, etc. Aside from an avatar's physical appearance, its dialogue, particularly in cut scenes, may also reveal something of its character.
Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are the source of the most varied and sophisticated avatars. Customization levels differ between players on Yahoo! Fantasy Sports; for example, players can choose just to have a football helmet represent their team. They can make a logo on the helmet and that would be their only representation of their team online. But they can also create the avatar. It can be just a generic person, which Yahoo! offers or the player can customize as much as they want.
This is how each player represents themselves in the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports online community. If they want their opposing players to get an idea of what they look like or how they act, the avatar is the closest to that. It all depends on their level on interaction within the community. Many Yahoo! Fantasy Sports leagues are done between friends in private leagues in where the players know each other, so there is no need to create very personal avatars because the players know what you look like. But there are also public leagues that players can choose from. These are chosen by players depending on the rules and regulations of the league, the amount of teams allowed within the league, and other certain preference players have for their fantasy leagues. Players may be more likely to create personal avatars in these leagues to create a relationship online or give other players more insight on who they are playing. This could also work in the exact opposite manner. Some players may not want random people to see what they look or act like so they may keep their avatar as generic as possible.[22]
But Yahoo! avatars are quite ancient compared to other gaming systems and websites' avatars. Game consoles such as the Wii, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360 feature universal animated avatars. Nintendo's Wii console allows for the creation of avatars called "Miis" that take the form of stylized, cartoonish people and can be used in some games as avatars for players, as in Wii Sports. In some games, the ability to use a Mii as an avatar must be unlocked, such as in Mario Kart Wii. On November 19, 2008, Microsoft released an Xbox 360 Dashboard update which featured the introduction of Avatars as part of the console's New Xbox Experience. With the update installed users can personalize the look of their Avatars by choosing from a range of clothing and facial features. On August 11, 2009, the NXE Avatar program was updated with the inclusion of an Avatar Marketplace feature that allows users to purchase additional product and game branded clothing, jewelry, full body suits, and animated props. On initial release of the update, game branded content included items from Gears of War 2, BioShock 2, Star Wars, Fable II, Halo 3, and The Secret of Monkey Island special edition. The Xbox LIVE Avatar Marketplace is updated weekly with new items. PlayStation Home for Sony's PlayStation 3 console also features the use of avatars, but with a more realistic style than Nintendo's Miis or Microsoft's Avatars.
[edit] Competing Online Fantasy Sport Websites
CBS Fantasy Sports,[23] ESPN Fantasy Sports,[24] and Yahoo! are all competing for fantasy football players because they have witnessed fantasy leagues' increased popularity and the profit that can come with it.[25] They are also competing for viewership. Yahoo! held a slim lead over ESPN with 1.33 million viewers compared to ESPN's 1.24 million, enough viewers in both cases to draw advertising. (If large numbers of people are visiting a site, advertisers want to put their product on that website. The more views, the more chance a viewer will become interested in the advertiser's product and want to buy it, which equals more profit.) It is said that there are over 18 million fantasy sports players in the U.S.[26] These players are known to be loyal to their teams continue to play over multiple years. The number has increased steadily over the past decade. 85% of those 18 million are fantasy football players. So fantasy football can be a large profit maker for advertisers and websites like CBS, ESPN and Yahoo! have been taking advantage by putting these advertisements on their pages due to such a large online community that is fantasy sports.
[edit] Blogs
| Sport | Title | Editor |
|---|---|---|
| NFL | Shutdown Corner | Doug Farrar |
| MLB | Big League Stew | Kevin Kaduk |
| NBA | Ball Don't Lie | Kelly Dwyer |
| NHL | Puck Daddy | Greg Wyshynski |
| College football | Dr. Saturday | Matt Hinton |
| College basketball | The Dagger | Jeff Eisenberg |
| NASCAR | From the Marbles | Jay Busbee |
| Golf | Devil Ball Golf | Jay Busbee |
| Olympics | Fourth-Place Medal | Chris Chase & Maggie Hendricks |
| Mixed martial arts | Cagewriter | Steve Cofield |
| Fantasy sports | Roto Arcade | Andy Behrens |
| Tennis | Busted Racquet | Chris Chase |
| Soccer | Dirty Tackle | Brooks Peck |
[edit] Notable accomplishments
- In 2006 it was revealed that "Fans spend more time on Yahoo! Sports than any other sports site" according to comScore Media Metrix.[27]
- Before the 2006 NFL Draft, Yahoo! Sports revealed the allegations that Reggie Bush accepted gifts from an upstart sports marketing firm in exchange for his patronage. They have since issued several updates on the story.
- On August 16, 2011, Yahoo! Sports broke the story of a massive scandal involving the University of Miami, based on over 100 hours of interviews with former Hurricanes booster and convicted fraudster Nevin Shapiro.[28]
[edit] References
- ^ STATS Inc. "STATS Client List". STATS. http://biz.stats.com/client.asp. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
- ^ Yahoo Inc. "Yahoo! Sports Site Map". Yahoo! Sports. http://sports.yahoo.com/top/gen/sitemap. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Yahoo! Inc (N.D.). "Yahoo! Sports Opinion & Analysis". http://sports.yahoo.com/top/expertscorner. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ Yahoo! Inc (Jan. 20, 2003). "Re-Launched Yahoo! Sports Site Brings Unique Content, Sports Personalities and Real-Time Event Coverage to Fans Online". Yahoo! Media Relations. http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/pr/release1054.html. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Cris [Yahoo! Sports Developer] (February 8, 2006). "You, the fans....". Yahoo! 360°. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6DUCtjYoaLYIUQbGbJMG6_NjrA--?cq=1&p=1. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Shields, Mike (May 10, 2006). "Yahoo Sports, OLN to Stream NHL Games, Tour de France". MediaWeek. http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002500859&imw=Y. Retrieved March 26, 2007.[dead link]
- ^ Cristobal [Yahoo! Sports Developer] (May 30, 2006). "beta.sports.yahoo.com is live!". Yahoo! 360°. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6DUCtjYoaLYIUQbGbJMG6_NjrA--?cq=1&p=27. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Matt Bloom [Yahoo! Sports Senior Product Manager] (February 5, 2007). "The all-new Yahoo! Sports". Yahoo! 360°. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6DUCtjYoaLYIUQbGbJMG6_NjrA--?cq=1&p=394. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Kramer, Staci D. (Jun 20, 2007). "It’s Official: Yahoo Acquires Rivals.com; Not Official But True: It Cost About $100 Million". Paid Content. http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-its-official-yahoo-acquires-rivalscom/. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
- ^ Sandomir, Richard (January 11, 2011). "Yahoo Sports Adds an Online Magazine". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/sports/12yahoosports.html?_r=1&ref=media.
- ^ Slawski, Bill (January 3, 2006). "Early Yahoo! Acquisitions (the 1990s)". SEO by the Sea. http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=81. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Berr, Jonathan (October 1, 2005). "Yahoo! Blitzes Fantasy Foes". thestreet.com. http://www.thestreet.com/_tscrss/tech/jonathanberr/10245259.html. Retrieved February 27, 2008.
- ^ Prescott, LeeAnn (May 19, 2006). "Fantasy Sports Online". Consumer Action. http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9599.asp. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
- ^ Holahan, Catherine (September 1, 2006). "Fantasy Football 2.0". Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2006/tc20060901_880554.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_today's+top+stories. Retrieved February 27, 2008.
- ^ http://sports.yahoo.com/top/expertsarchive?author=Matt+Buser
- ^ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00370.x/full
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_football_(American)
- ^ http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall03/abrotsky/history.html
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_community
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smack_talk
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(computing)#Video_games
- ^ http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy
- ^ http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/
- ^ La Monica, Paul R. (August 11, 2006). "Fantasy football...real money". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/11/news/companies/fantasyfootball/.
- ^ La Monica, Paul R. (August 11, 2006). "Fantasy football...real money". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/11/news/companies/fantasyfootball/.
- ^ Yahoo! Inc (2006). "Truth about Yahoo!". Yahoo Advertising. Archived from the original on May 1, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070501081135/http://advertising.yahoo.com/facts/. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ Robinson, Charles (August 16, 2011). "Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players". Yahoo! Sports. http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611. Retrieved September 7, 2011.
[edit] External links
- Yahoo! Sports Homepage
- Yahoo! Sports Blog
- Yahoo! Sports Launch Press Release
- Information on Yahoo!'s acquisition of Sportasy
- Sportasy.com on Internet Archive
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