Everyone has their own journey and what happens can only be described with their eyes. So, for a guy who has been in the right place at the right time in the fantasy sports industry, the journey of The Fantasy 100 seems almost surreal.
Always feel a bit like Forrest Gump when it comes to what has happened to me over the past two decades in Fantasy Sports. Yep. Like Forrest, I was there. Wide eyed. Inquisitive. Simple, yet complicated. Just doing the best I could and living with the results. Volunteering and being added to groups of GREAT people who could really get things done.
Like Forrest, maybe I am not the smartest guy in the room, but things happened in those rooms. In 1989, when volunteers were needed to work on the first fantasy baseball game online at PRODIGY, I raised my hand. When CBS SportsLine needed Fantasy Sports products, I raised my hand. When the Fantasy Sports industry needed a trade association, I raised my hand. When Rotoworld needed magazines published and premium content products, I raised my hand.Forrest Gump also saw scandal, outrage, bad decisions, neglect, abuse and all the bad parts of life. I was in the room for that too. When it was time to fight patents, I raised my hand. When the Players Associations wanted to own Fantasy Sports, I raised my hand. Whenever the industry needed me, I raised my hand.I left NBC Sports and restarted Full Moon in late 2011. I realized quickly the reason I left...
All I care about is Fantasy Sports.
So, what the heck does this have to do with The Fantasy 100?Â
Well, this journey led me to the Founder of The Fantasy 100, Aram Vartivarian. When we first met, I was simply a consultant helping an entrepreneur figure out and navigate the Fantasy Sports industry. What I found out over the next six months was that he wanted the same thing that I did. He wanted simplicity, fairness and excitement in a fantasy sports game and content site that would ignite especially younger folks to play Fantasy Sports to enjoy watching games more.THE ANTI-GUMP
Now the team at The Fantasy 100 are not dopes. They researched, analyzed and talked to everyone they could and the future plan that will be unveiled in the fall is brilliant. They contracted Head2Head Sports, one of the most experienced game providers in Fantasy Sports to produce The Fantasy 100 along with a design team run by Pyromaniac.com owner Derek Noonan.
Now, here comes the really smart part. To get younger players, The Fantasy 100 hired Bobby Colton, a junior at Duke University who covers the Blue Devils writes for Rotowire & Sports Grumblings, plays in expert leagues such as LABR and is an emerging star in Fantasy Sports.WHAT IS THE FANTASY 100?
The Fantasy 100 is an extremely simple contest that uses only the top 100 projected fantasy players each week placed in ten (10) groups called tiers. Each participant selects ten (10) NFL players in any tiers provided their aggregate value is a minimum of 50 tiers. Participants get points based on the NFL players’ on-field statistical performance. After 14 weeks, participant’s top ten (10) weekly scores will determine if they qualify for a three (3) week playoff competition with a $10,000 Prize.
It is that simple. The fact that it is FREE and that it has such a big cash prize will make it enormously popular, but what I love is that it is soooo easy to play on my phone. On the go is the best way to play The Fantasy 100 and the reason that this particular concept was developed.
The great thing about this is that it is just beginning. The team is in place. The company is in place. The contest and original content sites are LIVE. So…when it comes time to take the next step with these guys and expand the universe of fantasy sports players…I am raising my hand!
Rick Wolf, Co-Host of Colton & The Wolfman - Sirius XM Fantasy Sports RadioÂ
Rick Wolf is a leader in the fantasy sports industry. Wolf is a founding Board Member and one of only fifteen FSTA Hall of Famers including Bill James and Matthew Berry. Wolf’s career accomplishments include starting the fantasy sports division at SportsLine USA that became CBS SportsLine, incubating Rotoworld to become the #1 fantasy sports news site, and spearheading the sale of Allstar Stats/Rotoworld to NBC Sports in 2006.  With college friend and fellow Hall of Famer, Glenn Colton, the team has won 7 expert titles in baseball and football.Twitter: RickWolf1