By Justin Haddad— Email | Twitter | Articles
As someone who has been participating in fantasy sports since the age of seven, I find this to be extremely exciting and innovative for those individuals with this certain prowess. It was just announced that CBSSports.com would be presenting the first ever “developer challenge” directed at the fantasy sports industry. The CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Developer Challenge will incite companies and individuals in the fantasy sports arena, as well as the developer industry to generate apps that will be displayed and eventually used by fantasy football players.
The press statement was made by Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBS Sports, while he was attending the 2012 Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) Summer Conference in San Francisco. Kint stated, “Combining the passion surrounding fantasy football with the genius and creativity of the development community should provide for a hotly contested competition,” and he went on to say, “we’re excited to see what apps come from the Developer Challenge and how, once integrated in the open Fantasy Platform, these tools enhance the fun of fantasy football for the millions of die-hard players on CBSSports.com.”
Those who are intent on participating in the CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Developer Challenge should visit the contest page, which is where you are able to to sign up for the contest. Apparently, after FSTA did extensive research, they found that there are approximately 32.8 million fantasy sports players in the United States and of those individuals around 24.3 million (74%) play fantasy football.
There is a total of $75,000 in prize money, and the CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Developer Challenge cash prizes are given to the three winning apps with the following allocation:
- 1st place: $60,000
- 2nd place: $10,000
- 3rd place: $5,000
The CBSSports.com Fantasy Football Developer Challenge has already begun and it will finish at the beginning of the NFL regular season on Wednesday, Sep. 5th. Developers can construct applications that include: Draft, Roster Management, Results (live scoring, schedule, standings), Content, Administration, and Communications/Social.
The applications will be judged on the following five areas, with each accounting for 20% of the overall evaluation: Originality of concept, design and visual appeal, utility, fantasy value, and market potential. There will be a panel of five judges, each of who has a deep history in the fantasy sports industry:
- Paul Charchian: Founder of Fanball, LeagueSafe and current President of the FSTA
- Tony Fernandez: Vice President of Technology for CBSSports.com
- Geoff Reiss: CEO of the Professional Bowlers Association , and former ESPN executive who managed the launch of ESPN.com and the fantasy sports products on ESPN.com
- Dave Richard: Senior Fantasy Football Writer for CBSSports.com
- Rick Wolf: Founder & CEO, Full Moon Sports Solutions, FSTA Hall of Famer
For those of you who are interested, you are officially on the clock…
(Photos Courtesy of CBSSports.com and Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America)