Google, should I draft Ben Roethlisberger?
A new feature being debuted by CBS for this upcoming football season will offer fantasy players solicited advice about who to draft, start, add, or trade. The advice comes through Google Assistant and is based on CBS and SportsLine sports rankings and projections data.
The feature, which officially launched this week, offers users voice-enabled fantasy football advice, such as drafting strategy and, once the season starts, week-to-week lineup guidance. Users simply need to ask the Google Assistant—available through the Google Home smart speaker or Android phones and mobile devices—for help.
Hey Google, should draft Ben Roethlisberger?
“Not early. Ben Roethlisberger is expected to be the No. 7 quarterback according to our expert consensus, but he is only the No. 9 in our latest projections. Instead of Ben Roethlisberger, we recommend Carson Wentz and Andrew Luck.”
Fantasy players can utilize the assistant before or during their drafts to quickly decide between two players. Once the season kicks off, fantasy players will be able to receive start/sit, add/drop and trade advice as well as injury updates.
Should I draft Amari Cooper or Mike Evans?
“Take Amari Cooper. He is projected to be the No. 11 wide receiver in both standard PPR leagues. Mike Evans is projected to be the No. 14 wide receiver in both standard and PPR leagues.”
While the AI will give basic fantasy advice to all users regardless of their fantasy platform, CBS Sports Fantasy Football players will additionally receive personalized lineup advice and information tailored to their teams, including score updates, value comparisons of players in different positions based on league settings, reports on bench or waiver wire players projected to outscore starters, and trade valuations.
“Through our investment in the exciting voice technology of the Google Assistant, our goal is to save fantasy players time and eliminate friction involved in searching for draft and lineup advice across multiple sources and devices,” said Jeff Gerttula, the executive vice president and general managers of CBS Sports Digital. “Using the Assistant as a fantasy football hotline will be a powerful tool for all fantasy players to build and manage a winning team, and invaluable for CBS Sports fantasy players in getting fast, personalized in-season updates and guidance.”
“What else would you like to know?”
SportTechie Takeaway
Voice-enabled artificially-intelligent home assistants, such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, are increasingly finding their way into the world of sports. Amazon is arguably ahead of the curve with its Alexa-powered Echo speaker, which has over the past year hosted an MLB trivia game, voting for NBA all-stars, and SiriusXM sports radio broadcasts. Alexa also teamed up with the NBA last season to offer users real-time access to sports stats, news and scores, and is additionally being used to take orders from fans at suites at SafeCo field. Google might be playing catch up, but its fantasy-related partnership comes in a new era of legalized gambling. The success of its fantasy tidbits this season could scale in the future to help users make real-money wagers.