August 08, 2006
Fantasy Case Decided?
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CDM wins lawsuit against MLB today. Judge rules in CDM's favor. A win for all fantasy sports.
I can't find a news story about this. Does anyone have a link, or can anyone confirm this news?
Update: Ben Kabak supplied this link in the comments. MLBAM shot itself in the foot, as I suspected might be the case:
It's my opinion that MLBAM should have kept the fees low and encouraged more fantasy games. Fantasy games are a growth industry; they create fans for major league baseball, and those fans spend money in the MLB.com store, attend MLB games and watch the advertising during broadcasts that keeps the teams running. They should be encouraging the growth of the industry with low license fees. If a court finds that the MLBAM has no right to license the stats, they'll end up with nothing.
The Players Association had a nice little business going here. They sold that to MLBAM, and now neither is getting a penny. They should take some blame, also:
I'm even more disappointed in the MLBPA. I still believe they are the best union in the world, but they need to understand that the value of their players comes from fans wanting to watch them perform. More people playing fantasy games means more eyeballs to watch them pitch and hit. It would be nice if the MLBPA stepped in and said, "This wasn't what we had in mind when we gave you the exclusive."
If you want to start a fantasy baseball game, now's the time. Congratulations to CDM for increasing competition in the fantasy game market!
Quote from a column at tribune.com: "[This is] a monumental victory for fantasy geeks and their inflatable girlfriends all across our country."