Fantasy Baseball is Saved!!! By Al O’Harra
FSRU.com uses CDMsports Leagues Which is marketed as TQstats.

Obviously, we followed the recent court case, CDMSPORTS.com vs.
Major League Players Association, very closely as did the entire fantasy sports community. Here is our slanted synopsis. 

Read the Entire Court Opinion

A fantasy sports game is where fantasy team owners build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by individual players of a professional sport. To play, all one needs is player names and statistics and success is contingent on the actual player statistics generated during the season.

There are currently 15 million fantasy sports players in the United States alone. With the invention of the internet, the pen to paper game became a major industry, a fast growing and extremely popular entertainment. With the influx of new hobbyists came an influx of websites and competition to service an increasing customer base. It was Americana at its best as many of those sites folded just as fast. An open competition took place on the internet forum and hobbyists were provided many choices. The sites compete to provide the best game, the best service and the highest payouts.

And then came the big dog. Out of nowhere and all of a sudden, the Major League Players Association and there representative, Advanced Media, said, "hold on, stop everything- fantasy baseball belongs to us. Thanks for your help, take your parting gifts at the door, we have decided we own fantasy baseball now- get out." Advanced Media's parting gifts turned out to be 10% for all referrals to MLB.com's Fantasy Baseball Leagues.

CDMsports had a Major League Players Association license to utilize players’ names and stats from 1995 to 2004. MLPA then decided to decrease its number of licensees from dozens in 2004, to 19 in 2005, to 7 in 2006, focusing on large media outlets like CBS SportsLine.

The largest fantasy sports sites pay Major League Players Association representative Advanced Media approximately $2 million each for licenses to display players’ names and photographs, team logos, video highlight clips, and other MLB content. For their payment, they usually draw a lions share of the new and small investment hobbyists. Those hobbyists usually move on to the more competitive, less transient, websites within a year or two. 

The playing of fantasy sports is widely considered to be a billion dollar industry. For example, CBS Sportsline has generated 15 Million dollars in 2005 in players fees- and that’s just in fantasy football!!! Millions more were generated in advertising fees. If advanced media could effectively force all the middle to small sites out of business, they would effectively lock up this industry. They could name their price, or force the fantasy sports world to play on MLB.com (who has fantasy leagues), or not play at all. This would be a lucrative victory as it is estimated over 70% of all fantasy sports leagues are played outside of the big 7. They would have effectively locked up a billion dollar industry- all to themselves.

Having been denied a license, On February 7th, 2005, CDMSPORTS filed in the United States District Court, Eastern Division of Missouri, for declaratory judgment stating that it has “reasonable expectation of a future lawsuit.” The complaint further alleges that “advanced media has maintained that it has exclusive ownership of all player statistics associated with players’ names and that it can, therefore, preclude all fantasy sports league providers from using this statistical information to provide fantasy baseball games to the consuming public.”

Hobbyists cringed that the sites well known for their poor payouts would dominate the industry. A hobby known for its prizes, payouts and competition, would morph into something little more than, well, a game. Because reduced competition rarely results in lower prices, expectations were it would be a pretty expensive game as well.

Some of the stronger leagues sites, such as FSRU.com, prepared for their turn in the legal arena. Many of the smaller sites were preparing to go underground- URL hopping- as duplicate sites are made in bulk and word of mouth becomes your only forum for site growth (since you lose search engine standing). It was gonna get ugly.

But on August 8th, 2006, The court ruling came down from United States Magistrate Judge Mary Ann L. Medler.

The use of Major League Baseball player names and statistics:
1. In no way offers CDMSPORTS an undue commercial advantage since all fantasy sports leagues sites utilize this same information.
2. Does not in any way dilute the marketability or capability of a player to make a living and, as case law suggests, actually increases marketability.
3. Falls within the boundaries of the First Amendment protection of free speech and is protected by it.

From all fantasy leagues websites and fantasy league players, this was a major victory. We offer our appreciation to CDMsports and TQstats. You have our business because you are the best at providing a professional fantasy league statistical service. But now you also have our thanks for your service to the entire fantasy sports community.