Website: www.fantasysportsupdate.com

Interview With: Jason Molinet

How many founders does Fantasy Sports Update! have and what are there names?

Fantasy Sports Update! was founded by Jason Molinet in November 2006. We have an office in Huntington, N.Y. Our site is www.fantasysportsupdate.com.

What are the founders’ backgrounds and qualifications?

Molinet spent 11 years as a sports reporter at Newsday (N.Y.) covering everything from high schools, colleges, NFL, NBA and MLB along the way. As a sports insider and avid fantasy fan, he saw an opportunity to fill a void in the industry – free features, commentary and news. You can view my profile at LinkedIn.

What does your website do?

Fantasy Sports Update! covers pro basketball, baseball, football and hockey, along with college football. We offer up regular features andcommentary, in addition to regular news updates. We give our contributors a regular voice thanks to blogs and we regularly post the most timely sports clips from YouTube.

When did you launch?

The site debuted Jan. 1, 2007.

How have you built your community and continue to grow it?

It’s admittedly a tough space to crack. And ESPN has really stepped up thequality of its fantasy content within the last year. But as with any web venture, SEO and paying for positioning among several key words is one way to get the name out there. Becoming a recognizable name in the fantasy community by becoming dues-paying members of the Fantasy Sports Trade
Association (FSTA) and the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) is important in my mind. Hitting forums is another (less than desirable) way to get traffic. And trying to put out a quality – and accurate – product you hope will create buzz. Getting it right wins fans too. We told anyone who would listen to rate Tom Brady and Randy Moss high on their draft boards. In fact, Moss was our No. 1 receiver going into a season where most other fantasy sites rated Moss in the middle of the pack. We were also high on Adrian Peterson.

What types of marketing do you utilize?

Aside from the aforementioned examples, building a presence on MySpace was another way we chose to reach out to fantasy sports fans. Unless you have deep pockets or belong to a major media company, you try to look for as many free opportunities on the web to get your brand in front of people. That means a lot of blogging.

Do you have any revenue streams besides advertisement? Who is your ad provider?

We’ve partnered with VERTualMedia and obviously signed up for Google AdSense to provide a steady stream of advertising.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Bootstrapped all the way.

Are you looking for more funding?

I think the concept of fantasy sports is just now working its way into the consciousness of Americans. The keepers of capitalism will follow. So while the industry has grown tremendously over the last decade, it’s still in its infancy.

That’s where Fantasy Sports Update! is at right now. We’re young and eager to grow and realize our potential. There’s no doubt an infusion of cash and / or strategic partnership will help make that happen sooner than later. So while we’re not actively looking, we are open and receptive to anything.

What is your favorite feature on your site?

I can’t give you one. Our core is built around weekly (in-season) rundowns in each sport. Readers get an awful lot of fantasy information for the week ahead in an easily digestible format. I’m proudest of that.

Any bold predictions for sports and technology in the future?

To your high school and college readers, plunk down a few dollars and purchase your domain name. The Internet is real estate. And if your name is Joe Smith, you should own www.joesmith.com.

As for fantasy: Dontrelle Willis — in a pitcher’s park, new league and with an offense behind him – will reemerge as an ace and fantasy stud.

STN’s Take:

First, we want to apologize to Jason for what we are going to say but its for his own good. When we went to Fantasy Sports Update, the first thought that comes to mind is too busy. There are pictures everywhere along with ads and they are all different shapes and sizes. Nothing is lined up correctly and information is very hard to find. When we think of the title Fantasy Sports Update, we think of updated player information but there really isn’t anything there or we can’t find it very easily. It can be tough to produce updates for all fantasy players, but there are services that websites can pay for to syndicate fantasy player news on their site. All the good fantasy sites have this info easily accessible on the front page.

Jason discusses SEO but his site is definitely not optimized for search. His blogging system does not even have separate pages for each post so Google really does not know much about those pages. He would be better served to use Wordpress or Typepad and incorporate those platforms in his website. All articles should be run through the platform. Jason is a very accomplished writer but with all the competition out there, you need more than writing to take you to the top.