Fantasy Sports Become Big Business

April 2, 2008— -- In this opening week of the baseball season, most major league managers have their home plates full with only one team to worry about. Cuong Truong has to manage players from different 10 teams.

Truong is no Joe Torre, but he is one of a growing number of fantasy sports enthusiasts. These fans spend countless hours at their computers pondering the statistical permutations of their own custom teams, made up of players from all the rosters in Major League Baseball.

"You're not always rooting for your team, you're rooting for the players," said Truong, 31.

With prices for concessions and tickets steadily climbing, more sports lovers are going online to get their fix.

They form leagues -- usually with friends -- and sign up for free accounts at Web sites like EPSN, Yahoo and MLB.com, though most offer upgraded services for an annual fee.

Each person becomes a "manager" of his own team in the league, and is randomly assigned a draft number in anticipation of opening day. Users draft MLB's top players to fill standard roster positions on their virtual "team." Because of this, predraft anticipation is high.

"Draft is such a big hype. It's so exciting," said Truong.

Depending on players' statistics, teams either play against other users in their league each week, earning points for winning those head-to-head matchups (the team with the most wins becomes the league champion), or teams forgo weekly games and instead accumulate points -- meaning the team with the most points at the end of the season wins.

Before the draft, Truong, a senior operations analyst, researched players. "In baseball, there's a chance you'll pick up better players that aren't top names. It takes a lot of research and sometimes it just takes getting lucky."

Last year, Truong had a bit of luck himself, drafting Matt Holliday, who surprised many when he "had a breakout year" with the 2007 National League Champions, the Colorado Rockies.

"Fantasy is a huge phenomenon with sports fans," said Raphael Poplock, vice president of games at ESPN.

Fantasy baseball leagues are climbing in popularity. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, more than 18 million people play fantasy sports online, and baseball has about 3 million players, second only to football.

ESPN's television show "Baseball Tonight" aired a draft-pick special, advising fans on the best players to choose for their fantasy teams. The show also offers daily fantasy updates.

Poplock said growing up "as a sports freak, I'd wait for my team to play. I'd watch other games but there wasn't as much vested interest as there is now."