Yesterday, something called "Baseball Boyfriend" was released. A lot of people got kind of mad about it.
Essentially a fantasy baseball game designed for females who don't really like baseball that much, Baseball Boyfriend allows contestants to choose one player - their "BBBF" as they refer to it - and earn points based on how well they do, as opposed to having to draft an entire team. The chosen player can be switched - errr, "dumped" and replaced - throughout the year.
This generated some controversy, as Twitter filled up with snarky complaints about the game treating all women like teenage girls and assuming that none of them knew anything about baseball. I didn't quite understand all of the outrage, though I admit to laughing at some of it. Interested baseball fans - male and female - have many full fantasy sports options to choose from. If anything, my biggest concern is how limited a market Baseball Boyfriend may have, but that's the analytic side of me speaking.
If you haven't guessed, Baseball Boyfriend as a game doesn't particularly interest me. It did capture my attention, though, as one of the first releases to come from CBS Fantasy Sports' new open platform, which allows independent developers to create apps based off of the popular game and sell it through CBS' new "Fantasy Games and Apps" online store.
There's two intriguing angles to this. The first is the possibilities it opens up for entrepreneurs. Fantasy sports is kind of massive. It's been the driving force behind other industries, creating increased interest in advanced sports analysis for public consumption (like FanGraphs) and on prospect research. Much of that has been caused by the need fans have to get an edge in their own fantasy leagues. CBS' new platform could provide further opportunities for some of these businesses to integrate with and profit from fantasy sports. There's also an opportunity for entrepreneurs to innovate and provide products and services that simply help improve the gaming experience. The nature of fantasy sports - with annual signups, and many players being involved in multiple leagues - also creates a strong opportunity to generate recurring revenues, as opposed to the one-time purchases found with many apps.
The other side of the coin is the potential this move has for CBS. By crowdsourcing innovations for its own service, CBS Fantasy Sports could breakthrough from the tough rivalry it finds itself in with Yahoo and ESPN. It's a model that has been proven successful in many other digital industries, and as a fan of entrepreneurship, innovation, and fantasy sports, it's one I'm very excited to see take flight.
