Co-Branded Fantasy Baseball Game Offers Fans In-Game Video Highlights, Live Stats, News, Analysis, Tools, and Live Online Auction Draft
— As Spring Training heats up, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), the online partner of choice for major media companies, and MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, today announced an exclusive deal that makes Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 the official fantasy baseball game of MLB.com.
The co-branded Yahoo! Sports fantasy baseball game, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 (http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/), which will be promoted on MLB.com and across its online properties, will deliver fantasy players the most compelling experience of its kind ever offered, including integrated in-game and post-game video highlights of Major League Baseball action.
By signing up on Yahoo! Sports, the number-one online destination for sports enthusiasts, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 players can purchase MLB.com’s new Fantasy Highlights package, giving them the opportunity to watch customized, in-game and post-game video highlights of their fantasy players directly from their homepage. MLB.com’s Fantasy Highlights package will be available to all Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 users as a free-trial for the first two weeks of the MLB regular season and the full season will be available for a one-time fee of $9.95.
The unique feature, combined with Yahoo! Sports’ leading online news and insights, will provide players with the most comprehensive and interactive fantasy baseball experience anywhere. Additionally, Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 will offer a new live online auction draft application and free live scoring, which gives fans the ability to view live stats and instant scoring for teams or matchups and get real-time league standings straight to their homepage.
“This partnership with MLB.com will provide fans with the most relevant and engaging fantasy baseball experience on the Web,” said Kyle Laughlin, head of Yahoo! Sports. “The combination of Yahoo!’s unmatched sports news and MLB.com’s in-game and post-game video highlights makes Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Baseball ’10 the biggest and best fantasy game for passionate fantasy baseball fans.”
“Integrating this new highlights package with Yahoo!’s industry-leading fantasy baseball game will take fans beyond the box score to watch the performance of their fantasy roster as it unfolds on the field,” said Kenny Gersh, senior vice president, business development, MLB.com. “We believe this product will exceed fantasy baseball players’ growing appetites for deeper engagement by delivering an immediate, high quality experience.”
Yahoo! works closely with major sports, entertainment, and media companies to deliver the world’s most relevant and engaging content to its consumers. This is the third official league relationship Yahoo! has entered into, with the NHL and PGA Tour fantasy games already leading in their respective online categories. Yahoo! also has partnerships with content creators and publishers such as AP, Reuters, NFL, NCAA, Meredith Publications, Condé Nast, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and more than 800 newspapers through the Newspaper Consortium.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most visited Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).
About Major League Baseball Advanced Media
Established in June 2000 following a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to centralize all of baseball’s Internet operations, MLB Advanced Media LP (MLBAM) is the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site, www.MLB.com, and each of the 30 club sites to create the most comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLB.com offers fans the most complete baseball information and interactivity on the Web, including up-to-date statistics, game previews and summaries, extensive historical information, online ticket sales, baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles, fantasy games, live full-game video webcasts and on-demand highlights, live and archived audio broadcasts of every game, Gameday pitch-by-pitch application, around-the-clock hosted and specialty video programming, and complete blogging capabilities. MLB.com offers more live events on the Internet than any other website in the world.
Yahoo!
Carrie Davis, 310-907-3774
carried@yahoo-inc.com
or
MLB
Matthew Gould, 212-485-8959
Matthew.Gould@mlb.com
SOURCE: Yahoo!
