REPLICA CO. FOLDS LEAVING MANY FANTASY PLAYERS OUT OF LUCK

     Replica Co., a MA-based company that ran sports fantasy
leagues and stock games, closed their doors this week,
"blindsiding thousands of avid football fans who'd paid up to
$100 each" to play the rotisserie game, according to David
Halbfinger of the BOSTON GLOBE.  A top exec at Replica said the
company closed "after tiring of interrupted losses," and Peter
Petras, Dir of Business Development said a series of
"misjudgments and external factors dealt Replica its fatal blow."
The firm had recently invested in its internet project on the
World Wide Web and had projections of gaining up to 6,000 fantasy
players from the internet by the start of the NFL season.
Petras: "We got less than 1,000 -- let me just say that."
Overall, only 12,000 players -- less than half of what management
expected -- signed up to play (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/13).  The game
drew a national following with weekly updates in USA TODAY's
sports section. Complaints from "all over the country" are coming
into the MA Attorney General's office as players "have little
chance" of receiving refunds (BOSTON HERALD, 10/13).