Chris Russo’s FSV Aggregating Fantasy Sites Into One Network

Fantasy Sports Ventures Aggregating 35 Web Sites

Former NFL Senior VP/New Media & Publishing Chris Russo, former NFL Senior Dir of New Media Evan Kamer and former Players Inc Senior VP Clay Walker have formed a “fantasy sports rollup that is aggregating” 35 sites into Fantasy Sports Ventures (FSV), according to Terry Lefton in this week’s SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Russo is serving as President, Walker is Exec VP & GM, and Kamer is the Exec VP/New Business, “charged with selling across the network of sites.” The company’s “first major move” was purchasing Pro Football Weekly’s digital and print operation, along with KFFL.com and HoopsWorld.com. FSV “hopes to have as many as 50 fantasy sites aggregated” by the NFL season into a FantasyPlayers.com portal that will launch in May. Russo said FSV’s sites will attract 3-4 million unique visitors a month during the football season, which he said is comparable to fantasy traffic generated by Yahoo, ESPN.com and CBS SportsLine. Lefton reports investors include former IMG Chief Counsel & Senior VP Peter Carfagna, Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes and former NFLPA President Trace Armstrong (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/23).