USA Today Sports yesterday "unveiled a redesigned fantasy home page," and announced the "creation of a new daily fantasy game, FantasyScore," according to Steve Gardner of USA TODAY. With the "additional expertise of veteran fantasy writers from KFFL.com, the new USA Today Fantasy Sports will feature player notes, statistics and rankings that are relevant to all fantasy formats but will have a major emphasis on the rapidly expanding world of daily fantasy games." FantasyScore "will be powered by RTSports.com and will allow users to compete for cash prizes or play for free" (USA TODAY, 8/13). USA Today Sports Media Group VP/Innovation Mark Pesavento said that players "will initially be able to compete in daily fantasy football games." He added that in the coming months, fantasy games involving the NBA, NHL and MLB "will become available as well." AD AGE's Max Willens reported FantasyScore will initially "earn revenue from selling display ads and so-called native advertising, sponsorships sold for its free games, and game management fees." Pesavento said that once a certain scale "is achieved, a series of branded events and tournaments will likely be rolled out as well." Pesavento is betting that the "daily fantasy sports pie is going to keep growing, and that Fantasy Score will be able to take the largest slices thanks to the deep network of sites USA Today can leverage to present it" (ADAGE.com, 8/12).
