what does this mean: The Major League Baseball Players Association awarded exclusive rights to league's fantasy games

[MrDingleDangle]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn.../news/story?id=1970454

just wondering what this means in plain english, I assume it doesnt effect free fantasy games like yahoo since they say this has been done in the past, but if it doesnt then what is the point?

 

[TheNinja]

It seems to me that some new organization will be in charge of all MLB stats and fantasy rights for those in the MLB Players Association. I guess this organization will be the "official" stat keeper for all fantasy stats and if a site wants to have a fantasy baseball league that uses players from the MLBPA they need to get a license to do so from this new group. I'm not totally sure though.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It means that all fantasy licenses must now be acquired as sublicenses through the MLB Advaced Media organization instead of dealing directly with MLBPA.

Fees willl probably go up, and the number of companies offering games may shrink.

 

[Toasthead]

basically it means that you will have to buy the right to use the players names in your fantasy league ( yahoo, CBS, ESPN will that is) so you wont have to use NYY C for Jorge Posada.

You will see this sometimes with Barry Bonds, because he licenses himself himself, so some games would rather just use SF LEFT Fielder than pay him money.

 

[Toasthead]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
It means that all fantasy licenses must now be acquired as sublicenses through the MLB Advaced Media organization instead of dealing directly with MLBPA.

Fees willl probably go up, and the number of companies offering games may shrink.

Actually, according to the article on MLB.com, they say they are doing it to make fantasy baseball more accesable to everyone. Who knows though.