Playing Expert Leagues

I have played a number of expert leagues since I designed FSRU.com. One thing you learn while playing expert leagues: No one wants to be embarrassed by a bad trade. So few trades ever occur. There are very few bad offers as well. Most high level team owners rely on a good draft, good free agent pickups, and a trade or two each season. Most "experts" are fantasy sports writers and site owners, and most of them come from informational websites.

I began and currently oversee the Fantasy Sports Invitational Challenge- The FSIC. The FSIC hosts American and National league drafts annually. Along with Taut Wars and the LABR, the FSIC is one of the top 3 expert leagues on the net. While the other two expert leagues are older, going into its 8th year, the FSIC has become more well known among the younger generation. If you google "fantasy baseball expert league" the FSIC league page comes up page 1, the first listing. You simply cannot put a price on good search engine standing.

The biggest difference between the Taut Wars/LABR and the FSIC is this. The two older leagues are very exclusive and have on site drafts. They both have few member sites, many of which are shared between both leagues. Good player, bad player, don't matter...If your in the club, your in the club... Both leagues are heavily reliant on who you write for, how much you have written, and if you represent a site that is worthy of competing. The FSIC has a different formula. They do internet drafts and let most established sites compete. But they throw out bad sites/players each year. If you cannot compete at an expert level, a site is ousted after a year.

If you go to the FSIC league page you notice something quite interesting, the same websites, the same owners, have done well in the league with consistency. Out of the 14 league winners over 7 years, the following 6 websites have won twice:
NL--The Sporting News/Brendan Roberts, 2002 & 2006;
AL--Roto Central/Mark Washburn, 2007 & 2008;
NL--Addict Fantasy Sports/Jeff Hobbs, 2003 & 2004;
AL--Baseball Think Factory/Jim Furtado & Gary Santerre, 2002, and Joe Dimino, 2003;
NL--Fantasy Sports R Us/Al O'Harra, 2007 & 2008;
AL--Profantasy Sports/Tony Finn, 2004 & 2006.
That means only two championships have been won by sites that have not won multiple leagues, and 12 by multiple championship winners. You can draw your own conclusions....